MSML or Spanish

[Johann]

That's interesting that our language plasticity dries up around around 12. Certainly explains why kids in the US struggle so much learning a language in junior and senior high....  

Our grandmother came to the US when she 18 during WWII. She knew English while in Germany, but that doesn't explain why doesn't speak with an accent. It's mind boggling to me. I know other people who came here as teenagers and adults who didn't lose their accent. It's fascinating to me. I know how hard it is to keep one's accent. I fought to keep mine ...

It explains too, why English-speaking Canadian kids "learn" French for years, and hardly any ever get proficient - and most lose it completely after they leave school. Same two reasons - loss of language plasticity and horrible teaching. I don't really know how French-speaking Quebec students fare in English instruction. But from the number of college and university students and grads who speak English well, I figure Quebec schools must be doing something right that we're not. And I'll forbid myself a tirade on the subject of rabid French language protectionists, uniformed language police and the occasional wilful suppression of the rights of English-speaking parents to have their kids educated in English-speaking schools if they so desire.

Despite legislation that restricts use of English in Quebec, I'd say Canada as a whole has a bigger percentage of French-Canadians who speak English well, than there is of English-Canadians throughout the country who are fluent in French. At least in larger cities, that is. I like Quebec - I really do - people there certainly know how to live, and I speak French when I go there because I can - and because it pleases them and we all get along. But any place where they have uniformed "Language Police" - well, those guys are just creepy. Oops! There I go again! If I keep this up, they'll send me to a camp outside Repentigny for re-programming!

You fought to KEEP your accent? Good for you. I fought to LOSE mine, when I came here from England. It was easy, took about a week. What would you expect - I was NINE? I had to keep the original to talk to my parents - and elsewhere I was just another kid on the block. 68 years later, I still am.