Here are a couple of quite common, but not obvious, expressions in French, using "wooden".
To have a "Gueule de bois", literally wooden face/mouth/gob actually means to have a hangover.
As far as I remember, it is quite a good description of the phenomenon.
To speak in "Langue de bois", literally wooden tongue/language is to use only standard pre-set expressions, preferably lofty-sounding but meaningless waffle & certainly unrelated to the subtleties of the context.
Typically used by politicians & officials & probably most typically by communist leaders & spokesmen.
Short training course, if your French is up to it, at:
http://ddata.over-blog.com/xxxyyy/0/00/38/87/animation-blog/langue-de-bois.pdf
Parting thot: "Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten." - B. F. Skinner
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