Who knows the most languages? Which of the polyglots around the world knows (or knew) the most languages? Set yourself a clear goal

Have you ever heard what a person who knows many languages ​​is called? Of course, each of us has seen such people and was always surprised by this gift. Or maybe he was even jealous of their abilities. Some people need such skills for work, while others just want to travel with ease, while communicating freely with local residents and feel at ease.

A person who keeps in his arsenal the knowledge of five or more foreign languages ​​is called - polyglot.

Secrets of polyglots or how to learn so many languages?

So, now we have found out that a person who knows many languages ​​is called a polyglot. Perhaps they have secrets in stock that allow them to possess such a wealth of knowledge? Let's take a look:

• There is no gift from above (although, in certain cases, there is a place to be), all these people achieved success solely through everyday hard work;
• Without willpower and perseverance, nothing will come of it either; you must have a great desire and take small steps towards your aspiration;
• The trick here is that studying each next language It will come out much faster and easier. Many groups of languages ​​are very similar.

Polyglots have well-developed hearing. Writers and musicians, as a rule, know many foreign languages.

What you need to do in order to know many languages ​​- basic things

• It is important to create your own study plan. At first, professional help will not hurt. Then it is already possible to cope on your own by determining the most suitable scheme for yourself;
• Ability to pronounce correctly. Separate exercises are suitable for this. A person who knows many languages, a polyglot, will definitely develop this skill;
• Good memory. Even if you don’t remember everything “on the fly” - thanks to diligent work, quick memorization will rapidly develop.

Fun fact: 22% of people around the world speak 3-4 languages ​​very well. But, only at a conversational level.

We already know what a person who knows many languages ​​is called. Who are they - the world's most famous polyglots:

• The man who entered the Guinness Book of Records, Giuseppe Casper Mezzeofanti, was the keeper of libraries in the Vatican, spoke fluently in 60 languages, and wrote poetry in 50 of them.
• Willie Melnikov served in Afghanistan and, by coincidence, received a shell shock. Having recovered, he discovered his ability to study languages. He was able to write poems in 93 languages. How many languages ​​he could converse in is still a mystery.
• This may surprise you, but the well-known Queen Cleopatra spoke 10 languages!
• Russian writer Alexander Griboyedov already knew 9 languages ​​in his youth.
• Istavan Dabi, writer from Hungary. Throughout his life he managed to master more than 100 dialects.

And the list can be continued for a very long time!

Knowing another language not only allows you to communicate with foreigners, travel and receive more money, but also expands the capabilities of the brain, delays senile dementia and increases the ability to concentrate. Read on and you will understand why.

Famous polyglots

It is known that Leo Tolstoy spoke and read fluently French, English and German languages, read in Czech, Italian and Polish, and had a passable command of Ukrainian, Greek, Church Slavonic and Latin. In addition, the writer was engaged studying Turkish, Dutch, Hebrew and Bulgarian languages.

We assume that he did this not at all in order to boast of his abilities or to be able to talk with a foreigner, but for the development mental abilities, and simply because he could not remain idle, live at least a day without mental labor. Until his old age, Tolstoy worked, joyfully communicated with every person and thought deeply about many phenomena.

Other famous polyglots: Empress Catherine II (5 languages), statesman commander Bogdan Khmelnitsky (5 languages), inventor Nikola Tesla (8 languages), writer Alexander Griboedov (9 languages), Pope John Paul II (10 languages) and writer Anthony Burgess (12 languages).

It should be noted that there are a lot of polyglots among scientists, and especially linguists. The capabilities of the human brain are demonstrated by people who know several dozen languages ​​and dialects. Thus, our contemporary Willy Melnikov, research fellow, knows more than 100 languages Russian Institute virology, and the professor at the University of Copenhagen, linguist Rasmus Konstantin Rask spoke 230 languages ​​(and knew their grammar and linguistics perfectly).

English as a brain trainer

In 2013, an experiment was conducted at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) to test the ability to concentrate among 38 monolingual and 60 bilingual people under the age of 19. It is unclear whether young people learned a language because they could concentrate or acquired this ability because of the language, but the fact is that people who know two languages ​​performed better, regardless of when they started learning or in high school.

If we theoretically accept language learning for the cause, and the ability to concentrate for the effect, this can be explained this way: when the brain needs to adapt to a second language, it must concentrate on the most important and discard the unnecessary. This helps you quickly translate the necessary phrases in your mind and more accurately understand your interlocutor, without being distracted by unfamiliar words, but perceiving the entire phrase.

But the ability to concentrate is not the only “bonus” for a polyglot. Scientists have concluded that tension in certain lobes of the brain at any age contributes to the formation of new neural connections and their adaptation to existing chains. Moreover, this happens both in childhood and in young or adulthood.

The above is confirmed by an experiment conducted at a translator academy in Sweden. Newly admitted students were offered learning foreign languages high complexity (Russian, Arabic or Dari language). The language had to be studied every day for many hours. At the same time, scientists monitored the students medical university, who studied just as hard. At the beginning and end of the experiment (after 3 months), participants in both groups underwent MRI of the brain. It turned out that among students who studied medicine, the brain structure did not change, but among those who intensively mastered language, the part of the brain responsible for the acquisition of new knowledge (the hippocampus), long-term memory and spatial orientation increased in size.

Finally, or anyone else language has a positive effect on the preservation of mental abilities in old age. This was confirmed by the results of a study that lasted from 1947 to 2010. 853 study participants took an intelligence test at the beginning and end of the experiment, 63 years later. People who knew two or more languages ​​showed higher mental and mental abilities than their peers who had spoken only in English their whole lives. native language. Overall, their brain health was better than what is considered normal at that age.

Important conclusions can be drawn from these studies:

1. Our brain needs exercise just like our muscles and ligaments. If we want to maintain good mental abilities into old age, we need to constantly occupy our mind with something. And one of the most effective means is foreign languages.
2. A well-functioning brain almost always means a fuller and more happy life, and for sure – success in life. Therefore, if we need to achieve wealth, self-realization and the respect of people, it is necessary to study languages ​​or, if we already know how to read a foreign language, start in-depth study English language and learn to communicate freely with its carriers.
3. It doesn’t matter at all when we start learning a foreign language: at any age, the brain is rebuilt, new neural connections are formed in it, as well as an increase in its individual parts, which leads to a more complete perception of reality, increased mental abilities, including memorization and concentration.

On October 7, the outstanding linguist, semiotician, anthropologist Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov passed away

IN Yacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov is a truly legendary figure. He belonged to that rare type of scientists today who can confidently be called encyclopedists. Few can compare with him in the scope of cultures, in the variety of interdisciplinary connections identified in his semiotic and cultural studies. It is difficult to name a humanities science to which he did not make one contribution or another. He is the author of more than one and a half dozen books and more than 1,200 articles on linguistics, literary criticism and a number of related humanities, many of which have been translated into Western and Eastern languages.

Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich was born on August 21, 1929 in Moscow in the family of the writer Vsevolod Ivanov, a man with a wide range of interests, a connoisseur of poetry and oriental cultures, a bibliophile who paid great attention to the comprehensive education of his son. Already in our time, Vyacheslav Ivanov recalled: “I was lucky, simply because of my family, because of my parents and their friends, to be in the circle of many remarkable people since childhood,” who had a significant influence on the development of the young man. And it is no coincidence that a significant part of it scientific research dedicated to people he knew since childhood.

He constantly turned to Russian literature of the 20th century, with which, so to speak, he was connected by family ties. He is occupied by the relationship between poetic manifestos and the artistic practice of representatives of the Russian literary avant-garde, parallels and connections between writers who remained in Russia and writers of the Russian diaspora. Ivanov is particularly interested in the biography of Maxim Gorky, whom he knew as a child and saw more than once. In their historical essays Ivanov seeks to understand the history of relations between writers and authorities in Soviet period. He was interested in informal literature Stalin era, recent years Gorky's life and the circumstances of his death, the relationship between Stalin and Eisenstein.

Cuneiform and semiotics

In 1946, after graduating from school, Ivanov entered the Romance-Germanic department of the Faculty of Philology of Moscow state university, which he graduated in 1951.

And already in 1955 Ivanov defended candidate's thesis on the topic “Indo-European roots in the cuneiform Hittite language and the features of their structure”, which made such an impression on the academic council of Moscow State University that it considered the dissertation worthy of a doctorate - this happens in mathematics, but extremely rarely happens in the humanities. However, the Higher Attestation Commission did not approve the doctoral degree under a far-fetched pretext. And the new defense was hampered due to Ivanov’s participation in human rights activities. Only in 1978 did he manage to defend his doctorate at Vilnius University.

After completing his graduate studies, Ivanov was retained at the department at Moscow State University, where he taught ancient languages ​​and taught courses in comparative historical linguistics and introduction to linguistics. But the scope of a traditional academic career was narrow for him. In 1956–1958, Ivanov, together with the linguist Kuznetsov and the mathematician Uspensky, led a seminar on the application of mathematical methods in linguistics. In fact, he stood at the origins of a new discipline that arose in those years - mathematical linguistics, to which he later devoted many of his works.

And then he showed his stormy social temperament, expressing disagreement with

Ivanov, together with the linguist Kuznetsov and the mathematician Uspensky, led a seminar on the application of mathematical methods in linguistics. In fact, he stood at the origins of a new discipline that arose in those years - mathematical linguistics

By attacking Boris Pasternak’s novel “Doctor Zhivago” and supporting scientific views Roman Yakobson. And for this in 1959 he was fired from Moscow State University. This decision was officially canceled by the university leadership only in 1989.

So that today’s reader can appreciate the courage of Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich’s behavior, we note that in those years he, apparently, was almost the only one who allowed himself to openly express his disagreement with the defamation of Pasternak.

But the dismissal, in a certain sense, played a positive role both in the fate of Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich and in the fate of science. Ivanov led the group machine translation Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Science of the USSR Academy of Sciences. And then he became the creator and first chairman of the linguistic section of the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences on cybernetics, headed by academician Axel Ivanovich Berg. Ivanov’s participation in the preparation of the problem note “Issues of Soviet science. General Issues of Cybernetics" under the leadership of Berg played a big role in the history of Russian science. Based on the proposals contained in this note, the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences adopted a resolution on May 6, 1960 “On the development of structural and mathematical methods of language research.” Thanks to this, numerous machine translation laboratories, sectors of structural linguistics and structural typology of languages ​​in academic institutions, departments of mathematical, structural and applied linguistics in several universities in the country were created. Ivanov participated in the compilation curricula and programs of the department of structural and applied linguistics of the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, and in 1961 he gave a plenary report on mathematical linguistics at the All-Union Mathematical Congress in Leningrad.

He played an extremely important role in the development of domestic and world semiotics.

The works of Vyacheslav Ivanov on the subject of semiotics laid the general ideological basis for semiotic research in the USSR and received worldwide fame Moscow-Tartu semiotic school

Symposium on Structural Studies sign systems, organized by the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences on Cybernetics. The preface to the abstracts of the symposium written by Ivanov actually became a manifesto of semiotics as a science. Many experts believe that the symposium, together with the subsequent surge in research, produced a “semiotic revolution” in the field of all humanities in our country.

Ivanov’s works on the subject of semiotics laid the general ideological foundation for semiotic research in the USSR and the world-famous Moscow-Tartu semiotic school.

Humanitarian precision

Ivanov was constantly interested in the connection between linguistics and other sciences, especially the natural ones. In the 1970s–1980s he took active participation in experiments conducted in contact with neurophysiologists on the localization of semantic operations in various parts of the brain. He saw his task as creating a unified picture of knowledge so that, as he said, “ humanities were not such outcasts compared to those flourishing sciences that use precise methods.” Therefore, it is no coincidence that he is interested in the personalities of major natural scientists, to whom he devotes separate essays: geologist Vladimir Vernadsky, radio engineer Axel Berg, astrophysicist Joseph Shklovsky, cyberneticist Mikhail Tsetlin.

It is no coincidence that Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich saw similarities between linguistics and mathematics, emphasizing the mathematical rigor of phonetic laws and the closeness of the laws of language functioning and natural science laws.

Ivanov's linguistic interests were extremely diverse. This common problems genealogical classification of world languages ​​and Indo-European studies, Slavic linguistics and ancient languages ​​of extinct peoples of the Mediterranean in their relation to North Caucasian languages, languages ​​of the aborigines of Siberia and Far East, Aleutian language, Bamileke and some other African languages. He said about himself: “I am not a polyglot at all, although I speak all European languages. I can read like a hundred. But it's not that difficult."

But he not only studied languages. His track record includes dozens of translations of poems, stories, journalistic articles and scientific works With different languages peace.

He said about himself: “I am not a polyglot at all, although I speak all European languages. I can read like a hundred. But it's not that difficult." But Ivanov not only studied languages. His track record includes dozens of translations of poems, stories, journalistic articles and scientific works from various languages ​​of the world.

Thanks to the works of Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov in the mid-1950s, Indo-European studies was actually revived in our country, one of the outstanding achievements of which was the monograph “ Indo-European language and Indo-Europeans. Reconstruction and historical-typological analysis of proto-language and proto-culture”, created jointly with Tamaz Gamkrelidze. This book was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1988 and caused great resonance throughout the world.

For more than half a century, starting in 1954, Ivanov systematically sums up current state linguistic comparative studies in the form of an updated version of the genealogical classification of the world's languages. Since the 1970s, this scheme has included kinship at the Nostratic level, and since the 1980s, Dene-Caucasian kinship. And each time it turns out that we are closer and closer to proving the hypothesis about the monogenesis of human languages, that is, about their origin from a single source, since more and more new connections are being discovered between language families.

From 1989 until recently, Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich was the director of the Institute of World Culture of Moscow State University. Since 1992 - professor of the department Slavic languages and Literature from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Since 2003 - director of the Russian Anthropological School at the Russian State University for the Humanities. Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich - Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the American Academy of Sciences and Arts.

In recent years, Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich had a hard time experiencing problems Russian science. In one of his last speeches he said: “I am surprised lately I read all sorts of attacks on our science and its current situation. Believe me, I have been reading every day for more than a year what is written on this topic on the Internet in serious messages and in the scientific press. And the main thing is still a discussion of the works of our scientists, who enjoy worldwide fame and recognition anywhere, but not in our country... But I am sure that it is not the lack of money that is given to science, although this, of course, takes place, some minor troubles like the wrong exam form, but a much more significant thing is happening: science, literature, art, culture in our country have ceased to be the main thing to be proud of. It seems to me that the task that my generation was partly trying to accomplish was that we wanted to achieve a change in this situation, and to some extent, maybe some of us did.”

On October 7, Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich passed away.

ANDmagazine “Science and Life” (No. 3, 2006)
How many languages ​​can a person learn?

Cardinal Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti spoke 39 languages ​​and 50 dialects fluently, although he never traveled outside Italy. Born into the family of a poor carpenter in Bologna. While still at the church school, I learned Latin, ancient Greek, Spanish and German, and from the school teachers - former missionaries in Central and South America- learned several Indian languages. Mezzofanti shone in other subjects and graduated from school ahead of schedule, so that due to his youth he could not be ordained a priest. While waiting for this sacrament for several years, he learned a number of Oriental and Middle Eastern languages. During Napoleonic wars served as a chaplain in a hospital, where he “picked up” several more European languages ​​from the wounded and sick. For many years he was the chief curator of the Vatican Library, where he also expanded his linguistic knowledge.

In October 2003, Dick Hudson, professor of linguistics at University College London, received a email interesting letter. The author of the letter belatedly stumbled upon a question asked by Hudson several years earlier on a linguistic forum on the Internet: which polyglot holds the world record for the number of languages? And he answered: perhaps it was my grandfather.

The author of the letter, who lives in the United States and asked not to use his last name in print or on the Internet, reported that his grandfather, an Italian who emigrated from Sicily to America in the tenth years of the last century, never attended school, but learned foreign languages ​​with extraordinary ease. By the end of his life, the previously illiterate Sicilian spoke 70 world languages ​​and could read and write 56 of them.

When this phenomenon arrived in New York, he was 20 years old; he got a job as a porter at a railway station, and his work constantly brought him into contact with people of different nationalities. This is how his interest in languages ​​began.

Apparently, things went well for the young porter with unusual linguistic abilities, so that, as his grandson reports, in the 50s of the last century, he and his grandfather made a six-month trip around the world. And in every country - and they visited Venezuela, Argentina, Norway, England, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Africa, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan - grandfather spoke to the locals in their language.

It is curious that the travelers spent two weeks in Thailand. The polyglot grandfather did not know Thai, but by the end of his stay he was already bargaining in Thai at the bazaar. His grandson, later serving in the American army, spent a year and a half in Thailand and mastered some of the local language. When he returned to the United States, he discovered that his grandfather knew Thai better than him.

The grandson of the polyglot told the professor that this was not the first time in their family that they knew multiple languages. Great-grandfather and his brother spoke more than a hundred languages.

Other correspondents of Professor Hudson reminded him of such outstanding personalities as the Italian Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti (1774-1849), who knew 72 languages ​​and spoke 39 of them fluently. Or the Hungarian translator Kato Lomb (1909-2003), who spoke 17 languages ​​and could read another 11 (see Science and Life No. 8, 1978). Or the German Emil Krebs (1867-1930), who spoke 60 languages ​​fluently (for example, he learned Armenian in nine weeks).

According to some reports, the 19th century German scientist Friedrich Engels knew 24 languages.

For such phenomena, Professor Hudson coined the term “hyperpolyglots.” This includes everyone who speaks six or more languages. Why exactly six? Because in some areas of the Earth, almost one hundred percent of the population speaks up to five languages ​​fluently. So, in Switzerland there are four state languages, and many Swiss know all four, plus English.

Linguists, psychologists and neuroscientists are interested in such people. Do hyperpolyglots have any special brains, and if so, what is this feature? Or is it ordinary people with average brains, who have achieved unusual results thanks to a lucky coincidence of circumstances, personal interest and hard work? For example, Heinrich Schliemann learned 15 languages, since he needed languages ​​both as an international businessman and as an amateur archaeologist. It is believed that Cardinal Mezzofanti once learned a rare language for Italy in one night, since in the morning he had to accept confession from a foreign criminal sentenced to death.

The existence of people who know several dozen languages ​​is often disputed by skeptics. So, on the same forum on the Internet, one of the participants writes: “Could Mezzofanti know 72 languages? How long would it take to study them? If we assume that each language has 20 thousand words (an underestimate) and that capable person remembers one word in a minute, the first time he heard or saw it, then even then it would take five and a half years of continuous study for 12 hours a day to learn 72 languages. Is this possible? And, let’s add, even having learned 72 languages, how much time a day should you spend on maintaining them in working tone?

But some linguists believe that there is nothing impossible about this. Thus, Suzanne Flynn from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) believes that there are no limits to the human brain’s ability to learn new languages; only a lack of time can interfere. Steven Pinker from Harvard University (USA) also believes that there is no theoretical limit, unless similar languages ​​in one head begin to interfere with each other. It's just a matter of a person's desire.

Other researchers, however, believe that the hyperpolyglot's brain has some special features. This assumption is supported by the fact that extraordinary abilities for languages ​​are often associated with left-handedness, difficulties with spatial orientation and some other mental characteristics.

The brain of the German hyperpolyglot Krebs, who served as a translator at the German Embassy in China, is preserved in a collection of brains of outstanding people. It shows slight differences from the normal brain in the area that controls speech. But whether these differences were innate or appeared after the owner of this brain learned 60 languages ​​is unknown.

IN modern society It is considered normal to own two or three foreign languages. Some countries have several official languages, for example, Switzerland has four. And many Swiss own all four. We know examples from history when a person spoke and wrote fluently in more than ten languages. But there are relatively few such people. Polyglots (from the Greek poly - many and glotta - language) are people who speak four languages. Hyperpolyglots, on the other hand, can learn a much larger number of languages ​​without much effort. Maybe these people have some kind of superpowers?

Modern scientists do not think so. Nowadays, a lot of experiments are being conducted to study the capabilities of the human brain. And some results have already been published. Scientists have come to the conclusion that speaking a large number of languages ​​is not an anomaly, but rather the norm of the capabilities of the human brain. Brain ordinary person“stressed” by only ten percent, whereas he can work ten times more efficiently and assimilate up to 90% of the information received. It all depends on the training. Professor Nagorov, director of the Research Institute of Psychology and Development of Abilities, claims that in a few hours you can study the volume of “Capital” by Karl Marx - a rather weighty book. All you need is constant training for this! Did hyperpolyglots know about this?

Heinrich Schliemann, who became famous as an outstanding linguist and hyperpolyglot, during his lifetime
was known as an outstanding businessman and archaeologist. He took up studying languages ​​for his own pleasure and even invented own method teachings. As a result, he knew fifteen languages ​​well, which, by the way, was very useful to him in negotiating with foreigners.

Cardinal Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti was fluent in 60 languages ​​and could translate from 114 languages. At the same time, while still in church school, he learned four languages: Latin, ancient Greek, Spanish and German.

The Belgian architectural engineer Johan Vandewalle has become a textbook example of linguistics textbooks - he knows 31 languages ​​and does not consider that he has any linguistic abilities.

Were hyperpolyglots famous writer Leo Tolstoy, poetess Lesya Ukrainka, translator and writer Kato Lomb, She spoke 15 languages, and mastered them very quickly and began studying in adulthood.

Among historical figures Catherine II and Queen Cleopatra are noted for speaking several languages.
And all these people did not attach much importance to the fact that they had studied so many languages. Maybe it was easy for them? This is quite possible, as is the fact that they were sincerely interested in learning languages ​​and worked hard.

Thus, Steven Pinker from Harvard University (USA) and Suzanne Flynn from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe that preventing the study large quantity languages ​​in the presence of a conscious desire can only be a lack of time and the fact that similar languages ​​will begin to get confused in the head of their speaker.
(On the other hand, how long would it take to endlessly repeat these languages?)
Interesting story Linguistics professor Dick Hudson learned about the hyperpolyglot. He once asked a question on a linguistic forum about which of the hyperpolyglots knew the greatest number of languages ​​and, much belatedly, received an answer from the grandson of an amazingly gifted man who, by the end of his life, knew 70 languages. The author of the letter asked the scientist not to publish the name of his grandfather, since he lived in America and achieved a lot, but in his youth he was completely uneducated. The young man emigrated from Sicily at the beginning of the last century. He didn't even have primary education, never studied anywhere, but his ability to master languages ​​was simply phenomenal.

Arriving in New York, he worked as a porter at the station. It would be difficult to imagine a more fertile environment for the development of his abilities. Every day, coming to work, he inevitably encountered carriers of the most different languages. This served as the basis for his future hobby. The grandson of an outstanding polyglot spoke in a letter about a very long journey with his grandfather across different countries. Together they visited
Venezuela, Argentina, Norway, England, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Africa, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan. And what’s most interesting is that in each of these countries, grandfather spoke to people in their native language. Later, the grandson of an outstanding polyglot, he had to spend a year and a half in Thailand while serving in the American army. When he returned home, he discovered that his grandfather knew Thai better than him, although he spent only two weeks in Thailand during their trip together.
Dick Hudson coined the term "hyperpolyglots" to refer to people who speak more than five languages, since some countries have four official languages. The majority of the population speaks them fluently, and even English.

Linguistic teachers believe that it is possible to help a person who decides to learn a foreign language. To do this, they offer a number of techniques. You can start learning a language by listening to the teacher speak or special recordings with educational texts. Recently, the immersion method has become widely used, during which a person invents for himself new biography and “lives” in it for some time in order to feel like a native speaker of another language. But even with this high level development of linguistics, for some reason hyperpolyglots are still a rarity, although logically they should be encountered at every step.

In this regard, some scientists suggest some special brain structure in hyperpolyglots. That is, they recognize the tendency to study languages ​​as something like a genius that is present in a person from birth. They associate innate linguistic talent with such external signs such as left-handedness and violation of spatial orientation mechanisms.

There is a collection of brains of outstanding people, one of the notable exhibits of which is the brain of the famous German hyperpolyglot Krebs. He was a translator at the German Embassy in China. His brain is different from the average person's in the area that controls speech. But scientists cannot determine the nature of these features: are they congenital or acquired towards the end of his life, when Krebs learned 60 languages.