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Unless you are already functionally bilingual by the time you are mid-childhood, it is extremely unlikely that you will ever acquire any meaningful fluency in a second language, unless you are factually immersed in it for a prolonged period of time. Immigrants who move as adults eventually acquire fluency, if they spend nearly all their time exposed to their new language. The US Army teaches languages in about a year, to pre-selected recruits who spend 40 hours a week in intensive and systematic immersion drill, so that should give you an idea of the task ahead of you.
It is really hard to get conversational practice at home, because people in America who speak your target language have a greater incentive than yours, to speak English with you and lean their new language themselves.
Sounds pessimistic to me.
What is the definition of mid-childhood? 10 years old?
If you are looking for an easy language to start, Chinese(Mandarin) could be a great choice.
Is it?
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In High School before College, I have learnt Mandarin Chinese, and I am very happy with the experience of my first deep language immersion of the past. Used to know the equivalence of hundreds to thousands of Mandarin Chinese words to long paragraph essay communication amount. Ironically, I haven’t really went into Bilingual Romania language version of understanding until literally 23 to 25 years old for a young adult. Never having any detectable memory error gaps occurring past 19 years old. More with nutrition matters than the decay of older age. Never get any discouraging thoughts when wanting to learn another language! Powerful encouraging remembrance people are able to increase language comprehension to high sufficiency levels past young adulthood.
In High School before College, I have learnt Mandarin Chinese, and I am very happy with the experience of my first deep language immersion of the past. Used to know the equivalence of hundreds to thousands of Mandarin Chinese words to long paragraph essay communication amount. Ironically, I haven’t really went into Bilingual Romania language version of understanding until literally 23 to 25 years old for a young adult. Never having any detectable memory error gaps occurring past 19 years old. More with nutrition matters than the decay of older age. Never get any discouraging thoughts when wanting to learn another language! Powerful encouraging remembrance people are able to increase language comprehension to high sufficiency levels past young adulthood.
My two cents here: It's extremely difficult to be fluent in a second language as an adult...
I'm living in Italy three years but learning the language close to a decade now....no where fluency....I can understand everything, write it well, people can certainly understand me...
...I'd say I'm educated, learned the language in university, and at a language institute...but fluency is still a bit away! I started at 22! But don't let that discourage you...it's still a great journey learning a language. I make mistakes everyday in Italian and get strange looks when I make them but I'm now less shy and express myself even if I struggle to do so!
Whatevs! Lol.
My two cents here: It's extremely difficult to be fluent in a second language as an adult...
I'm living in Italy three years but learning the language close to a decade now....no where fluency....I can understand everything, write it well, people can certainly understand me...
...I'd say I'm educated, learned the language in university, and at a language institute...but fluency is still a bit away!
If you can understand and be understood by Italian speakers in all normal situations, most people would consider you fluent. It sounds like you are measuring yourself against native speakers, though. And no matter how fluent an adult second-language speaker becomes, s/he will never be a native speaker. Don't set an impossible bar for yourself!
On the other hand, many monolingual people tend to underestimate fluency. Their child spends a month in France and comes back able to exchange greetings, talk about the weather, and order a meal in a restaurant, and they tell all their friends that the child is "fluent in French."
If you are looking for an easy language to start, Chinese(Mandarin) could be a great choice.
I tried this in college. I found it to be really difficult as an English-speaking American. The characters were just way too much for me and a lot of the sounds and tones were difficult for me to speak. Oh yeah and the tones were difficult for me too. The fact that two words with the same pronunciation can mean completely different things depending on the tone is not really something that I was used to.
I'm in the process of trying to learn Spanish now, then I think I might try Japanese after that.
Regardless, It's near impossible to get advanced in any language without being immersed in it or speaking it quite often.
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