Quote:
Originally Posted by PorscheGAL
We hired Mandarin Tutors for our son starting at age 5. It's not just learning the language, it's the accent too. Research has shown that your accent is set by age 8. My son studied in Hong Kong for a semester and had several friends from Mainland China. They said he spoke Mandarin with no accent.
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I would argue with the bit about accent being set. If that's the case, I think it's a relatively small percentage of the population.
I've met folks that have been speaking a second language for decades and have such a thick accent that they are hard to understand. I've also met folks that have been soaking a second language for <5 years and have almost no accent. I also know a woman that moved to England in her thirties and came back for a visit a few years later with a fairly strong British accent.
I believe that there's an intrinsic trait that some folks have that let them better audibly mimic others while other folks have a very hard time mimicking others. I believe it's also tried to hearing nuance in speech. Folks without the ability have a harder time understanding others that speak with an accent while those with the ability can more easily understand others with accents.
And the ability or lack is, of course, a range not binary.
Just my thoughts. So maybe you and the kids can still learn other languages without an accent issue.