Exposure of multiple languages to children at a young age can help them learn languages faster and more fluently than if exposed as adults. Is it because children’s brains are more receptive to language at a young age? Is it because your mind has already developed a ‘default’ language when you’re older?
Why isn’t this pattern applicable to something like mathematics/any other subject?
In: Biology
Children are better at learning the natural sounds for reasons mentioned in other posts but adults can outcompete them under more equal conditions. Here is the time the US diplo service expects you to take to learn a language if employed by them
https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/
Even the hardest languages are at about a year and a half. Far quicker than a child. You have the advantage of already knowing a language and being able to apply that knowledge to the new one.
The reason why your average person struggles is the tend to have far less time spent on it. You likeöy have to work to support yourself, don’t have a 1:1 personal tutor and aren’t raised in an environment that is majority your new language unlike both kids and people in that training program. As a kid you even have somebody doing most of the chores like cooking and cleaning leaving you more time to practice (play) your new skills/language.
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