[diamonddawg]

youth.
took russian in university and failed test in week 1. it was on the alphabet.
besides english, i speak fluent castillian (spanish), a smidge of french (enough to get us in trouble in monaco). all learned prior to age 12.
in europe, they start additional languages beyond native at about 4 y.o. (at least in Barcelona, where I live). most children speak catalan, castillian and a bit of english by 8 y.o. - then they add another language (usually french) at around age 10.