MSML or Spanish

[ss20ts]

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 ...

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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.

Yeah I worked really hard to keep my accent because of the way people spoke where I lived in South Carolina. I couldn't understand them half the time. Very mush mouth. They didn't annunciate. There was a southern draw that I just didn't want. I didn't know if I would live there forever and I liked my accent. Everywhere I go in the US people can understand me so I thought that was a plus. I only lived in South Carolina for 2.5 years so it worked out keeping my accent and not getting lazy when speaking.