Babies are geniuses!

It was mesmerizing knowing that newborn babies can differentiate monkey faces. Say for example, while we human know who is Ali and who is Zizi, a newborn knows who is monkey A and who is monkey B.
But, their brilliance isn't just that. They are incredible language learners, way better than adults! Babies have the capability to acquire languages rapidly and effortlessly. Indeed, another puzzle of life!

Kuhl hypothesized that this phenomenon is due to the computational abilities (or statistical learning) and special social skills that embraced by babies innately. (Please watch the video below!)

So, the take-home messages are:

1. Babies can acquire any languages that they are exposed to. 
2. But, they need social tutors, not media (TV, audio, etc.) as their language teacher.
3. Their super-acquisition abilities are at their peak from birth until at age seven. So, don't wait, just start early.

Needless to say the countless benefits children would have when they can speak multiple languages (I might write about this some time later).

Kuhl, P. K. (2004). Early language acquisition: Cracking the speech code. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5(11), 831-843.