Being from a Mexican decent much of my family speaks only Spanish forcing me to learn it fluently since birth. My mother says that I learned both Spanish and English around the same time not one after the other making me fall under being "bilingual." Bilingual is defined as both fluent and proficient in reading, writing, speaking and understanding two distinct languages. Bilingual is to be able to communicate with others who are native speakers of the language.
It is important because understanding how people learn more than one language, aids in becoming bilingual. By being bilingual, trilingual or knowing many languages we are able to understand other cultures and connect with multiple groups of people instead of simply one. It helps us to understand not only the history of our own country or ethnic background but also that of many backgrounds.
The main question I have, is why is it easier for a person who speaks more than one language to learn another language, than it is for a person who speaks one? What in the brain makes it simpler for the mind to learn? Another question is why there is not a great influence of learning more than one language in the United States as there is on learning the "core subjects?"
I agree that it is important to understand how people learn language. I also agree that more focus should be placed on learning two or more languages like our core subjects. I think knowing more than one makes for a more well-rounded person. I've always thought it would be really nice to know another language fluently. However, all I have is my high school Spanish knowledge (so far). Language is important, and knowing more than one language even more so.
To answer your question, why is it easier for people who are bilingual to pick up on another language easier. I would say it has a lot to do with phonics and pronunciation. I am also bilingual, I spoke english at home, but I went to a spanish immersion school from kindergarden through eighth grade (all of my classes were in spanish, except 30 minutes of english each day). As a result I am better at reading and writing in spanish, but I am equivalent in speaking and listening in english and spanish. Anyway, I found that as I’ve come across different languages like french or italian, it was easier for me to pick it up, than for some of my peers because words often have the same roots as other languages. And italian and french both have a lot of the same root words in their languages along with some of the same phonics.
I definitely agree with you that being fluent in more than one language helps connect with the culture of those languages, it makes out for a much more well rounded person. To answer your question, i have been taking spanish since i was in 4th grade and took it all the up until my senior year of highschool. for my junior i was taking both spanish and french and although im not fluent in spanish, i can understand, read, and write pretty well and then adding french on to that made me grasp french much easier because i had the background knowledge of spanish and french and spanish are very similiar in their verbs and words. There are times when i cant remember a word in english but can immediately recall what it is in spanish which to me is very confusing!
Those are really good questions. I think that its not that once you know a lot of languages its easier to learn more, but rather that some people are born maybe? With the ability to learn languages quickly. Also I think that timing is very important. I am from Mexico so I of course speak Spanish, as it is my native language. Since I moved to the US while I was little, I am also fluent in English. Then after I moved again I tried learning mandarin and since I was older and so different from Spanish and English, it did not stick. However when I learned Italian it was so easy for me because it is so close to Spanish. So I really think that the younger you are the easier it is and that if you are emerged in the culture it helps a lot too. I think everyone should learn various languages because I don’t know if its just me but I think its kind of rude to go to another country and not even make an effort to speak and understand their language and just think that your native language will do.