Phonemes

It's important to start learning foreign languages as young as possible. This takes advantage of the child brain's built-in ability to learn to copy adults in the way they communicate verbally.

But if you want to talk like a native, then you have to have exposure to a language before you're 18 months old. It's true! They did tests with Eskimo children that they swapped with Chinese children (cruel, but hey) for the first few years of their lives. The ones who spent more than eighteen months away from their birthplace were no longer able to exactly reproduce the sounds of the language of their birthplace, but were fully able to pronounce their "adopted" language.

I'm not advocating baby-swapping, but I am advocating foreign language learning. Do it - and get your kids to do it too!