I grew up bilingual (English and Finnish), again two languages with very different grammar and sound.
I think what helped me most with learning new languages (Swedish, French, Spanish) was the ability to recongise many more phonemes than others at school. This made it a lot easier to understand and to learn to write French for example.
Learning to recognise and produce sounds that were not learnt from childhood seems to be one of the most difficult parts of learning a new language, at least for me.
For example in the Finnish language there is no difference in the pronounciation of the letters k and g. Most people pronounce them similarly to the English k.
Also, having the vocabulary of two languages from the start helped me guess some words in other languages or make up words derived from English or Finnish.
Other than that, I didn't find it particularly easy to learn new languages. Not any easier than my classmates anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
I grew up bilingual (English and Finnish), again two languages with very different grammar and sound. I think what helped me most with learning new languages (Swedish, French, Spanish) was the ability to recongise many more phonemes than others at school. This made it a lot easier to understand and to learn to write French for example. Learning to recognise and produce sounds that were not learnt from childhood seems to be one of the most difficult parts of learning a new language, at least for me. For example in the Finnish language there is no difference in the pronounciation of the letters k and g. Most people pronounce them similarly to the English k. Also, having the vocabulary of two languages from the start helped me guess some words in other languages or make up words derived from English or Finnish. Other than that, I didn't find it particularly easy to learn new languages. Not any easier than my classmates anyway.