Definitely possible to learn new languages later in life: My father picked up Japanese and Spanish after he turned 70. But it's way easier to learn during more formative years. The tricky part is that some flaws are based on situation, some are based on history, some are based on future. Skilled Parens/Educated is worth as much as Affinity in Craft: Basketweaving, is worth as much as Great Stamina, is worth as much as Knight.
And some of these situational bonuses(Knight, skilled parens) need to exist for balancing new characters, while some can't be taken by a nine-year-old you're designing for your apprentice or your companion's son.
There are probably ways to do it - Apprentices had an alright system of changing V&F. Maybe every 15 years of life the person gets a 'free' Virtue to show his growth, to offset the 'free' flaws he got living there (like now being one-handed). Something like that.
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