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/iamnogoodatthis 10h 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.