Learning A New Language

I started learning my second “real” language in seventh grade. At home I grew up with parents and relatives that spoke Malayalam around the house so I can understand the language pretty well, but I didn’t learn how to read and write so I don’t consider it as my first “real” language. Any way, in high school I took up French. Something that my teacher said I didn’t really appreciate, even though it is true. She said that it is easier learning a new language when you are younger. That got me thinking why do we wait so long in school to start teaching a new language to students? Also I recently saw a commercial on tv which started teaching babies how to read. I thought that was a neat idea, its what most parents do unknowingly but the process includes one more step. Most parents might teach their kids a few basic words; the easiest words to understand are the ones the baby sees, like facial features. The added step is showing the word written on a piece of paper. It seems to be working great, so I thought why not do that for all languages, not just English, that way your child will grow up knowing two languages.