I know this is a joke, but speaking as a (former) linguist, the idea that babies aren’t neurologically better at learning language isn’t… quite as wrong as it sounds. There’s still so much we don’t know about language acquisition, and there’s certainly evidence that there’s a deadline for first language acquisition, but “success” at second(+) language acquisition is so variable amongst individuals and communities (not to mention that a single definition of “success” is extremely difficult to pin down) that the old Critical Period Hypothesis (basically that humans suck at learning language after a certain age, usually puberty) is increasingly being shown to be a crock of shit.
The part about feedback is also somewhat correct – there’s no evidence that babies respond directly to feedback, like you might do to teachers’ comments on an assignment. However, there is evidence that babies do not learn effectively from, say, watching videos of people speaking. It’s only through direct interaction – regardless of what’s being said – that babies learn language.
The human brain is extremely complex and the way we learn and process language is no exception to that. If you’re a (post-) pubescent L2(+) learner and struggling, there are so so many reasons that might be. There’s definitely no need to feel bad about it, nor is there any reason to give up or believe achieving your goals is impossible.
I know I should cite sources but frankly I wasn’t the sort of student to memorize what paper which piece of information came from (which probably explains why I left grad school without a PhD among other reasons), so that would take like hours and this is fucking tumblr so nah, you don’t have to believe me.
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