[muawiyah]

Here's how you do it. You go to a multi-cultural cocktail party. You just kind of hang around until you notice that you understand what folks speaking an otherwise foreign language are saying.

Some people will notice what you are doing and test your facility in your next new language. Others will remain oblivious to the fact that some adults still have the same language learning facility they had as children. That's because they simply do not believe that some people are "different".

[FITZ]

I believe some people are different and some pick up languages easily at any age and any setting --- but you take any adult and put them in just about any foreign country --- living with a family which helps them by other signals and speaking slowly and clearly --- after a while that adult will also start learning the new language. Most of us just don't get ourselves into the same environment the baby has in order to learn a new language.

One reason you see so many here who have been here more than 20 years but don't know more than 2 words in English is because they watch Spanish television, listen to Spanish radio, associate with only their own kind who also speak no English --- in other words they do all they can to keep themselves from learning a new language.

Also --- to learn a language very well means you need to get away from the classroom and books and learn it the way people actually speak it --- which includes a lot of body language also.