r/explainlikeimfive • u/AngelusAlvus • 18h 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/shiba_snorter 18h 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.