 A child growing up in a neighborhood filled
with many languages will learn those languages
fluently and effortlessly. The brain has no nationality. The neurons
don't know that they are learning English
or French or Japanese, they simply learn
what they hear. Immigrant parents and grandparents
are excellent sources of foreign languages;
my wife calls this approach the "grandmother
tongue."
After age 10, because the grammar area is
mostly finished, it is very difficult to
learn other languages fluently. Fluency can be more or less defined as
the ability to think in a language without
translating.
 From the brain's point of view, learning foreign languages in high school
is fighting the brain's natural order of
learning. Not only is the brain grammar area mostly finished, but the natural dialogue needed to make a language
fluent is prevented because the students
are not supposed to talk with their friends
in class. Like pouring water onto a duck's back --
it is mostly wasted effort. Both teachers
and students struggle and get frustrated.
To survive, the brain uses bandaid solutions
such as translating vocabulary, and memorizing
rules of grammar.
In contrast, putting foreign language into
kindergarten and primary school is fun for
everyone, because the brain is doing what
it loves to do -- learning the right material, at the right
time, in the right way. To encourage fluency, students in immersion
are encouraged to talk a lot with each other.
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