Re: English as a second language It's the same here, we learn English at the age of 12, which is fair enough, I believe.
Because during the elementary learning, the educational system -in most countries- focuses on teaching the mother tongue first, which is more important than any other language!
Then comes the step of teaching/ learning another language -either the most dominant, geographically close to the country or that has a historical reference with the country and/or the mother tongue.
IMO, this is good because one MUST focus on his/her first language which is part of the identity.
Another thing, you don't have to travel abroad to grasp a language, esp, if it's English. Because almost all media is in English. All you have to do is to increase the number of hours of studying!
Good luck! |