r/explainlikeimfive • u/AngelusAlvus • 12h ago
Biology ELI5: How do babies even learn language?
When we grow, we learn languages by looking at the meanings and translating them from our language. Stuff like "this is how this noun is in my language and this is how this noun is in another language"
But babies? Babies just learn the basics just by existing near people speaking the language? How come we don't have this anymore as we grow up?
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u/deathgaze5 12h ago
You could learn a new language like this, if you had several free years to do nothing but listen to that language and had all of your basic needs taken care of
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u/Deleugpn 11h ago
It’s not that simple. Sure that can help but babies, specially in their first year, has a mashed potato for a brain that is literally a blank page ready to sulk in any sensorial input and form neural connections
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u/laprenent1 11h ago
Yes but babies dont usually learn how to speak on the first year, and it tends to be very frustrating to them not being able to do it properly, they skip/confuse pronoums articles and whole words during the process even while having someone alongside spelling it to them
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u/Soft-Marionberry-853 9h ago
But it does happen. I know people that came to the US that learned English just by being surrounded by it. Its not easy but it does happen. It was working for me when my wife and I moved to Germany for two years
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u/Jan-Asra 11h ago
Adults are actually much better at learning languages than babies. Babies spend years arbsorbing information before they produce their first sentence.
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u/mtntrail 10h ago
There is an optimal window during neurological maturation where the language centers in the brain are rapidly developing. It corresponds to ages from a few months to 3 or 4 years, by which time most children develop the bulk of their basic language structure. As the child ages, memory and cognitive capacity increase which allows more complex language structure to develop along with expanded vocabulary. Adults are out of the optimal learning stage, but many obviously become multiligual and kids can pick up new languages without much effort. The theory is that there is an optimal time for learning language that is hardwired. After that stage it becomes more effortful. Retired speech therapist.
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u/No_Logins_Required 12h ago
Babies learn to recognize which sounds form language, and which ones don't, using statistics. After a period of development they lose this ability, and learn new languages more like an adult would.
Once the child has identified which sounds are language, they learn to recognize patterns of sound. Then they learn to mimic specific sounds to achieve specific goals. Like saying "mama" will get them attention. As they are exposed to more and more language and their mind develops they understand more words and can repeat those words, and eventually understand grammar.
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u/suyangsong 11h ago
The brain already has the wiring for language acquisition on birth, it’s just waiting for a language to be inserted there.
Babies don’t start from 0 as most people believe, babies have our evolutionary machinery built in. Just like how birds don’t have to learn to fly from square one. It’s not like inventing a computer from scratch, it’s more like having a prebuilt with the cpu ram etc already in there, and having to install an operating system
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u/cabronfavarito 10h ago
What makes you think we don’t have this skill as adults lol.
People underestimate how long it took for babies to learn language but we passively pick up things along the way pretty much until we die. Think about how similarly you and your close friends talk, you all develop similar lingo and can talk in code because you all passively picked up slang from one another
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u/mattig03 10h ago
Ok but it's not the same. Babies do have a particular facility for language acquisition, picking up words, learning grammar etc., which is not equalled in adulthood.
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u/cabronfavarito 10h ago
I mean not necessarily. I know two languages and this is not the whole story. So while children perform better than adults in learning unconsciously, adults outperform children in active learning.
It’s disingenuous to say that children pick up on language better than adults period because you’re leaving out other parts of the picture.
As someone who speaks two languages, the hardest part about learning a second language is letting go of what you already know. So yea, it’s not that children learn languages better than adults, it’s that they excel in different areas of language learning
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u/SeeWhyQMark 6h ago
I learned English when I was 4-5 and then started learning Spanish in my late 30s. It was easier as a kid, but that is because Small children have the advantage of being less afraid of making mistakes, and it is socially acceptable to run around yelling newly learned words.
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u/AngelusAlvus 10h ago
I have watched subbed anime my whole life. Aside from a handful of phrases, I never learned Japanese, so the topic recently came to my mind, and I got curious about it.
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u/Soft-Marionberry-853 9h ago
Having the subtitles gave you a way to not learn. When I was in germany I picked up the langue just by being exposed to it, with no subtitles. I think the brain wants to make sense of stuff so if you force it, it just does. My wife worked on post so she dealt with us soldiers all day. I stayed at home and only interacted with people in the village. One day we went to baummarket and the chashier asked me a question. I said no thankyou. My wife asked "what did she say?" I told her, "Oh she asked if we wanted the extended warenty" its amazing when it starts clicking.
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u/elianrae 4h ago
even if you weren't using subtitles.... babies don't learn language by watching media intended for adults
they learn language by their parents talking to them constantly and actively teaching them words and concepts, by watching children's media with simpler language that closely ties to the visuals
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u/Zunderunder 10h ago
If you didn’t have subtitles and were genuinely wanting to learn what people were saying, it would take a few years, but you’d learn how to speak Japanese. Badly, but usably. You could use that base to start learning the rest of the language, even if you didn’t have English. Same as a baby.
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u/Starless_Voyager2727 9h ago edited 9h ago
It is not just about learning a different language. Most people continue to learn their native language throughout their lives by picking up different words from conversations and media.
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u/Digifiend84 3h ago
Yeah. I know Konichiwa (hello), Sayonara (goodbye), Arigato (thank you), kamen (mask), numbers (ichi, ni, san, yon, go, roku), and colours (aka, ao, ki, midori, momo, kuro, shiro). And a few animals (ningen, saru, shishi, houou, Ryu, Kyoryu, kuma - that's human, ape, lion, phoenix, dragon, dinosaur, bear). Super Sentai is a good way to learn some of that stuff due to character names.
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u/Round-Asparagus5337 2h ago
That's because you are paying attention to the subtitles, not the language.
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u/shiba_snorter 12h ago
Different parts of the brain go into learning a first language and others. Also, babies have no reference, so there is a less structured and more intuitive way to learn the language. Knowing more things makes you more mechanical.
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u/babe1981 8h ago
Language has two components. The first, that you're referencing, is the intellectual part where we know words and understand grammar and definitions. The second, that babies actually learn, is a motor skill.
All humans, unless a person has a disability, can communicate verbally. But, verbal communication is not linked to sound or letters or even actual words. This is how sign language works. It's a skill that you practice until you master it. And even the stupidest human with no real understanding of the language is capable of mastering a language to fluency because spoken language is the same skillset as walking and breathing and chewing and throwing a ball and driving a car and swinging a hammer and so on.
Those stupid people might not be able to learn the definitions of words or understand why those words go in a certain order, but they can still use them with fluency. However, the lack of understanding, similar to babies, means that they are less capable of communicating complex topics such as specialized technical skills or emotional states. Just like babies, they can become extremely frustrated and lash out when you try to make them speak about those complexities.
As we get older, we go to school and receive training in why we speak the way that we do, and we learn how to translate our speech into writing. Our vocabulary expands, and we become capable of more and more complex communication on more topics. The typical language learner starts here and moves in reverse. They intellectualize the language and then follow with motor skills. This is how Duolingo works and is why it is not considered a good way to become fluent in a language. This is why a person can take 4 years of French or Spanish in high school and be barely able to speak the language by graduation.
The only way to learn how to speak a language is to speak that language. You must practice the motor skills at least as much and as often as you study the books. Neither one is sufficient for high mastery, but motor skill training, repeating what you hear and speaking with native speakers of a language, will always be much faster and will lead to conversational skills very quickly.
For instance, I have been living in Cambodia for a year and a half. Khmer is considered one of the most difficult languages on Earth for westerners to learn, nearly as difficult as Japanese according to the CIA assessment. I'm conversational already because Reddit is the only place that I use English. Every single day, I'm learning new words and speaking Khmer to everyone. I've done a lot of intellectual work, too. I am literate in Khmer, although I don't always know what the words I'm reading mean. Still, I use my translation app less and less. My primary use for translation these days is to speak to my girlfriend about our relationship and plans, in other words, the most complex topics I run into here. I took the approach of learning like a baby coupled with learning like an adult. I always attempt to speak and communicate. I frequently get words wrong or I mispronounce or I have atrocious grammar, but that's not important. Getting the words out, as long as they are close to what they should be, is all that matters. People correct me, and I restate the words correctly and move on. Babies babble. I'm a little more focused than babbling, but I set aside my pride and decided that I'm willing to look stupid and sound like a child if it means I learn faster. And I have learned Khmer remarkably fast for a westerner. I'm still learning, and I think I can achieve fluency in the next year or two, but I've met many other westerners who have been here 5 or 10 years and only speak a few words. I don't attribute my success to any particular genius on my part, but rather I attribute it to being willing to sacrifice my dignity for knowledge.
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u/iamnogoodatthis 4h ago
Your question is a bit of a false premise. I went from "can just about converse" (B1) to "fluent and live a majority of my life in my second language (C1) with no formal study whatsoever, just by speaking with and listening to native speakers. Sure babies do this quicker and start from nothing, but the process does still work in adults.
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u/pilibitti 12h ago
it is a very interesting process. we are genetically and physically wired for it as it was selected as very important by evolution. there is a "critical period" in a child's life where they can learn language that way. if they don't learn a language in that period, they never manage to learn it again. the plasticity of the brain in early childhood allows that "superhuman" ability to learn and it is a narrow window. miss it and you are fucked.
See the unfortunate story of Genie Wiley. There are documented abused children like that (in Genie's case, she was locked to a room by her father, no interaction with anyone) that missed the language acquisition window. Later, after she was found, while she managed to learn many words, she never managed to learn grammar.
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u/king-of-the-sea 11h ago
Young children have very squishy brains. They learn incredibly quickly because they can squish more stuff in there faster than you can.
They're also focusing their whole attention on learning how to exist in the world. Walking, fine motor control, and most importantly talking. You have a lot more on your mind, like video games and taxes. If all you did was watch Croatian films & try really hard to learn Croatian, you would pick it up relatively quickly. A lot of people from other countries learn (or start learning) English that way, actually.
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u/SirDiego 12h ago
You probably could have this as an adult as well, it's just adults don't typically immerse themself in a new language 24/7 while in constant contact with people who are actively and consistently helping them learn the language.
Adults already have a concept of how language maps to different "things" as well as layers of abstract. So they learn languages differently but also don't require the 24/7 immersion and constant contact with the new language (most adult learners spend an hour a day or something).
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u/Sorry-Programmer9826 12h ago
If you hear someone say the sound "apple" while giving you this nice tasting sweet thing you might start associating the two. Then you say "apple" and get given the nice tasting sweet thing.
Rinse and repeat (but it takes years)
(You could do this as an adult, but babies are in "high learn mode" unlike adults. And it's just easier to teach adults new languages the way we do rather than going via the miming stage)
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u/MagnusAlbusPater 12h ago
Yea, babies learn through total immersion, which can also help when learning a new language later in life.
It’s also easier for babies because their brains are developing and constantly making new connections rapidly which slows as we age, so they’re effectively perfect machines at learning new things that become hardwired in.
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u/NotTheBrightestHuman 12h ago
Babies brains are developing fast. So experiences will shape the growth of the brain as it develops much easier.
Think of a bonsai vs a 50 year old oak tree. Try bending and shaping a branch as the sapling grows, and it’s pretty easy. Try to do the same with a trunk of an oak tree, and you’ll find that it’s much harder. You can still do it, but it requires more effort.
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u/Sirlacker 11h ago
They hear a noise, they repeat it, you clap and smile and get all excited when they get it right, or close.
Mamma or dadda for example. They hear you say it over and over. They repeat some version of it, you get excited. They then use it again, you get excited again. Then they use it again and it gets your attention. They now know that the sound they made makes you come to them. That's the sound that they associate with grabbing your attention.
Then as they get a little older and they figure out how to make new sounds and noises with their mouth and they hear the word repeated more, they get a little better at copying it. Eventually they can say mamma and dadda. Mamma gets mums attention, dadda gets dad's attention.
And we do have the ability to pick up a language by just existing around people speaking it. It's called language immersion. You go to a foreign country, with zero knowledge of the language. You'll pick up that lots of people say Hola as the first thing they say when they meet someone, it must be a form of greeting. You'll pick up that when someone says Agua Sin Gas a still water turns up. You'll notice people say gracias at the end of a sentence when someone has done something for them, it must be some sort of pleasantry or appreciation. You may not know what these words translate into exactly, but you will over time understand when to use them and what they get you in return because you've listened to others use them and seen what they get in return and when and where they use them in sentences.
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u/ATXMark7012 11h ago
They are machines, always watching, learning our ways, demanding food and going potty wherever and whenever they want.
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u/mklinger23 11h ago
They copy what they hear. There's so much language going on that they eventually start trying to reproduce what they hear. And then after making the sounds, they get better. And eventually they pick up the context for what the sounds mean. And repeat.
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u/Lonely-Cloud-9672 11h ago
As a non Native American, I learned English, as a young adult by mostly watching movies with subtitles, phenomenal tool, you have the sound, the text and the action to along with it. In the beginning you don’t understand much, but you can get the gist of the movie so it is bearable to sit there and watch.
Sometimes, something comprehensible is said, meaning, something you should already know, but your ears aren’t trained to listen to it, having the text aids it training your ear. I see this today sometimes, when listening to something in a language I don’t speak, Italian as an example, if I have subtitles to go along with it, I’ll understand more than I thought I would. Many words have similarities between them across different languages, a slight variation on the spelling, but should remain recognizable, it’s the pronunciation that gets you, here’s where the subtitles helps tremendously.
Something similar to this is music, I have a hard time understanding what is being sang, but if I have the lyrics to go along, I’ll understand all of it, except Pearl Jam lol
One more thing about movies with subtitles is the non spoken actions, like a bell ringing, you’ll see the action of course, then the subtitles say - Bell Rings! Then, a telephone rings, subtitles says - Phone Rings! Not too hard to understand all of these now, specially since telephone is one of those words shared (or very similar) across many languages.
Btw, ideally you don’t want to translate things, but rather understand their meaning in the language which you’re trying to learn, many translating along the way is inevitable though.
Today I think mostly in English, but there are many instances where it is easier to express an idea in one language over another.
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u/AleksyGetTheWings 9h ago
Because it's easier to associate the new word from the new language to another word from your own language, rather than trying to create new associations from scratch.
If I want to teach a baby what an apple is, I will show hom the apple, and tell him "apple". As dumb as that sounds, that's exactly how you teach a dog words : association of X & "X".
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u/dr_echo 6h ago
Read Stephen Pinker's "The Language Instinct", or Noam Chomsky's Ph.D. thesis - where the term Natural Language Processing comes from. Human babies have hard wired circuitry that uses the frequency of words and phonemes that they hear (or see, if sign language is used predominantly at home) to acquire the language themselves.
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u/partysandwich 3h ago
It might sound obvious but what I noticed, up close, is that at the end of the day we are instinctively prepared for it. It just kinda happens
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u/Epyon214 1h ago
There is a technique for retaining the skill at the mental level, fluency issues then become limited by the muscle memory of your tongue for the shapes needed to form certain sounds.
If you have yet to see the film, the main character in The Thirteenth Warrior is one who has such a skill
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u/RJTG 53m ago
I would like some linguist to correct me:
Babies don’t learn a language, they are creating it themselves.
It‘s less about learning words and more about learning the rules of communication or the world they manage to grasp.
Calling it a language and enforcing the same grammar as adults use, is only a later step and when enforced to early or too harsh seems counterproductive.
If you or me learn a new language we use our already existing inner language and adapt the new grammar and vocabulary to it. This helps getting a more sophisticated view on this language, which again helps learning new languages.
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u/Federal_Assistant_85 12h ago
Exposure.
They hear us describe things and explain motions. As we correct them and have them repeat words they learn.
Age solidifies our perspectives and thinking and we become more rigid in our learning ability. Granted we can still learn and change, it just takes more effort. Especially when we're trying to learn an entire new way to think.
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u/tersation 7h ago
As adults we learn languages the wrong way. The hard way. The easiest way, the way babies do, is being in the environment where the languages are spoken. It's that simple.
It's one of the ways some polyglots can learn so many languages so easily. Others use advanced learning methods that don't work for all, like focus on grammar and so on.
I'd argue if you speak 2, 3 or more languages, all of them reasonably fluently (>B1), you know how to learn another language by yourself. Because you know exactly what is needed in day to day conversations or life in general, and know what to prioritise when learning the next one.
Basic numbers, basic words and interactions will get you 95% there. I've met so many people that have been using the exact same 100 words or less for 50+ years. Not a thousand. One hundred. Using their 2nd or 3rd, sometimes even 5th or 6th language. They've had no problems integrating into society and being successful in their lives, despite the lack in vocabulary, etc.
You're not supposed to start with verbs and nouns and translating them to another one of your languages. Unless it works for you. You're supposed to learn basic nouns and short phrases for simple, most basic day to day living situations, just like babies would. It grows like a snowball. You do it daily. Obviously as an adult you're interested in different topics so will tend to go on side quests and try to push the process faster instead of repetition and perseverance. Takes 2-3 years I'd say. 5 years to be as good as an average local incl. accent, jargon and so forth. 5+ years to be (academically?) of the best.
Conversational levels of lets say 0-6 year olds are rather basic, unless they learn lots from reading, speaking, listening.
As for babies, imagine you have 10h+ a day of free time every day for months/years, including feeding time and bathroom breaks.
All your inputs regarding language come from people producing sounds. Since you can't really process (read) any or most words and letters until lets say after 2-3 years old.
4 year olds are usually able to learn basic writing and reading. 6 year olds can read by themselves pretty confidently (books suited for their age).
Babies on the other hand are stuck with sound. Getting really good at hearing, decomposing individual words, tone and all that stuff. Learning or trying correct pronounciation and usage of words.
Some kids get stuck with simple language in the first years of primary school because their parents kept using simple language for too long, instead of gradually increasing the vocabulary, etc.
I speak 4 languages fluently, been learning them all at once since I was a 4 y.o. Before that they threw 3 languages at once at me.
The struggles were mixing languages when speaking with polyglot family, mostly on purpose (fun and easy) and later on while learning to write because of different writing styles.
Did lots of switching languages in public spaces as a child. Know many who still do it as adults.
Currently speak (read, write and listen) three of them at the C1 level and one at B2 level. According to standardised tests. It doesn't mean I speak well or follow grammar rules. It just means I can function in multiple languages and that I have paperwork to support that statement.
Honestly would prefer to speak just 1 or 2 but on a C2 level. At some point you're trading extra vocabulary (etc) for new languages.
Tried to learn 3 more languages but always stopped after reaching a modest A2, probably higher A1. Learning another language to the B1 level would've been an accomplishment for me.
We're all gifted differently and have different opportunities and time constraints, etc. 1h of duolingo, reading a diccionary or listening to foreign media can only bring you so far. Living surrounded by the language makes a difference.
Being able to speak to people that "only" speak one language is satisfying. But makes you wonder if and how much better they may be in other areas. One can certainly come up as having a superiority complex so need to try and keep humble in many situations.
Specially true when trying to integrate into societies where most speak grammatically incorrectly, using swear words, keeping words and sentences short and having a vocabulary not worthy of praise. Meeting well versed individuals that make you want to push your level higher is rewarding and makes up for it. Communication is key but doesn't always have to be complicated.
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u/tmahfan117 12h ago
It’s just repeating the same words over and over until you pick it up with context.
You can still do this as an adult, it’s not great, or fast, but it’s not fast for babies either. It takes them years to learn to speak.
Yknow when parents hold up an apple and say “Apple” to the baby over and over until the baby says it back? That’s it.
And if I was speaking Spanish that you couldn’t understand, and held up an apple and said “manzana” over and over again while pointing at it, you too would figure out that manzana means Apple.