Myth: Some people have no talent for learning languages

Myth

Some people just do not have talent for languages. Even if they try very hard, they will never master a second language

Fact

A person's "talent" for languages can easily be expressed by the "talent" to learn his own native language. If you were able to learn one language, you are certainly able to learn another. What usually stops you is the methods and fears inherited from school.

School problem

There is a wider distribution in the perceived ability to learn a language in adulthood. That spread is largely determined by environmental influences. There is nothing significantly different between learning different languages. If they all are learned in childhood at the similar age, with similar method, and with similar priority, they can be learned with comparable fluency.

The fact that many people fail to learn a second language may be determined by the following (in the order of the estimated impact of importance):

insufficient motivation, which is needed to efficiently seal memories in implicit learning
insufficient investment in time, which comes from insufficient motivation and the failure to realize that the cost of learning a language is astronomical
memory interference that makes the second language harder to remember
stabilization of the brain networks in the conceptualization process. This weakens forgetting, and its impact on generalization. Older brains are great, but lower plasticity makes language learning slightly harder
toxic memories and bad habits acquired at school, while learning the language (or other languages, or even other subjects)
critical periods in early cortical differentiation (e.g. needed to generalize accents, perceive sounds, etc.)
mythology that acts like a self-fulfilled prophecy (e.g. "I have no talent for languages")

Child's method

All the above indicates that you need to learn a language like a child. You have to abandon methods you know from school. Schooled methods may do more damage than help. You need to be highly motivated, e.g. living abroad when the language is needed for survival. You need to spend a lot of time learning. This is why dedicated learning makes no sense. You need to use the language as a tool on a massive scale. Netflix or YouTube will help you more than a dedicated textbook. Friends on Discord or Skype will help you more than a teacher.

Solutions

If you happen to believe that you have no talent, and learning a second language is very difficult, consider the following:

learn like a child (not like a schooled adult)
abandon all schooled methods (grammar, spelling, etc.) and focus on the active use of the language: listen, speak, read, etc.
abandon perfectionism, your satisfaction will be great if you master the language fast, even if you keep committing the same errors, or speak with a horrible accent
use the language all day long in whichever way is most useful for your goals (e.g. YouTube, talking to friends, computer games, etc.)
employ spaced repetition or incremental reading to resolve bottlenecks of memory (e.g. memorizing rich vocabulary)
once your pleasure of learning is sky high, allow yourself for a bit of tightened requirements in terms of correctness and richness (as far as satisfaction beats the pain)