I spend a few minutes per day learning Japanese.

It started years ago in university when when I needed a two hour per week course that didn’t relate to my major and I wasn’t in the mood for public speaking. Out of all the available courses, it was the right balance between interesting and no consequences if I drop it once I have my credits.

Now I’m continuing out of habit and a vague hope that I’ll soon have an opportunity to visit Japan. Being able to play some video games with the original voices while not constantly having to read subtitles is a nice bonus.

Just for fun. Maybe you could say it’s so that I can understand more things

English: For me it’s been my first foreign language. English is so common in Europe the motivation is self-explanatory. However I learned most after finishing school when I had time to binch-watch English movies and series online.

French: During high school level we learn a second foreign language. Most of the time, French, Russian and Spanish are available. Polish and Mandarin are rather rare. I haven’t heard of any more languages available in schools. French was most common when I had to choose.

Mandarin: I started in university (90min per week, 100 zi). It’s not enough for HSK1. My motivation back then: “Fach-Chinesisch” (= domain specific chinese) is imagined by Germans as the most difficult language. If you hear two geeks exchange their thoughts and you don’t understand a word, you say they talk Fach-Chinesisch. My motivation now is that more and more software is documented in Mandarin only. However, there’s no pressure to learn about that software, so my process of learning Mandarin slowed way down. My realistic milestone on the way to Fach-Chinesisch is to be able to understand Chinese Sci-Fi movies some day.

Spanish: My fiancé is interested in learning Spanish. So I generated her a 800MB spoonfed Anki-Deck. So I join her from time to time for testing purposes. But I’m not really interested otherwise.

Tl;dr - interest in the cultural exports got me wanting to learn, now I’m set on it out of sheer stubborness.

I realized at a pretty young age (elementary school level) that all my favorite games, cartoons, and goods happened to come from Japan. Wanted to learn the language then.

I backed off of obsession with the country in my middle years (in large part because I saw some other people maybe a little oddly fanatical). But meanwhile, realized through Spanish classes that I really enjoyed language learning. So I still had the goal to learn Japanese.

I never got very serious about it though. I even had the great opportunity to take classes in college, and kinda blew it off. Over the next several years I try stuff casually - finding video or grammar series online, going back to my college textbook, getting on Language apps like Memrise or Duolingo. But none of it stuck as a habit.

In the past few I finally got a little more serious, spending at least an hour most days across various activities. I’ve got real progress going, but it still feels slow.

At some point I’d have said I’m learning in hopes to live there, but by now I’m not. At some point I’d have said the learning is for travel - I do plan to travel there and use the language, but that doesn’t feel like the goal. I just enjoy the learning for its own sake - the more I learn, the more material becomes comprehensible, the more I can learn. It makes a satisfying loop all to itself.

I work at a children’s daycare centre and I try to speak at least a few words of each child’s language.
Firstly, it’s good to hear your language from some people other than your own parents only, and hopefully motivates the child to keep that language as a part of their own life. Heard too many stories of “my mother talked to me in this language, but I never actually used it for anything else, so I’ve forgotten all of it.”
Secondly, if they are distracted, they are unable to listen to other languages but might hear their own. Earlier, I used to work as a substitute worker for a workforce rental company owned by the towns comprising the capital city area of Finland. I was sitting at the lunch table and one 6-year-old had incredible difficulties concentrating on eating properly with an unknown adult at the table. I noticed they were interested in listening to me, but somehow talking with the other kids was too much more interesting. So, I asked them how to say “eat!” in their own language, Somali. It’s something like “ün!” After that, every time I noticed the child forgot they were supposed to be eating, I said “ün!”, he smiled and took a forkful of food. And another and a third. Until he forgot and I had to utter another ün. But, it worker really well and I’ve used the technique afterwards as well. “How do I tell you to _____ in your own language?” is a question that brings one surprisingly far with children.

But yeah, there being 7000 languages out there, it’s a bit difficult deciding which ones to learn. Learning ones used by people around you is a good excuse.