Emil Krebs, an early-20th-century German diplomat who was also credited with knowing dozens of languages, was boorish in all of them. He once refused to speak to his wife for several months because she told him to put on a winter coat.
Hyperpolyglots (those who speak very many languages) can be tricky characters. Some seem near-autistic. What drives people to learn 20, 30 or 40 languages, and what kind of extreme intelligence is required?

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