Asklemmy

I can speak on immigrants from Central America because we sponsored 7 families (aunts & uncles) growing up and I ended up going to school w my cousins who didn't speak English.

They did REALLY well in science, math, physics, biology, history & sociology because the schools that they came from had significantly higher standards, so they coasted until the American students caught up to them years later; but did poorly w literature, English, social studies, & civics for obvious reasons. (I grew up in small town USA and the racist teachers tried to fail some of them, but couldn't since their excellent grades in the hard sciences made up for their failure grades in the soft sciences). (They also got into more fights at school by the racist bullies).

They were young enough so that they were completely fluent in English by the time they graduated high school and I hope that I likewise can become fluent in Spanish when I emigrate after the American fascists ruin everything.

One of my workmates moved to Australia from Uruguay when he was 14. He only spoke Spanish at the time, which isn't very common in Australia. He's talked a few times about the different experience he had vs his sister who is a few years younger than him. He still has a noticable rioplatense accent to his english, but his sister does not. He also had to go to a special immersion class/school to get his english to the point where he could do manage in regular english language schooling, but his sister did not, and managed just fine being moved straight in to english speaking schools.

Ultimately, he said that he got there pretty quickly, because he was still a kid, but he spent the best part of a year feeling isolated from his peers, except when he was in the immersion class.

Especially if the language isn’t commonly spoken in the United States, or rather, anywhere except your country of origin.