Languagle #46: French
C'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeron
"It's by forging that one becomes a blacksmith."
What it means
You learn a skill by doing it. Nobody becomes a blacksmith by watching; you become one by forging. The French answer to 'practice makes perfect'.
What kind of saying it is
Oral tradition. Passed down by word of mouth. Sayings like this have no single author.
About the French language
French is a Romance language with around 80 million native speakers and over 300 million speakers in total, official in around 29 countries, many of them in Africa. It developed from the Latin spoken in Gaul, with a strong Germanic influence from the Franks. French spelling preserves older pronunciations, so many written letters, especially at the ends of words, are silent. The Académie française has overseen the language since 1635.