Never Too Late for Details

In looking through my old Spanish linguistic book this morning, I was intrigued with the topic of the innate ability humans have to learn a language, any language.  It is a fact that language acquisition is an unavoidable process if we are born with & develop normal, healthy brains.  Just like growing hair, getting taller or going through puberty.  

I understand that trajectory as we start out as babies; it makes sense.  But what about when we begin to study a second language as adults, when our tabula rasa is no more?  All I know is that it is much, much, much harder.  Actually, my linguistic book says it's impossible to learn a second language with the success & depth that we learn our first.  Finally, I turned to the Internet & found this article with a quote to reinforce the importance (& a key hint!) of learning a second language later in life (emphasis mine):

Dr. Thomas Bak, a lecturer in the philosophy, psychology, and language sciences department at the University of Edinburgh, conducted the study and found that level of education and intelligence mattered less than learning a second language when it came to delaying cognitive decline.

'It’s not the good memory that bilinguals have that is delaying cognitive decline,' Bak told me. 'It’s their attention mechanism. Their ability to focus in on the details of language.'