I've been around my share of the proverbial military and diplomat brats. Merely living in a foreign country for 2/3/4/whatever years as a kid doesn't even commonly mean they become fluent in the host country's language; and even where the kids become fluent, there is often still a noticeable foreign accent. There are exceptions, and it varies by a variety of factors of course.
Originally Posted by
Toshbaf
For many of us, we're too old to learn a foreign language to be perfectly fluent to look like a domestic traveler in a foreign country.
How about for youngsters? What age should they start learning?
>How about sending children to a foreign boarding school? (I personally think that is putting too much emphasis on learning a foreign language).
>If so, what country would be advantageous? Canada (Quebec)? Germany? Taiwan? (That might not be so good because the child might blend into to Taiwan but have an accent to those in China). Italy?
Or maybe have the family move to a foreign country for 2-3 years, which may be difficult for the parents to find a job.
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I will start the discussion with my opinion.
It would be a difficult plan but could be done. Better to learn some of that other language before going because going to a foreign country without speaking the language is tough on children or anyone.
Foreign language acquisition (and local accent acquisition) is strongest for prepubescent kids and seems to diminish as the kids get older. But about ending up speaking enough like a local to pass as a domestic traveler, it sort of depends on the languages involved too and will vary from person to person and with whom they are communicating most frequently. For example, I know some Swedes who only started learning English (above the kind of Sesame Street-level Spanish tossed into the English language programs) at around the time they were 9 or older and yet when they first started to visit the US after the age of 30 years old, they often pass as locals in the US. And yet the Hindi-speaking child who went to an English-medium school full of native Anglophone teachers (from the UK+ANZ) from daycare up until college and then moved to the US around their 20s would sound like stereotypical English-speaking Indians for the rest of their lives.
Foreign-language boarding schools will definitely make a big difference in language level/quality for many kids. Just look at the legions of foregin kids who have been boarders at Phillips Exeter, Andover, St Albans, Choate and so on in the US. And there are boarding schools in various parts of Europe that have played sort of the same kind of role in language outcomes for foreign kids who have been boarders.
That said, I would avoid boarding schools like the plague. Day schools are good enough without the issues that happen for boarders.
Becoming fluent in a language need not mean being fluent in the way that you pass as a local speaker of the language when on say the phone with the local electrician. Learning a language and becoming fluent at it can happen at any age, but trying to get the accent 100% right is not going to generally fly so easily. Foreign language acquisition and accent localization seems to happen more easily for women than for men, if talking about people who are 20+ years old.