Sam Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Byrd Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > There are people of many nationalities who
> can
> > learn languages easily, and they often
> become
> > interpreters and translators. Their ability
> to
> > learn a new language does not reflect the
> > relationships of their original language to
> > anything else. Champolleon (who translated
> the
> > Rosetta Stone) knew 22 languages. But that
> > doesn't mean ancient Egyptian is related to
> > French.
> -------------------
> Apples and lug-nuts. Translating a written
> language verses acquiring an unknown, unwritten
> tongue verbally are not the same thing. Not to
> mention absorbing differing dialects on the fly.
>

On the contrary - I took that comment to mean some people learn languages extremely easily.
After some research, I'm thinking it's quite rare - almost into the 'urban legend' myth... except professional nuero-linguists are constantly seeking these people for study.
There is some correlation, it appears, with hyper activity in a certain section of the brain.

Consider these links for more information:
[en.wikipedia.org]
[en.wikipedia.org]
[www.michaelerard.com]

The anecdote of the grandfather who learned Thai in 2 weeks, or the provable incident of the savant Daniel learning Icelandic in a week, illustrate the point of quickly learning a new language... without learning to translate from the written form.

I had a friend in college that learned Japanese solely from Anime... in a single summer. He only spoke English and German before.

I have another friend who, though German born, travels the world as a mechanical engineer, living in various countries for 1-2 year stretches at a time. Every time, he makes a point of immersing himself in the culture and the language to the exclusion of any other language. He typically learns a new language to a conversational level in about 1-2 months, or less depending on the language. Last count, he was up to 17. Note that conversational isn't fluent, but is enough to get around and make yourself understood.


---
Some people believe in a human 'norm' and that the min/max beyond that doesn't range far. I don't believe in the 'norm' or 'median'... and I do believe that the max ranges as far as the minimum, but is far harder to find and prove because if the minimum is a vegetable then then the upper is a super-intelligent person who would quickly realize their danger and portray only a 'superior' intelligence, not a 'vastly superior' intelligence... and that extends to the hyper intelligent that wouldn't like being tested/probed... like the anecdote from Michael Erard above about the character N.

Your Arab, I believe, was either a hyperpolyglot or one of the exceptionally gifted at learning a new language. There were other Hebraic and Arabic speakers in the New world between all of the colonial powers... did any of them learn the language of the natives as quickly and easily?