My daughter is 15 years old, and my husband and I have always been amazed by her. She taught herself to read as a toddler with a few picture books. My husband and I tried to help her, but she refused the help. When she was four, she saved up her allowance and bought a little box of beginner German flashcards and the accompanying CD. She flew right through them and was quickly speaking little bits of German. In elementary school, she was always so far ahead with her reading level that the teachers found a computer program that taught Latin and Greek roots. Instead of reading the beginner picture books with the rest of her class, she quickly absorbed the Latin and Greek. In 6th grade, she decided to try learning a bit of Japanese. After a few weeks, she was bored wih the language, but to this day, she can read Japanese signs and titles of things (apparently they have two alphabets and they also use Chinese characters, and she can read them all). In 8th grade, her school was offering Spanish classes, and she was always far ahead of her classmates, and within the first month, she spoke rapidly to her sister (who was in her sixth year of Spanish class) in Spanish, without ever looking confused. In 9th grade, she switched to French class and she never needed to study, but she still spoke French better than the rest of her classmates. A few months ago, she announced that she wanted to study Korean because she made friends wih a Korean girl in a language exchange program she was using to pick up extra French words after her French class ended. After about a month, she bought a novel in Korean and read it with very little difficulty. As I write this, she is chattering away on the phone with one of her Korean friends. She is talking very quickly and (to me) she sounds fluent.

I don't understand where all this skill with language is coming. My husband and I both only speak English, which is the case with our extended family as well. At first, I only thought that she was simply gifted, but the sudden advanced level in Korean has changed my mind. I did research, but no mental conditions that deal with a specific talent/obsession fully matches her. She has appropriate social skills and plenty of friends. She does well in other subjects in school, but she is extremely talented with languages.

Is there a condition she might have, or is she just gifted? I am just curious.