english...

[complich8]

interestingly, the learning curve difference in languages applies principally to the learning of the written language. Spoken languages all have pretty much the same level of complexity. Even "creoles" (spoken languages that develop in isolation) have comparable levels of complexity to any other spoken language.

Also interestingly (despite the fact that I've completely lost where I heard this from, so could be completely wrong), I remember something about Japanese high school students being unable to read more than a very basic set of kanji.

Yeah, young children are pretty much preprogrammed for language acquisition, and that preprogramming pretty much guarantees they'll learn the basics of whatever language they're exposed to (disregarding speech disorders, learning disabilities, and severe retardation or brain damage).

If you want to give your kids a fighting chance in the multilingual world of tomorrow, raise them multilingual, and get them really interested in reading and intellectual pursuits at a very young age.

[Deblas]

My first language is spanish but since I was five years old I've been going to a bilingual school which all the classes are in english apart from Spanish, Hispanic and Puertorican history. I've become so accostumed to the english language that I can't speak the cult spanish language (well actually, none of my generation can. It happens. Inventing new words and such). It also ticks me off when I can remeber a word in english but can't remember it in spanish.

Another thing its good to be able to speak the spanish language first cause it derives from latin. So does portugese, german, italian etc. Which means I can understand not all of it but a little and it makes it easier to learn those languages. Something I don't think the english only speakers can do.