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.
Clarissa's Blog 
I am trying to raise my child bilingual (for better or worse) and they are also getting intense exposure to a third language at school. Based on my observations, I do not believe children learn as easily as everyone says – it takes a lot of time and repetition to master a language. And, where there are two or more languages, it slows the learning process down for all of them. What children have is time and necessity (they learn, because they need to be able to communicate their needs and wants). I still think the time investment and drawbacks are worth it.
Also, I hear you on changing your mindset with the new language. Long time a go I was forced to take some German classes and our wise instructor told us that when you are learning a new language you should not try to map the words in a one-to-one fashion. Das Fenster is not the same as the window, so one needs to stop thinking about it as the window when speaking German. I can neither speak nor understand German, but I still remember this and find it to be true for the languages that I speak fluently.
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Have been watching the various kids in my childrens’ Russian class, and personality has a lot to do with it, even among children. Some of them just aren’t that interested. Some of them think it’s great fun, and take it as a personal challenge to find extra vocabulary outside of class, and try it out when they return to see if they got the usage right. Some of them just love the teacher and want to make her happy. It’s a very mixed-age group, and level of progress has zero correlation with age.
My guys have made it a team effort to find ways to use their elementary vocabulary to say weird and mildly naughty things, and teach them to younger brother (sigh). Amazing how fast “он ест” became “он ест козявки” but hey, they’re learning!
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I strongly believe that a large part of my own child’s almost aggressive dislike of other languages is an effort to define herself as a separate person from me. As such, I welcome it because it’s a normal, healthy process. My sister’s children easily speak 5 languages, and thank Lord Jesus my sister and I don’t compete with each other I’m equally happy for them and for my own child.
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I don’t have that problem: I’m incompetent at 2 foreign languages. But I think it’s no mystery that the one my kids took to quickest was one about which I knew *nothing*. They dig knowing more than I do about something, since I’m their primary teacher 😀
I just hope we can still be friends with the Russian teacher by the end of the term!
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I agree that learning a second language in adulthood has to do with one’s personality type. However, the younger you are the less ‘fixed’ is your personality.
I went to Bulgaria as a Peace Corps Volunteer at the age of 53. Learned Bulgarian well enough to live in an rather isolated ‘town’ where very few people spoke any English. I was far from being fluent but was able to live there. A co-volunteer that was older than myself did become fluent and stayed in Bulgaria after his term of service was completed so this is proof of your assertion that learning a second language is not age related.
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IIRC there is some correlation between learning *any* second language in childhood, and the relative ease of acquiring additional language/s in adulthood. It certainly doesn’t rule out learning a language in adulthood or anything, but I think it’s been found that if you have two of them by about age 8, tacking on more after age 20 is easier than if you’ve only ever learned one.
I’m sure there are some interesting confounding factors in there.
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