Foreign language accents and levels of thought

I think it’s commonly accepted that the younger you start learning a new language, the easier it is to become fluent. The human brain just seems to have more plasticity at an early age, and many studies seem to give credence to that idea. But it’s not to say that taking on a new foreign language in your 40s, 50s, or even later is too late – depending on how focused you are and the time spent (plus your linguistic abilities), you can still make great progress and learn to communicate in that language to some degree.

One area that is particularly difficult to master completely is pronunciation. Depending on where you live and work, there’s a good chance that around you are some people who are quite fluent in English but have an accent because they started learning English a little later in life. For that reason I don’t expect to ever be…