In this paper we report the results of a questionnaire survey conducted with 1777 Hungarian primary school children aged between 13 and 14 studying English and German. In our research we investigated the differences in the motivational and intercultural contact measures as well as determinants of motivated behaviour between learners of English and German. Our results indicate that students of English have a more positive attitude towards the native speakers of the language they study than learners of German, and children who study English have higher levels of linguistic self-confidence, invest more energy into language learning and receive more support from their environment than students of German. Our findings also reveal that learners of English experience more frequent direct written contact and contact through media products than learners of German. For both groups of language learners the results indicate that students with high levels of motivational intensity engage in various types of intercultural contact more frequently than students who invest less energy into language learning. Our findings seem to suggest that it is motivational intensity rather than the language being studied that affects what factors predict how much energy students are willing to invest in language learning.