What's a good way to explain this......

[Andara Bledin]

... but I suppose that's about the same as them pronouncing a V as a W at the beginning of a word.

I don't know about other languages, but in German, if you've got a W, it's pronounced like V... If you've got a V, it's kind of like a hard F.

I took two years of German in school. It was fun, and our teacher had been to East Berlin before the wall came down. Even smuggled some money out. She was totally awesome.

[Kaylyn]

Just be aware that they'll laugh at your pronunciations. Don't take it personally; they do that to everyone.

Yep, from my understanding, Finns love it when outsiders make an effort to learn their language, and also love to poke fun at them because they rarely have good pronunciation! They good-naturedly call it "huono suomi," the equivalent of Americans calling the English that Japanese speak "Engrish."

I need to work on learning something appropriate to say to the Finnish members of Apocalyptica when I meet them again next month. I was just gonna go with "I love you" in Finnish but Finns don't throw that phrase around NEAR as lightly as Americans do (like, they may say it on a loved one's deathbed), so I gotta figure out something else. Plus, I can't roll my R's properly and the roll comes from the back of my mouth (closer to the R pronunciation in French rather than the trill near the front closer to the R in Spanish...makes sense as I took French for 2 years in high school before attempting to learn Spanish for one semester in college), but I suppose that's about the same as them pronouncing a V as a W at the beginning of a word.

[Bloodsoul]

I don't know of any language called Cobalt, so I can only guess you mean COBOL.

If that's the case, then why would you do that to yourself?

I heard it in passing during a conversation between my father and an uncle, but I didn't ask to clarify the spelling. At least my D&D side didn't flare up and type "Kobold," but that's why I appended that question mark at the end.

As for the "why?" Eh, I just want to learn whatever I can. I've even thought about learning Basic just so I can create some new "dungeon tiles" for the old Ultima games.

[Andara Bledin]

I AM interested in Finland and learning Finnish, so that is what I've been trying to teach myself off and on. No, it will probably never be useful unless I travel there, and it's a difficult language so I may never be any good at it, but it's what I want to do for my own reasons, and not because "it'll be useful." I had my fill of "it'll be useful" in college when I caved to what my parents told me I should do, rather than figuring out what my dream was.

Just be aware that they'll laugh at your pronunciations. Don't take it personally; they do that to everyone.

My grandfather was a Finn, but as his parents came over before he was born, I don't really know much of the culture. Learning more via webcomics, of all things. Scandinavia and the World and Stand Still, Stay Silent are both written by locals (Denmark and Finland, respectively) so it's neat when they talk about home stuff.

[Kaylyn]

I got tired of trying to force myself to learn Spanish because I'm simply not interested in the language or the culture. I AM interested in Finland and learning Finnish, so that is what I've been trying to teach myself off and on. No, it will probably never be useful unless I travel there, and it's a difficult language so I may never be any good at it, but it's what I want to do for my own reasons, and not because "it'll be useful." I had my fill of "it'll be useful" in college when I caved to what my parents told me I should do, rather than figuring out what my dream was.

[NecCat]

I don't know of any language called Cobalt

Maybe it's what hooloovoo speak

[KabeRinnaul]

Cobalt (?)

I don't know of any language called Cobalt, so I can only guess you mean COBOL.

If that's the case, then why would you do that to yourself?

[Bloodsoul]

I would love to learn French, Welsh, Japanese, and even Anglo-Saxon… but first I have to learn C++, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, Oracle, Cobalt (?), and anything else that comes to mind (including brushing up on my PHP and SQL).

[Blue Ginger]

If they get really narky about it, you could explain that you tried learning it in High School and just couldn't get the hang of it, so you decided to try another language. And, I agree with others, having a different language is an asset.

I had a choice of Italian and Indonesia in High School. We had 6 months of each then picked one. I choose Italian even though I struggled with both because I wasn't interested in either. Now I can count to 10 and can mostly recognise the other numbers and words when they are written down. But the only spoken words I recognise are the swear words.

If I had a choice I would have preferred Welsh, Irish, German or Ukrainian. Even Polish or Russian would have been easier for me because my grandparents were from Ukraine and they spoke Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, German and English. Only Pop could read, but speaking 5 languages is pretty bloody good.

[Shangri-laschild]

My mom is very fluent in German. While we don't have a huge Spanish speaking population here, it's decent sized. Because of the general push towards people learning Spanish if they are going to learn a language for work, she came in handy because she spoke a different language that no one else in her department spoke. Because she was a nurse, having someone who could translate helped a lot. It didn't come up as often as Spanish, but when it did come up, she was usually the only one there who could translate. While I can see how Spanish can be a useful language to learn, sometimes knowing a different language can come in handy even more.

Really though, when people ask, all they need to know is "this is the language I was interested in learning." Anything else isn't their business and isn't necessary to explain.

[NecCat]

Is there a particular reason you chose to learn the language you are taking courses in? Other than - at least it's not Spanish. If you don't feel it's too personal you could explain the actual reason: it's the language spoken where my family is from, I always thought it sounded beautiful, I've always wanted to read the original version of (book), I love the music by (band) and want to know what they are saying, I've always wanted to visit (country), whatever your actual reason is.

[Aragarthiel]

I took Spanish in high school because that was the only thing they offered. Then the year after I graduated, they added an online program where you could learn Japanese, German, French, and a few others. I know Spanish is similar but I would have LOVED to learn Italian.

[Andara Bledin]

Just tell people that you didn't choose the language you are taking for purposes of communicating with Spanish speakers.

I took German in high school. And when people ask why, I tell them that it's because I'd be hopeless at French (I don't typically say that I think it sounds ugly, too >_> ) and I don't plan on being anyone's translator and if I knew Spanish, that's what would happen. Unfortunately my high school didn't offer Japanese.

I don't run into a lot of people who speak Spanish as their native language, but when I run into someone who just says "no English" that person has, without fail, been a filthy stinking liar. The ones who legitimately can't speak any English at all will either have someone with them to translate, or will attempt to get something across.

The assholes who live across the street from me speak English enough to get by, but since they're assholes, they play up the language barrier so they can ignore our complaints. The send the kid over if it's something they consider important, but you can hear them laughing about it nice and loud because it's no fun if they don't make sure that we know they're dissing us. >_>

[TheHuckster]

Well, I guess the middle paragraph of your OP is your reason? That there are already plenty of bilingual workers in the library who speak Spanish, and you feel it could use an additional bilingual worker speaking another language for whomever wants to speak to you in that language?

Explaining it that way, I don't see any negative racist or anti-immigration connotations from that, and if anyone takes offense to it, that's their problem, if you ask me. I mean, heck, if someone is going to declare you anti-immigration because you chose, say, Japanese instead of Spanish, that's a level of stupid I rarely encounter outside of the Internet.

[KellyHabersham]

Sorry about that, didn't mean to sound confusing....I'm trying to avoid giving info that would be personally identifying. What I was trying to say/ask was "What's a good way to explain why I chose to focus on "Language X" instead of Spanish?