My mother tongue is German. I started to learn English at school in the fifth grade (of 13). At the beginning it was quite frustrating to learn a foreign language because I didn't see any progress in understanding English television or music. But as time passed by my English improved. I started to learn French in the seventh grade and it was even more frustrating than learning English because of its difficult grammar. We always were told a story by our French teacher saying that there would be competitions in France to find the best French-speaking person. The winner would usually not be able to speak perfect French, either. You can imagine how motivated we've been to learn this language
Today I am able to understand English almost perfectly. Although I still have difficulties in speaking and writing because I never had the chance to use this language in detail. I mean, I've never been to an English speaking country. Even though I use the internet and happen to meet some Englishmen, I'm never forced to use this language for a longer time. For this reason I hope to be able to study a semester in England in the future.
Although I'm not yet satisfied with my abilities in speaking foreign languages, I must admit that it's great to be able to communicate with people from around the world and get to know other cultures.
I also prefer to see English/American films in English and enjoy authentic conversations (dialogues translated into German can be enormously frustrating ). So.. "I like to study languages."