Many Taiwanese students have a negative and passive attitude towards learning English and fail to consider English as a tool for communication. In this article the authors use anecdotes from their own language study along with their experiences in teaching students as a framework to discuss the factors that cause people to create a negative language learning identity. The authors look at the different environments in which they have learned and taught languages, the factors that influenced them in using extensive reading as a learning tool, and the ways they themselves have developed and lost the motivation to learn a language. They conclude with some principles for helping students and teachers to create a positive learning identity and environment.