English is such an adaptable language. It lets you pick whatever bits you want, and build whatever house you want with it; it lets you refine it or shred it to pieces – its flexibility seems infinite. English doesn’t know any breaking point. It smiles, a smile full or warmth and casually yellow teeth, and greets you. Make yourself at home, it says. You can borrow what you want. Make yourself a home, English says.
French, on the other side, is nothing but an evanescence – but one with muscles, and hard working, well-trained ones. French dances, so far away from you – and you can’t reach her – and you know you’re never going to ever ne serait-ce que come closer to her. She knows nothing but distance. She dances, and works the light she twirls around, and she’s made of stiff muscles and discipline; but sometimes – very rarely, only when there is a crack of light between her shoulders, or her thighs – sometimes you can see it: the space in which you would love to nestle; and she does or doesn’t stare at you – she doesn’t do this for you, she has known so many of you already.
French is inaccessible. It doesn’t matter if you’ve trained just like her to try and forecast her moves – she dances like a dim light out of reach, on the very frontier of your tongue – and all you can do is wait for her next moment de grâce.
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