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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Disagree with the above.

I was taught a European language (not Spanish) in school a few hours a week from age 4-10.  The fact is, although I have a facility for languages, and spoke this language OK at age 10, I've retained very little of it because I hardly used it later on.  [b]I feel like my time learning the language at those ages would have been far better spent learning something more useful that might have stuck, e.g. geography or music. [/b]

I then started learning a difficult Asian tonal language, spoken where my family was living, at age 9.  Now, in middle-age, I am almost fluent in the Asian language after having studied in seriously (mostly for the joy of it) in middle school, high school, college and for work.  I'm told that my accent is pretty close to that of a native speaker.

Don't kid yourself.  Little kids can forget languages almost as easily as they pick them up.  If the language isn't spoken at home, and it isn't Spanish, I wouldn't sacrifice instruction in other subjects, including English, pretending that things will work out.  Not in DC.[/quote]

Keep in mind that that second language at ages 4-10, even if not retained now, likely still set the stage for later language acquisition.  Intensive language exposure changes the brain, and those differences may make the brain different from a monolingual child's brain.

Also, many people play an instrument for several years, yet can't play as adults and wish they stuck with it.  I don't think you can say with certainty that music would necessarily have "stuck" (although perhaps there would be other cognitive benefits, similar to language acquisition).[/quote]

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