- Many Europeans learn to speak and read in two to three languages.    - It is common for a child in Switzerland to learn French at home, then Italian at school, and German during college.    - Our brains are built to learn language.    - Children are turbo-charged by Nature to learn language at a young age. Mixing of words may happen but it is short-lived and serves to exercise the brain.    - Children are extremely sensitive to language. Their brains are agile enough to develop two language systems simultaneously.    - Bilingual children often out-perform monolingual children on tests that require them to ignore distracting information. They can focus more intently on the task at hand.    - Most children outside of the United States grow up surrounded by more than one language. For example, in Taiwan, children speak Taiwanese at home and then Chinese and English in school.    - Bilingualism is required if we want to prepare our children for their future place in a global economy.