this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2026
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No Stupid Questions

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Like, English is a famously difficult language, and Spanish is supposed to be easier. But babies learn English or any language instinctually.

So do babies learn faster if the native language is easier, or do they acquire language at a constant rate depending on their brain development or whatever?

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[–] calcopiritus@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not research, personal experience:

Even after many years of school/high-school in basque, I learnt it at a way slower rate than English, which was just 1 subject.

I didn't speak neither basque nor English outside school. At most, the difference might be that I consumed a little bit of media in English while none in basque. But all subjects except spanish and English were in basque, so that should make up for the difference.

And I don't think it's just a me thing. Since the curriculum has mostly been the same for all those years of school:

Learn how to say a verb.

That's it. Many years of school just to say verbs correctly.

The exams where mostly just fill in the blank exercises, where the blank was a verb.

I still don't know how to say verbs that aren't the simplest ones.

So to your question I'd say yes. Even though neither are my native tongue, I learnt both since I entered school, but learned them at wildly different rates.

[–] taco_daemon@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

you've said it yourself, you didn't use basque outside of school

the education system acknowledges this and makes you repeat the curriculum year after year, so you can get your B2 certificate upon finishing high school

[–] calcopiritus@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

It didn't make me repeat the curriculum. The curriculum is the same for everyone.

I didn't use basque outside school, but I barely used English. Inside school, it was ~7 hours every day of basque. And ~3h per week of english.

[–] pdqcp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm no specialist, but I'd say it is all about exposure.

How often and meaningfully they interact with people speaking different languages makes it easier for them to absorb that information. Is grandma the only person that speaks spanish with them when they visit once a year, while everyone else only speak in english? Yeah, it is going to be harder for them to learn spanish

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

My question is if you took the average for all babies learning only one language, would you see them acquiring that language and speaking at different times based on the difficulty of the language, or around the same time, based on natural development?

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago

No, I suspect hearing issues have the biggest impact on how fast they “learn” the language and then social factors, such as increased exposure to people talking , parental attention etc.

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