year.

The dependence of Americans with important interests or commissions upon
interpreters is well nigh incredible. On the steamer that took me to
France last summer was the new Continental Manager of a large American
manufacturing company. I assumed, of course, that he could speak French.
A few days after I arrived in Paris I met him in the Boulevard des
Italiens in the grip of a five franc a day interpreter. He told me with
great enthusiasm that an interpreter was "the greatest institution in
the world." In six months he will probably reverse his opinion.

The lesson of this lack of knowledge of French as applied to
salesmanship is this: That while the average Frenchman is greatly
flattered when you tell him that his English is good, he prefers to talk
business in his own vernacular. He thinks and calculates better in
French. Frequently when you engage him in conversation in English and
the question of business comes up, you find that he instinctively lapses
into his mother tongue.

I was talking one day with Monsieur Ribot, the French Minister of
Finance, whose English is almost above reproach, and who maintained the
integrity of his English through a long conversation. But the moment I
asked him a question about the proposed bond issue, he shifted into
French and kept that key until every financial rock had been passed.

In short, you find that if you want to do business in France, you must
know the French language. It is one of the keys to an understanding of
the French temperament.

Even when Americans do become energetic in France, they sometimes fail