'Nobody learns the language of a people he or she doesn't like' is an old saying among language teachers.
In my experience it's true but there are exceptions. If you are at an early stage in your studies it might be a good idea to stop and consider whether you are one of those exceptions.
The idea of the saying is, of course, that if you love Italy and its culture, or Germany, China and so on, you will naturally think of learning those languages. If, however, the kid who punched your nose at school was Swedish, maybe you won't be a big fan of that country or its culture.
Nowadays many people learn English simply to advance in their career or earn money in some way. Some of them might not be interested in the culture - or cultures - of English-speaking countries. In a few cases this can create a rather sad situation: I have met only two people who were in this category but they are memorable.
The first was an English immigration officer. We were bringing my Spanish friend's girlfriend back to England with us and she had to have an interview with this man on the Santander/Plymouth ferry. My Spanish wasn't very good in those days but I was shocked at his. The official wasn't very friendly and he spoke very slowly, like a robot, with no attempt at good pronunciation. He delivered each word individually, like a man handing down bags of cement from the back of a truck. It was painful to hear. It depressed me to hear him speak. I don't think he liked Spanish much - it was 'just his job'.
The second example was a senior colleague of mine, some years later. He was old enough to be enlisted in the British army for compulsory national service in the 1950s. The army normally made sure that an educated person like him would be used as a teacher, usually teaching remedial English to the basic soldiers.
In his case, however, they decided to put him in a group of listeners to Russian radio transmissions. This was during 'the cold war', of course. He knew no Russian at all, so they taught him Russian 16 hours a day (he said) and he learned it in four months. He spent the rest of his two years' service listening to Russian on radio frequencies (not public radio, of course) and reporting anything 'interesting' to his senior officers.
From the moment he left the army he never spoke Russian, never read Russian or even thought about it. He hardly mentioned it to anyone in the next 25 years until he had the conversation with me.
I suppose we must say that both of these men served their country in their way and that their use of a second language was necessary. But I can't help thinking that if the immigration official's performance was depressing, my older colleague's experience was just kind of stupid. I mean, couldn't the British Army find anyone who wanted to speak Russian?
It doesn't seem to be a great idea to learn another language unless you like it, and its underlying cultures, at least to some extent.
