What sparked your desire to learn another language?

[Trellum]

No longer sure I should even go on trying to learn the language I am supposed to learn. I wanted to learn it because I was moving out soon, so I needed to learn it, but right now I am not sure about anything. 

[pcgamer]

I have been focusing on learning English as well as French. The desire to learn English was never there to be honest. It's something you have to do from your childhood, but French is something that I wanted to learn as I started going to school. My brother is really good in French.

[Jrh2]

I had always enjoyed learning French at school and so I wanted to continue learning the language but I never really did until I got a new job and one of the parents who came in who is french talked to her child in french each day and as I didn't understand it all I started learning the language with Duolingo in hopes of understanding what they are saying to each other. I suppose it was just out of nosiness really!

[raytalks]

Even though I was studying another language in school, it wasn't until I went to a foreign country, that I really yearned to learn another language. It was partly because I wanted to communicate with with the natives, but mostly beacuse I wanted to speak easily with my friends. Later time in my life, I had a desire for another language, because of love. But now I always have a desire, just to know even words from another language. Its just amazing to watch another person smile when you say good morning in their language, when they just weren't expecting it.

[gmckee1985]

My desire to learn other languages is mostly derived from the fact that I want to do a lot of traveling. And I figure if I do get to travel all of the world I'd like to learn a couple of languages so I can have proper conversations in the language of whatever country I'm visiting. Plus I'd like to understand what people are saying and be able to follow directions properly. I don't want to be the "ugly American" so to speak. And I don't want to be taken advantage of for not knowing another langauge.

[Hedonologist]

Seeing Chinese characters very I was very young. I learnt the zodiac ones and a few others. Curiosity to know what unknown words meant really.

[Muthoni]

I heard two guys speaking in French in a bus stop and I fell in love with the language. I actually went over and asked them what language it was. I have gone to school three times to do my best to master this beautiful language. To tell you the truth, I find it too hard to keep up with the accent. I have not lost hope that one day I will be able to speak in this language.

[DancingLady]

I used to think one day I would travel a bit, and I don't like to look like an obvious tourist if I can help it.  I wanted to visit Austria and Germany and be able to communicate fairly well if possible.

[Languagetat]

To me, it is also the idea that by learning another language I get to see the world in new ways. Wittgenstein said that the limits of your language are the limits of your world. By expanding my language, I think I effectively expand my world!

[BillyIdol]

I want to learn another language because I like to learn new things, but I also want to travel, so I'd really want to be able to hold my own when visiting particular countries.

[edthebig]

For me it was need, not desire. I had to move to America and it was either learning English or letting myself be segregated along with the other people that decided English was too hard for them to learn, so even though it was only a year in USA I learned everything I could and became extremely fluent in English.

[PixelBaebee]

I think it's a need for most people. It's kind of both for me. If anything, I feel in love with the necessity to learn it, if that makes sense! I used to think Dutch was a silly language. There's so much phlegm involved and since I'm learning Belgian Dutch, that makes it even funnier because it's called Flemish. Ironically, it's softer than Netherlands Dutch, but I digress.

I just found it funny but I didn't want to learn it or anything, I was too stuck on trying to learn what my anime was saying without the subtitles. Then things happened and suddenly now I'm going to move to Belgium. At first I wasn't all too excited to learn the language, but I keep getting little bits and facts from my friends about Dutch, and most of them were silly. Now I just want to learn the language because I like the small translation quirks.

Basically, I like the language because it's funny.

[dostava]

At a certain point, I noticed how much of my study material was written by french authors. It seemed as if all the best social scientists are French and I felt a sudden desire to learn a bit of French.

For Serbian, I'm not even sure. It felt right at the beginning since I live close to the land of native speakers, but I don't believe there is any strictly rational reason involved. My learning Serbian is likely purely sentimental.

[LSJ-8]

Necessity and common decency.  I've always wanted to travel, so decided to do a study aboard in Germany one semester.  I needed to learn the language.  While I was in no means fluent in German (and couldn't read it to save my life) I knew enough to get around the country and ask for help if I needed to.  (I also learned how to say "I'm sorry" really, really well.)

At the moment, my son (he's 3) and I are learning Spanish together.  We live in the Southwestern U.S. about three hours from the Mexican border.  Spanish is a big part of our daily lives and unfortunately, nobody in my family speaks it.

My son also knows about a dozen ASL (American Sign Language) signs, that he was taught when he was an infant.  My daughter is currently learning ASL (she is 10 months) and can sign for "milk" and "more".  My husband and I taught our son ASL before he learned to speak and I have found it to be incredibly helpful for with both children.

[christendenkt]

For me, it was an aunt who was studying Spanish. At the time, she told me she was hoping to be a translator. When I went to look up what that was (I around eight years old at the time), I found International Interpreter, and ran with it. It turns out that she did not want to be an international interpreter and work for the UN, but the job had so much glitz and glamour attached to it, that I decided I wanted to do that. I am not an international interpreter; however, it opened the doors for me. It was fascinating to learn that other languages come with nuances that depend on culture and a direct translation is not always the best interpretation. It still fascinates me, and if I could do it all over again, I'd pay more attention to making interpreter a reality.

[Alphonse]

It's interesting, but my biggest motivation is entertainment. I have always liked reading and watching movies in its original language and I will go to great lengths to understand them in said form. That's my main motivation for Japanese.

as for French, I have plans that might end up with me living in a French speaking country, so it will be useful to know the language.

[nikolic993]

At a certain point, I noticed how much of my study material was written by french authors. It seemed as if all the best social scientists are French and I felt a sudden desire to learn a bit of French.

For Serbian, I'm not even sure. It felt right at the beginning since I live close to the land of native speakers, but I don't believe there is any strictly rational reason involved. My learning Serbian is likely purely sentimental.

Where are you from? Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary?

[missy]

Ever since high school and really before that I was interested in learning other languages.  I did learn some German in elementary school and I think that may have been what interested me.  Also, unlike math, I'm quite good at learning languages  I had 4 years of Spanish and 3 of Latin in high school.  I would have had 4 of Latin as well but did not start Latin until sophomore year.  In college I ended up with a double major in English and Spanish.  I've always wanted to learn Italian as well. 

[Sly14Cat]

For most languages I learn it's either because I really want to visit that country, there's something interesting about that language and it's culture that I want to be a part of, or just because it's good to have another tool.

[Trellum]

I'm feeling motivated again to learn Dutch!  Sadly I really don't have a lot time and I have a lot to worry about right no, so it's hard to focus on learning, but hopefully this bumpy patch will be over soon and I will be able to focus on learning this language.

I'll definitely go on once I'm cleared out! My renewed desire to learn the language is  due the fact I have realized I need to hurry up in order to make my dreams come true!

[Trellum]

For me, it was an aunt who was studying Spanish. At the time, she told me she was hoping to be a translator. When I went to look up what that was (I around eight years old at the time), I found International Interpreter, and ran with it. It turns out that she did not want to be an international interpreter and work for the UN, but the job had so much glitz and glamour attached to it, that I decided I wanted to do that. I am not an international interpreter; however, it opened the doors for me. It was fascinating to learn that other languages come with nuances that depend on culture and a direct translation is not always the best interpretation. It still fascinates me, and if I could do it all over again, I'd pay more attention to making interpreter a reality.

That's such an interesting story!  When I was a teen I also felt so interested in languages because I dreamed to be a translator, I dreamed of learning as many languages as possible and completely master them all.  My surrounding didn't inspire me tho, I mean, no one in my family was interested in learning languages or becoming an interpreter... to this day working as a translator is my dream job.

[GreenTea]

This is so embarrassing! /sigh/ I feel like such a geek, but... my first time wanting to learn a foreign language was after seeing anime trailers in Japanese for the first time. I used to watch Pokemon religiously as a kid and that led me to watching some other anime. I didn't even know they were from Japan until one day we got a DVD of Fushigi Yuugi (terrible show, btw). The DVD had trailers for several other shows, not to mention there was the option of watching the episodes in English or Japanese.

It was a bizarre moment in my childhood when I actually realized "Pokemon are from Japan?!" After getting into Japanese, I discovered Chinese and Korean... And then got interested in Thailand, and Vietnam and Singapore, and India, and the Middle East, and Africa. Next thing I know I have a bachelor's degree in International Relations.

(Thanks, Pokemon!)

[Traveler]

For me, becoming bilingual is a personal dream. It's not that I think becoming bilingual will help me get a better job. I could easily go my entire life without learning a second language. But it's not how I want to live. Plus, I love travel. And I don't like to seem like a completely ignorant tourist. (And I don't like being a tourist at all.) So for me, it is a personal drive.

[spacetimecontinuum]

Of course its cool to learn another language but what really made you push though into learning a new one? Most of us might say that "Oh I studied Italian because I'm going to Italy soon" but other than that, what lead you into thinking that "Hey, I really want to learn how to write and speak this language"?

Because it's embarrassing travelling around Europe and everyone speaks English, as well as their native tongue. I would like to communicate in theirs as well. I know it's not my fault that English is the dominant language on the planet...well maybe after Mandarin, I just don't want to remain the lazy English speaking person for the rest of my life. Plus learning another language is good for your brain.

[maryannballeras]

I was a huge anime fan, so at first, I just wanted to study Japanese so I can watch animes without reading the subtitles, and for me to also understand each episode better. I know, it sounds petty! Haha.  But now, aside from the love of anime, I have also come to love the japanese culture, and that sparked my desire to learn the language even more.