>>>I've seen a shelf in the local library where it says "international languages", no less. On the shelf there are books in Russian (OK, sort of, as many people of other nations may know the language, but not as their first one), German (really OK, as it's spoken in at least three countries), French (also multiple countries), Latin (zero countries, but still in widespread use), Spanish (lots of countries), Japanese - wait, how many nations speak Japanese? Or Hebrew? And how is English conspicuously absent from this list of international languages? It's the most international language nowadays, spoken in Britain, Ireland, Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand and at least a dozen former colonies across Africa and Asia. Also missing was Arabic, spoken in a dozen countries.
>
>Dragan, you opened my eyes! And what I see now is really funny.
>
>>>And I'm not taking any excuse that it's a misunderstanding on the part of an illiterate moron - this is Virginia Beach Central Library, these people can't be illiterate.
>>>
>>>The only explanation is that the officially, the word "foreign" is a no-no, and is to be replaced with "international".
>>
>>Well it's a while since I've looked through a lib-lab but I'm sure the last tiem it was "Foreign Languages" or whatever. Why, in my weekly news digesy magazine it has a page entitled "Best of Foreign Articles". Maybe the US is more touchy about the use of "foreign" in that so many residents ARE from other countries. So in your (pedantic - let's face it <s>) case you'd be just as likely to bloody0mindedly look in "American Authors" as "foreign" (to you) :-)
>
>The Dutch word for foreign is "vreemd". But that word has more meanings.
>
>Vreemde talen - You should translate into 'foreign languages', but you might think 'weird languages'.
>Vreemdeling - You should think 'foreigner', but you might think 'weird person'.
>
>Don't worry, the native Dutch speaker doesn't regard you all as weird persons speaking a weird language. :)

Interesting cos, as you may know, foreign can also mean "out of the ordinary", "different from the norm", like "alien" which has 3 meanings: as above, from a foreign country, from another planet. I think Dragan fits all 3 criteria.