Our results differ from those obtained in other studies involving attrition of a childhood language where a clear advantage of childhood overhearers in phonetic perception has been found (Au et al., 2002, Oh et al., 2003 and Tees and Werker, 1984). Perhaps two fundamental differences between our population of adoptees and the populations in these studies can account for the discrepancy in results. The populations in these studies grew up in communities where some exposure to the attrited language presumably continued to occur throughout development, either from direct overhearing of the language (as one can imagine may be the case of Spanish in California) or through the persistence of the foreign language phonemes in the English (L2) of close family or community members. Our Korean adoptees were, on the contrary, completely severed from their home language and culture upon arrival in francophone Europe where Korean is not at all common; their exposure to Korean phonemes was therefore, non-existant.