Some people are.

Case in point: My ex-girlfriend (who is 20) is Japanese but spoke English well.  She never went to high school or college, but she lived in Canada for one year.  Nevertheless, she scored 935 on the TOEIC a few weeks ago.

I know many Japanese people who have studied English for tens of years, and have lived abroad for four or more years, that couldn't get that score and can't speak as well as her. 

I know a Japanese girl who lived in America from age 3-18, went to regular public schools, then moved to Japan for college and lived there for seven years.  At 25 she only got 880 on the TOEIC.  (Although, in her case she speaks more naturally than my ex by a long shot, but with a smaller vocabulary.  Hilariously, though, she still talks like a 17 year old girl and it makes me laugh a lot.)

My ex is not a genius or anything, she's a normal girl, but she's damn good at languages.  She just started French so we'll see how that goes.

I don't disagree with anything you bring up about varying talents, but I don't think it's related at all to the TS's situation.

Just because you live in Japan it doesn't mean you'll pick the language up magically because your feet are standing on Japanese ground or something, foreigners have different attitudes to being in foreign countries. But Turvy describes people who've lived there long-term, integrated to the point that they have wives, calling themselves "open to the language". They sound like the kind of foreigners who have the right attitude. They sound like they've been getting huge amounts of exposure and chances to speak and communicate.

A lot of people look at virtuoso musicians or elite athletes and think that they're all natural talents born into doing what they're doing. But if you look at how much practice they've had you would understand why they're so good. If an expert guitarist has been practicing for 8 hours a day for the most part of his life since he was young, then the primary difference between him and an amateur isn't their natural talents. Similarly, a kid who dreams about becoming a soccer star shouldn't be looking at the top players in awe, thinking to himself "I'll never be as good as they are" but rather like "I'll never get as much practice as they've been".

Turvy, you said that they had never studied from a textbook or anything. Haven't they constantly been practicing the stuff you would find in the textbooks? Theyäve had people speak to them, asked people to repeat themselves, speak slowly or simpler, and then they've had chance to say the things themselves in its due time.

Have you also considered the fact that someone people might be great at certain aspects of language learning, while other people are great at other parts? I for example have what my friend calls, 'the gift of gab', what he is saying is that I have to proclivity of talking. I just love talking to just about anyone. So naturally this leads me to have conversations with the shopkeepers, the banktellers, etc. I am also, not a afraid to say I don't know (repeat the word they just said) can you use another word please? (then I would write that word down) Also traveling solo, ie not in a pack or foreigners makes you more approachable. If you're in Japan, I reccomend taking up your hobby in Japanese. I was really into cycling and I would go to bunch of bike events and find myself the only non-Japanese there. All this aside, while my spoken Japanese is really good... I am not so proficient at reading, while some of my friends' reading is amazing but can't speak as well as I can.
Check out this video especially if you're in Japanese, I think having the attitude of the good learner really helps. (ps that is really how that kid was and he went to Japan with no Japanese and that is where he was after just one year)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MqIVkUH … ata_player