[LadyBrooke]

I owe a great deal to Tolkien as well. My belief in the world of the fantastical - yes, I am one of those crazy people who actually believes in elves, faeries, ghosts, ect. - was reawakened by reading his books.

More than that however I owe my love of languages. As a High School student with two years to go, I will already have three years of French and a year of Spanish when I finish this year. In addition I was in German Club at my old school - we don't have one here or I'd still be in it. And I know ASL to a certain degree - enough to have a short conversation. In college I want to major in languages and then get a law degree. After that I want a job working with immigrants or as a college proffesor. As a partially deaf person I doubt I would ever have been inspired to work beyond English into the study of foreign languages if it hadn't of been for his languages. However now I want to do it all - especially translate old stories and such into English so that more people can be exposed to some of them.