[Child of the 7th Age]

Shadow_lady,

Good question!

This isn't the first time nor will it be the last that someone will tell you something you want to do or learn is irrelevant or useless. It will probably happen many times in various contexts so the best thing to do is block your ears to the carping and learn to stand your ground in a polite but stubborn way. The worst thing you could do is to change who you are or what you want to do solely on the basis of what others say. If you start "caving in" on little things like learning Elvish, you're going to yield to the same kinds of pressures when it comes to the big decisions such as figuring out what you want to do with your life.

I had to smile when your friend urged you to take Latin. Years ago I grew up in a neighborhood of factory workers. When I told my family and friends I wanted to learn Latin, I got an earful about how a study of a dead language was a particularly useless way to spend your day. I plugged my ears, took four years of Latin, and went on to use Latin both in undergraduate and grad school. In a very real sense, 'applicability' is in the eye of the beholder.

I could give you a whole list of reasons why Elvish (or Latin) is something that has 'practical' value, but other people have already mentioned many of those things. The plain truth is that Tolkien had it right. We are all sub-creators. It is built into our souls, and that is reason enough for each of us to explore a thousand different worlds. For some subcreation is learning Elvish or writing poetry; for others it's craftsmanship, the impulse to heal or fix, or to raise a garden or a family. Who can judge which of these endeavors is more worthwhile than the other?

Yes, it's possible for someone to give you 'practical advice', to point out that a particular choice is more or less likely to lead you to the point where you can eventually gain employment or reap some kind of monetary reward. But the 'worth' of an endeavor to you as a person is something entirely different.