What motivates you?

Motivation is the most important part of learning a language, or indeed, of doing anything difficult.  But what, specifically, are our motivations for learning foreign languages, and how can we use them to learn language more effectively?

Following the work of B.F. Skinner and Albert Bandura, we know that rewards or incentives motivate us to do unpleasant things (like memorizing vocabulary, for example). But what are those motivations?

1) Praise, attention, or approval from the teacher.

2) Grades (or marks, if you don’t speak the right dialect)

3) Perks or physical rewards

Maybe this is bit too animal behavior. I imagine throwing fish at my students as if they were trained seals. Also, I don’t think my students need all that much approval from me. I certainly don’t work to get the approval of my Bulgarian teachers, and I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t care less about grades or scores.  As for physical rewards…what, am I going to get chocolate if I answer the question right or something?

What motivates me when I am studying a foreign language is this:

1) Understanding written or spoken material, and of being understood when I speak or write. For example, when I have a conversation with someone, and both of us understand most of what the other one said.

2) The abstract knowledge that I have correctly solved a puzzle.

3) My standing with the other students, and how well I compete with them.

4) The utility or entertainment value of the materials when I understand them. For example, a joke in a foreign language is incomprehensible, and hence not funny. When my proficiency in that language grows enough for me to get the joke, however, I laugh.

What about you? What motivates you to go through all the trouble and energy of learning a foreign language?