Linguistics is the objective study of language in general by specifically studying languages. I once heard the example that linguistics is to language as biology is to flora/fauna. Just studying linguistics doesn't mean that one autmatically must be fluent in at least two languages. It just means a linguists studys how and when people use language, how people learn a second language, how babies learn their first language, et cetera.

As for myself, I am about to take my first class in phonetics, the study of sounds in language. How they are produced that is and what kinds of sounds are in different languages. To push me further into this area I work as a transcriptionist for the Language Technology Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.