Person B grew up in a bilingual household of English and Spanish.
Both persons A and B decide to start learning German at the age of 24.
Will person B have much of an advantage over person A in learning German?
Person B already has the advantage of knowing another language, but since B accumulated both of his languages the same way that person A accumulated his one language, I posit that they would both have almost an equal challenge acquiring German since they both need to "learn"how to learn a new language first.
There is probably a mountain of research to support the idea that person B will learn faster, but in my experience it is the motivation of the learner, and his or her willingness to integrate into (in this case) the German language and culture that will be the most important factor. I have seen person A types learn quickly and person B types learn with difficulty.
Well I’m kinda like Person B. I learnt french and english at the same time growing up. We spoke french at home and i went to french school. But we lived in an english speaking province/city soo english just came naturally. English was everywhere on TV , movies ect…
Now I’m an adult learning korean. I can say as a kid i didnt worry much about anything and the language just naturally soaked in. As an adult, learning a new language is a challenge regardless of knowing 2 previous languages as a kid. Learning to learn as an adult is a HUGE mind game. YOu just have let go of thigns and just let things happen ( ITS HARD!!)
HOWEVER on the other hand being able to make the noises/ sounds of 2 languages has helped me ALOT with foreign language pronounciations ( in my opinion). My mouth/throat being able to make certain noises/sounds that i wouldnt have been able to do if I only knew 1 language. Its very helpful and i consider that somewhat an advantage.
The only adults that learn languages faster ( in my opinions ) are the ones that figured out how to efficiently learn a language. By that i mean if you fluently learn a new language as an adult I think any other language you decide to learn will be ALOT easier because this adult went through the whole process of learning. He knows what works for him. So the next language he learns , he wont have to focus too much on figuring out how to learn.
If that makes any sense… Steve and alot of other polyglots come to mind…