I was reading an article about an artist a while back. The article said that Amy the Artist painted "En plein air"
I wondered what that meant. Anxious to unlock the secret of Amy's genius, I looked it up and it meant "outside". And, sure enough, the article included pictures of Amy the Artist painting...outside.
Oh.
Okay.
Why not just say that Amy painted...wait for it...outside? I mean, I get that in some French school of painting that someone coined that term, but whoever it was...lets say Monet...he just said, "Hey, Marie Cassatt, let's go paint outside."
Why are so many of our words and phrases in French? Why say, "piece de resistance" instead of "the best part"?
I'll tell you why.
Because the French Language is the Lottery Ball Girl of languages.
You see, any girl, really, could be the Lottery Ball Girl. Its not like walking a cat walk in 5 inch heals in a size 0 dress. Its not splaying out on the beach in a bikini acting like you want to make out with the camera when its 40 degrees out, your economics class is in 25 minutes and you have to go potty. Its just picking up that stupid ping pong ball.Even I could pick up a ping pong ball with a number written on it, smile at the camera say, "23!", with excitement, and then place the ball in a place holder. In a pragmatic world, I would do just fine.
But people don't want to see the every day girl declare the numbers of their destiny. They want a beautiful girl to say it. Only the beautiful girl will do.
Why say Amy the Artist paints outside when you can say Amy the Artist paints "en plein air". Misty, dappled pools of light seem to surround Amy when you think of her painting "en plein air". If Amy just paints outside well, psh...she could be retouching a QuickMart sign, for all we know.
Sorry, English Language. You aren't cutting it. The only words the French are borrowing from us are "Coca-Cola" and "McDonalds".
If French is the Lottery Ball Girl of language, you are the Lunch Lady.
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