It is a myth that you can only learn another language to near-native fluency in early childhood. I’ve been teaching languages for over 30 years and have seen enough to say with certainty that it’s very much possible in adulthood. I never said or heard a word of Spanish until I was 23. I currently have a student who was forced to start learning Spanish at age 33 because her husband had to move to Colombia for professional reasons. We both speak like natives.
Language learning in adulthood has to do with one’s personality type. Have you noticed how I change my opinions dramatically on very big topics, read extremely widely, always come up with unexpected new interests, teach something very out there and new often, and shift my research interests like chess pieces? That’s why I learn languages easily.
In order to achieve fluency in another language, you need to be fine with the idea that there’s another way. One that is as good as yours or maybe even better. You need to have a higher than average need for change and stimulation.
At the same time, change is a heavy burden for a human brain. This is why I compensate my protean shifting in some areas with iron-clad rigidity in others. It’s downright comical how set in my ways I am in some things while keeping everybody dizzy with constant changes in others.
There’s neither sin nor virtue in any personality type. My facility with languages is not a sign of moral superiority. Or anything much except having a brain with weak dopamine receptors and figuring out how to use that to make money instead of perishing in a car crash.
But it’s definitely not age-related.
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