What started your interest in learning languages?

[Timeisrelative]

For me at least I loved to be able to communicate to other people, when I was on vacations in foreign countries. It's always fun to visit a country and being seen as a foreigner and how surprised they are when I speak their language.

[Tersuss]

I think what started my love of learning languages was when I began to learn French in school and then studying German in college.

I think the ability to communicate with people from other countries is an extremely important thing in this world.

[Baburra]

I was sort of thrown into it as I started very young because my parents enrolled me in a school that teaches secondary languages. I am learning Japanese now by choice, though, and my reason for learning that is because I'm just very interested in their culture and their works and I'd love to understand them as pure as possible without needing translation which tends to kind of dilute the messages a bit in my opinion. Also, I plan on travelling to Japan in the near future and I think it would be great to be able to interact with the locals without much trouble.

[maripereira]

I'm a Communications major so, obviously, I'm interested about languages, conversations and the transmission of ideas. When you study a different idiom, you learn more about the society, its values and its people. You understand the human system of communication better, and that's very interesting to me.

Besides, it's a fun challenge!

[tintiano]

I've been interested in learning new languages ever since I was in my teens. Where does this interest come from? Well, from a deep desire to meet new people and interact with them. Nothing wins another person as much as when a person from a faraway region speaks his or her mother tongue!

[Daimashin]

Watching movies and shows got me interested in learning Chinese actually. Even though I'm a native speaker, I was never interested in Chinese literature until I watched the movies and shows about Chinese history.

[pipps]

The country was what first sparked my interest as Brazil looks like such a beautiful and intriguing country. I would love to travel there and be able to interact with locals easily. I also think the language and accent is absolutely stunning. A very sexy language that's for sure!

[angelicagapit]

I'm one that loves to travel. I've been to the US, Mexico, and Asia. It's nice to experience different cultures, and a good way to fully experience these cultures is to try to be a part of them. You can do that by learning their native tongue and interacting with commoners from that country. You will experience things in a whole new light if you know they're language. Also, it's a plus to know more languages because it's easier to get around and to explain things to people from that country. You can also get a job as a translator for some extra cash.

[Denis Hard]

When I volunteered to work for an aid agency for half a year and had to travel abroad to work amongst people who didn't speak English, I just had to learn the local language or at least, enough to enable me to communicate. Having learned firsthand therefore that learning a new language was not as hard as techers made it to be in school, I chose to try learning a few more. . .

[sidney]

What started my interest in learning languages is when I started listening to foreign songs. I got curious to know what it meant, so I started to study their language.

[diprod]

It all started when I learned about Dr. Jose Rizal being a genius and knowing more than 10 languages. I thought it was really cool. So I encouraged myself to study.

[Rosa]

My interest in learning language started during my early high school years. I had a pen pal from Germany and I wished I could speak her language. Then when I started learning French I became very eager to learn as any foreign language became of interest to me.

[Trellum]

My interest in languages started back when I was really young, right after learning English on my own (I was 16).  Once I saw I dominated the language very well on my own, I thought i could do the very same with other languages... I thought this world was full of opportunities and learning as many languages as possible was the best hobby ever.

Back then I was a dreamer with a lot free time in her hands.  I felt so interested in Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish.  Mostly because I loved (and still love) Norse mythology.  I also wanted to learn old Norse, I think that topic would start many interesting discussions with other people.

[Anju]

I didn't have an interest in languages when I was younger but as I grew older around my high school stage, i started to get interested in asian culture. I'm half Chinese and in all honesty I didn't like Chinese one bit - but I took a lot at Japan, their language and their anime/manga and instantly got hooked into the sound and structure of the language. My interest in learning japanese soon faded away and Korean went and replaced the spot Japanese left behind.

[lizbeth19hph]

What sparked an interest in me to learn other languages is the willingness to learn a different language other than my native tongue which also means exploring their cultures which is also quite interesting. Sometimes it's the beauty of the language and how it is spoken with style and sophistication lures one to study a particular language.

[Florie]

Languages are like a secret code to me and I just love to crack codes. I remember when I was a child who could already read I found a English-German dictionary. I was quite fascinated by the strange sounding words. I learned the words but I didn't know you had to pronounce words differently and I didn't understand what IPA was. Awkward but hey I was still a child.

I'm more interested in learning how a language works. Learning about other countries' cultures is just a positive side-effect. I can't imagine ever going to Spain for real but I like the language.

[babyleans]

me too!! i once visited a resort which was frequented by italians and i just wanted to speak their language and be able to converse with them and that gave me the motivation i needed.

[skywatcher]

I agree! Though for me, it's more of the thrill of the learning than the outcome in itself. It's like, when you're learning a new language, it's like becoming one with the culture of where that language belongs. I'm not sure, but I get to appreciate other places and other cultures more because I get exposed to the language. Whenever I get a hold of a Latin or a Japanese dictionary, I always feel my mind being transferred somewhere else. I think this is the reason why I really like wanting to learn languages.

[Gelsemium]

My real interest for learning languages, or better said, knowing languages, started when I was a teenager and I was meeting people that didn't spoke Portuguese. Luckily I already knew a little English, but I improved a lot by practicing it.

[Hedonologist]

Around the age of 11. I have always had a very inquisitive mind, and always loved learning. So upon seeing foreign languages that I didn't understand I was driven to learn to be able to comprehend them, and it went on from there really.

[Ebelle]

My parents know multiple languages, and their native language isn't even the same as my own. I also had a lot of friends that knew multiple languages. I suppose I just felt upset that I only know one. I would think that the world is much more smaller due to knowing just one language. There's so much more to learn.

[003]

I started learning languages because of my interest in music. I am a big fan of classical music. I am obsessed with it. German, Russian, French, Polish, Hungarian, Austrian musicians and composers are my all-time idols. I felt it necessary to learn their languages because I thought that by doing so, I get one more step closer to them, to their culture and to their thinking and that I will be able to understand them deeper.

[Poikanen]

It was mostly about understanding different cultures. I think originally it came to me from travelling too. Of course, in Finland we are forced to study at least two languages in addition to Finnish. Those would be Swedish and English. But I was interested to learn more, so I studied Russian.

[LauraM]

For me it was the sheer fascination of hearing a foreign language and then being curious to be able to understand it.  As a native speaker in the U.S. I did get some early exposure to other languages; Spanish in particular as I would always hear and see native speakers in the area, as well as in media. 

Also, I still remember family trips to Quebec and hearing French for the first time.  My dad could speak the language fairly well, and I would get a kick out of seeing him being able to converse, and that too inspired me to learn languages.