a good part of comprehension of spoken language depends on facial expressions, gestures and other body language.

It's interesting to think about this in the context of Fiberbabe's Korean experience. The body language is as language specific as the words, grammar and syntax are. People could watch Fiorello Laguardia in newsreels with no sound and tell from his body language and gestures whether he was speaking English, Italian or Yiddish, all three of which he learned as a small boy.


Post Edit:

At the request of the lovely AnnaS, Fiorello Laguardia was the mayor of NYC back in (helen? can you help me here?)

He grew up in a mixed Italian/Jewish neighborhood in an age when pretty much everyone in such a neighborhood spoke their ancestral tongues and maybe English too. His fluency in three languages was a great asset in his campaigning for mayor (an office that is almost universally popularly elected among USns).

The airport was named after him.