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I'm just a guy who really likes languages. Among my other hobbies are rock climbing, eating very healthy, and spending time and money on beautiful women.
I don't know why I like languages so much, I just do. I can see their contour, feel them, and taste them. I love how they weave together - and not just individual languages - but whole gobs of them at a time. Language families, groupings by areal influence, grouping by colonization, it's all fascinating. As of 2010, I work for a company that sells language education products, so I'm completely hooked into the language drip.
And, while I don't speak all 7,000 of the world's languages fluently, I can talk intelligently about the big picture. For example, there are 7,000 languages, but there aren't 7,000 different words for "apple" among them. So many words are stolen and swapped around, and between the most unlikely of partners. So, my current personal mission is to be conversational in the world's most widely spoken languages (the top dozen-ish), and to use knowledge from those anchors to categorize every other word and language on the planet. I've got a handle on European, Middle Eastern, and Asian roots. What I lack is indigenous North American, South American, and Australian roots. If I live long enough, I'll get around to those languages. Unless they die out first and become a moot point. Also, I only understand as much of what's in Africa as it has absorbed Arabic and European words. I don't have plans to travel there, so we'll see if I ever crack open that chapter. But for now, I'm all about Eurasia.
I live in St.Louis, Missouri, USA. A friend of mine, who is bad with directions, once told me "If I'm driving somewhere, it's not important to know my coordinates within the greater St.Louis metropolitan area, I only need to know if I should turn left or right!". Of course, that's the mindset of a weak navigator, just like ignoring the relationships between languages would make a weak linguist. If you have the big picture in your head, you can never be lost. You can even know more about a language than a person who speaks it natively.
And, for what it's worth, I eat healthy. It's a habit I started in early 2010, and I hope to keep it going forever. I try to follow the Harvard Healthy Eating Guide religiously, and I eat nuts, fruit, veggies, meat and whole grains at every meal. I also drink 3 Liters of water every single day. I've improved my fitness, brain, and finances as a result, and I dare anyone to follow my system for one month. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/pyramid/
