Parlez-vous français? O Español? O Italiano? Oder Deutsch?

Wow, he can speak in 68 other languages?! Is that even possible?! I wonder if he could actually speak fluently in all 68 languages or if it was more like he could speak fluently in two or three languages and new words and phrases from the others. I just wish I was able to speak fluently in Spanish, but with all the Spanish classes offered here I am definitely on my way!

People often say that they weren't "designed" to do math, econ, essay writing, learn other languages. While this could be true, a large part of it is could also be how much you tune your brain to perform certain tasks. I wonder if this is where the saying, "you can't teach a dog new tricks" comes in to play. Many parents are trying to teach their kids multiple languages at a young age.

It is amazing how much one can memorize that many different languages. I am quite amazed. I personally am bilingual, Hmong as my first language. English is my second language. Next to that, let me tell you other language classes I have taken. In elementary school I learned a little Chinese and French, but it was nothing serious. In the seventh grade I took the first level of Spanish, in the eighth grade I switched schools and took French. In my three first years of high school I took Chinese and went up to level three. I am now taking Korean at the U. So altogether I have encountered a little about six different languages, but then again I do not remember much from those short years of taking Spanish and French. And also because I am taking Korean at the moment, I have lost my memory of all Chinese I learned, although I did take it for 3 straight years. My point being, hopefully I stick to this language and get to know more about it. I wonder how my broca area looks like? Maybe its just the same as everyone else's.

I've always believe that learning as many language as I can is an important task for me. I don't really think that learning a language is memory process, but more of understanding. For example, my native language is Mandarin Chinese. However, I always got the feeling of I have no idea why I know English. It feels like a part of me instead of clusters of vocabulary. However, I'm talking German class right now. What the language appears to me is exactly a bunch of vocabulary I don't have any clue what they mean. I have to repeat them over and over again, trying to remember what they mean. So I think if you use a language for a long time, it's not a memory process anymore.

Wow, that's incredible. I'm betting that being fluent in 68 languages would probably require a biological difference between Krebs's brain and the average joe's, but Krebs obviously put a lot of work into knowing all of those languages. I had a teacher at my high school who could speak 9 languages fluently, actually.

I myself can speak English and Japanese fluently, and I can speak Spanish pretty well. I'm able to maintain my understanding of Japanese, since I speak it regularly at my house. Spanish on the other hand, I have not used since last year so I have forgotten some of the structures and vocabulary. In Emil Krebs case, he must be actively using each language if he claims he can speak and write in 68 languages. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to maintain the proficiency of multiple languages.

I am not bilingual, but I have taken three years of French in high school and junior high. I took two years of French in a row, then had to take a year off because of schedule conflicts, and then took my third year. However, I forgot almost all of the French I had learned during the year I didn't have a French class because I wasn't actively using my knowledge of that language. It was pretty difficult to learn one language other than English, let alone 68 other languages. I think it is amazing that one person can remember that many languages and is able to use them.

While it is surprising the capacity of people to learn new languages, it should not be overlooked that there are shortcuts. For example, many modern western languages come from the latin root. Therefore if one learned latin, it would not be very difficult to learn a multitude of other languages. Good post, made me think.

This is a really interesting post. I could not imagine knowing 68 languages. I think it is really hard to even learn one language, let alone 68. I never even knew it was possible for someone to learn that many languages. Good job!

The observation of Broca's Area is quite interesting. It seems to be logical for a connection between multiple languages and a unique Broca's Area. Something I would like to point out is the plasticity of the brain, especially at a young age. Perhaps Krebs was exposed to multiple languages or some other stimulus that caused his brain to dramatically alter Broca's Area. It seems far-fetched but anything is possible.

Wow, that is so amazing! I remember wondering as a kid what it would be like to know a foreign language. I thought it was so weird that people could speak two totally different sounding languages without getting them confused. This story is interesting, but I wonder how well he knew each of those languages and how they judged his fluency in each of them. I think we can train our brains to remember more than one language, but there may be people who have a greater propensity to learn another language. Below is a link to a department that does research in this area. I have a friend getting his Ph.D. there who studies second language acquisition. Great post, and thanks for sharing!

http://slat.arizona.edu/