I experienced something like this as a child, but it didn't seem very extreme to me at all. I started younger than eight, so that probably helped. My parents

I experienced something like this as a child, but it didn't seem very extreme to me at all. I started younger than eight, so that probably helped. My parents were living in Germany when I was born. My mother flew back to California for my birth, but I never really lived there. I grew up in an American household in Germany. My parents spoke just enough German to get by, and my older sisters spoke German quite fluently because they attended German public schools. However, English was the only language spoken at home. My mother taught me to read English at home, to the point where I could read age-appropriate children's books on my own by the time I was four, but she didn't teach me to read or write German. In Germany, what we call "Pre-school" is called "Kindergarten," and what we call "Kindergarten" is called "Vor-schule," which literally translates as "Pre-school." My parents never put me in Kindergarten, so my first day of school was the first day of Vor-schule. They enrolled me at a German public school. As you might expect, all instruction was in German. Most, but not all, of the teachers spoke fluent English, but none of the other children spoke any English. The teachers would not speak English to me as part of instruction, but would for other issues (e.g. going to the bathroom). I remember it being difficult and bewildering at first, but I picked up the German quickly and spoke it as well as I spoke English by the end of that first year. In subsequent years, I remember acting as translator between my parents and teachers. I think that a big key to all of this is starting young, when the child is still in the process of learning language anyway. I think that 2nd or 3rd grade is probably about as far as you could push it without adding some supplemental language tutoring.