This could be a stupid question but I'm having trouble finding the answer online. Do people just come out of the womb and speak whatever language their parents speak? For instance if your parents speak Spanish then you speak Spanish? Or if your parents speak English then you speak English? Or is it something they develop over time from being around their parents. For example if let's say two Spanish speaking parents had to go to prison for 4 or 5 years and they left their infant baby with their German speaking next door neighbors until they got out, would the kid grow up and speak Spanish or German from being around the German couple that is raising him until his parents get out of prison to pick him up when he's about 4 or 5?

WOW!!

Yes very stupid question on my part but it's weird because I've heard people say it could go both ways.

Here is a free piece of advice, distant yourself from these people!

Adopt a baby from North Africa, then drop him off in Tokyo for twenty years. See what language he speaks when you pick him up.

I am hoping that you're a kid and not an adult because if you are an adult ... as someone posted above: WOW!

PB's procedure will answer your question.

a person speaks whatever language they hear in infancy, some languages an adult can never learn. they must hear them in infancy. basque is one language that,you could never learn as an adult, and there are many more, what you hear as an infant, you speak.

Exactly.

My grandson Henry lives in Germany. His father and practically everyone else talks to him in German. My daughter only talks to him in English.

He is 4 yrs old and can speak German and English pretty fluently now.

I had a friend who came to this country right after WW2 from Italy he still does not speak English. His wife does not speak English either. Everyone they talk to talks to them in Italian. frankly, I think they are both idiots in that regard.

No I happen to be in my 40s. Was never book smart in school but I was always street smart and I've made a rather good living because of it. I'm sorry if I bothered anybody with a stupid question. But like I said, I've heard people say it can go both ways.

I find it amazing that infants can absorb a language faster and better than an adult can.

it is truly amazing, another amazing thing is even at the age of two, things that happen to children at that age. they remember the rest of their lives.

I don't know about 2. But I remember a lot of things from the age of 5 unfortunely they were all bad memories.

Wow I didn't know that. That's crazy!

Please end this thread!!!!

My thoughts exactly..

Lol sorry for the inconvenience guys let's just pretend this thread never happened

How can we just forget..

My parents spoke nothing but Pig Latin to me while I was a toddler. Then in my formative years, they'd play The White Album backwards during dinner. And I'm fine.

No I'm not. Yes I am. No I'm not. Yes I am.

Sgt Pepper is better to listen to backwards if i may say..

You're a Brit, DeNiro. So you may.

Thanks..

I have spoken self taught bullshit my whole life

I've spoken the language of love ever since coming out of my mother's womb, and I owe a great deal of my expertise in this language to the tender, kind, generous helpings of love that my mother has given me every day from the age of zero to this very minute.

A mother's love knows no bounds. Friendship, trust, affection and yes, intimate romance -- a good mother will provide her son all of these things.

John Lennon said, "All you need is love". Right on John.