Learning French: When Does Perfectionism Go Too Far?

Learning French Comes With a Side of Cultural Perfectionism

Send over a document, and instead of talking substance, your French counterpart spends 20 minutes dissecting the font choice. “Too bold.” “No breathing space in the paragraphs.” “Too many hyphens.” Priorities.

Enter the phrase “enculer les mouches”

Literally? Vulgar. Culturally? Perfect. It means obsessing over micro-details to the point of absurdity. Only in a language as precise and formal as French would you need an expression like this.

So where’s the line between detail and overkill?

Detail matters. Until it doesn’t. The art is knowing when a detail adds value—and when it’s just noise. A useful reminder not just for language learners, but for entrepreneurs and creators everywhere.