NOTHING LIKE KNOWING THE LANGUAGE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11217, 6 May 1899, Page 6

NOTHING LIKE KNOWING THE LANGUAGE.

To speak Frenoh to a Frenohman requires some bravery. An Amerioan lady onoe embarrassed her Parisian tailor by entreating him to make the trousers of her gown very large.

' I thought,' she comments pathetically, ' I had a good Frenoh word for 'sleeves.' . Another intrepid oreature travelling In Germany oommitted an even more fatal mistake. Stopping In front of a cabman ahe asked, in her most oharminp manner : —

* Are you engaged P' ' Nien,' responded the surprised cabman.

' Will yon take me was the next most natural question. ' Neio, nein !' cried the man and drove away at a furious pace,, The lady had used a word whioh meant engaged to be married.

An amusing blunder was oommitted by a bright Pole studying at a famous college. He was reading Theoorituß and oame to the phrase whioh is usually translated ' consumed with love.' Tbe foreigner made a little panse, and then, with an evident enjoyment of the text, continued, ' roasted by Aphrodite.' The employees of an Amerioan faotory were in the habit of holding weekly oonoerts. One evening a new man, just come from England, waa present and was speoially pleased with the singing of a popular song. Wishing to prolong the applause, some of the men called out * Bnoore, enoore.' T^s did not meet the new-oomer '. views. Bising to his feet he shotted iv a slow but Indignant bass, '. Enoore is no matter. Let the same chap sing again.'* B|ut we who speak %)gllsK are not the only ones who hhsnder. The polite Qerman oa;*, neve:-? resist the temptation tq air his knowledge of oar mother tongue, Imperfect though it may be. At a table of Qerm»°g and English students rec-eutjy, one pltpasant little German WHS Jrsepreasible in this respeot. Every sentence of hia was bound to oontain ' havye 'and * alretty.' A bit of slang was to him ponderous a-s the voloe of an oraole, and the English ' th ' was simply impossible. He commented brokenly on the < bewhet ' on the tahle nnd the ' gaynose ' jn Ma buttonhole, Bat the clima? was reaohed in answer toa question put in good German. ' Are you going to the leoture to-night, Herr 8 P '

' Aoh, no ! ' with a wave of the hand. ' Ze ghost is retty, bat ze meat is feeble.' Then the quiet man straightened ont onr wrinkled brows by suggesting that possibly he meant, ' The spirit is willing, bat the flush is weak.''