Not mine. I read it on a language learning site while looking for the author of this: “He who speaks two languages is worth two men.” I thought it was by Miguel de Unamuno but a search turned up that it was an unascribed French expression. Since I was there, I read many of the other French quotes and the one I cited resonated with me for your article. I don’t speak French but I read it easily — the rewards of a Ph.D. in languages from Penn State.
My children and grandchildren are other examples of the flexibity of youthful brains. Both my children and my grandchildren are bilingual and became so as kids since we lived in both English and Spanish speaking countries at different times. My grandson was born in Germany and spoke German and English fluently before he was old enough to speak back to his parents. I have often seen the children of monolingual parents in Puerto Rico (expats usually) starting to speak Spanish practically an hour or two after meeting the neighborhood kids!
Motivation helps. My son-in-law, bilingual in Spanish and English as a child, learned French, Italian and Portuguese in his thirties. His salary improved with each new language fluency test he passed! (He travels to Europe and South America for his job.)
Living in the country around native speakers really helps, as one of your commentators mentioned. My son (the bilingual Spanish and English one) lived in Germany and Italy for nearly 20 years as an adult. I remember visiting a shop with him in Munich and chatting with him in Spanish, when the proprietor asked him in German what he was looking for. I was astounded when he replied in German. I understand a little German (my father spoke a dialect of German) but it took me a while to decipher the conversation: they discussed the different varieties of aquarium fish and which species lived peaceably together. I could not have that conversation in any language!
Total immersion is effective but for adults it really works best when you have a strong foundation — as you point out — in the structure of the language. And when you have learned two the rest become easier.
