Falling in Love

Although I love learning languages I am by no means in love with every language. I have devoted a large slice of my life to improving my languages skills but it is not like I passionately embrace every new language I try. I can speak and understand Polish and German but I have never been particularly enthusiastic about the languages themselves, I learnt German because it is an important European language, I learnt Polish because of my wife, I learnt them because I could, because they were there. The fact that I was never enamoured with these languages might explain why I have reached a plateau in both, I can manage quite well in either but I make no great leaps forward.
It's a different story when I am in love with a language. I loved Dutch with a passion when I started learning it seriously. When you love a language it is no different than when you fall in love with another person, you just want as much contact as possible. The more contact you have the more you want and the fire feeds itself. In the same way I have a different feeling about French and Spanish and I have spent periods of my life head over heels in love with these languages and willing to do everything I could to have more contact with them.
I hate to admit it but I have never really been in love with Irish in this way even though I feel that it should be the most important language for me. I want to love the language more than I do. It seems that wanting to love a language isn't enough. Not even being in love with a speaker of language is enough to trigger my passion. I have never loved my wife's language, I never loved Swedish even when I loved a Swedish speaker.
I'll be honest, I thought that I would maybe never fall in love with a language again, that maybe I was getting too old to feel the passion but these past few weeks I have fallen hook, line and sinker for Japanese. It's not my first time learning it but somehow my attitude has changed. I think that podcasts have really given me the vehicle to get close to Japanese in a way that was not possible before. My feelings are strengthened by the warm memories I have of my recent trips to Japan and the kindness of the Japanese people. The passion I now feel for the language means that I am ravenous to consume the various learning materials I have available. Learning a language with real passion pushes your learning abilities to another level. This is love and I am loving it.