Speaking Two,But Thinking in One

   My own experience makes me think it only self-deception if any believes that he has two mother-tongues.He may think that he is equally master of each,yet it is invariable the case that he actually thinks in only one and is only in that one really free and creative.

   If anyone assures me that he has two languages,each as thoroghly familiar to him as the other,I immediately ask him in which of them he counts and reckons,in which he can best give me the names of kitchen utensils and tools used by carpenter or smith, and in which of them he dreams.I have not yet come across anyone who,when thus tested,had not to admit that one of the languages occupied only a second place.

  I can best describle it by saying that in French I seem to be strolling down the well-kept paths in a fine park, but in German to be wandering at will in a magnificent forest.

Always accustomed in French to be careful about the rhythmic arrangement of the sentence,and to strive for simplicity of expression,these things have become equally a necessity to me in German.And now through my work on the French Back it became clear to me what literary style corresponded to my nature.

reckon计算
stroll 散步
rhythmic 有节奏的，有韵律的