A Carpet Cleaner who Speaks 24 Languages: Clues to Linguistic Intelligence

Recently The Washington Post ran an article (link here) about a man who cleans carpets for a living—and who speaks 24 languages! Since most Americans struggle to master more than one language—this feat seems remarkable to us. Perhaps it would be slightly less remarkable if we lived in Europe, where much of the population is bilingual or even multi-lingual… and where English-as-a-second language is increasingly taken for granted. But once one goes beyond 4-5 languages, we would expect such multilingual skill to be present chiefly among individuals whose stock-in-trade is speaking or writing—and not someone who earns his living in a household trade. 

In spending time with Vaughan Smith, the reporter Jessica Contrera, learned that Smith remembers names, dates, and sounds far better than most persons. As a youth, he found fascinating the existence of multiple languages, and always wanted to know what particular messages meant. He also could remember what he read much better than most of his classmates. And yet, he only completed high school and since then has had various odd jobs. Learning languages is a hobby—not related in any significant way to his livelihood. 

When Smith came to the attention of scientists at MIT, they wanted to determine whether there is anything unusual about his brain. There is! 

But it is entirely different from what I—and, I suspect, most others—would have supposed. Rather than having larger areas of the brain devoted to language... and rather than the language areas being particularly active—MRI revealed the opposite pattern. Malik-Moraleda, a researcher working under neuroscientist Evelina Fedorenko, explains “Vaughan needs less oxygen to be sent to those regions of his brain that process language when he is speaking in his native language.. He uses language so much, he’s become really efficient in using those areas for the production of language” 

On almost any definition of the phrase, we can say that Vaughan Smith has exceptional linguistic intelligence. And clearly, there is a brain basis for his talent. And yet, for reasons which remain to be explicated, it’s in the way that he uses his brain—or his brain uses him—that makes him outstanding. 

And this may be true in other kinds of intelligence—perhaps musically gifted individuals also use their brain real estate far more efficiently. 

I can add that mastery of language is certainly a key component of linguistic intelligence. But how one uses that skill, that talent, the intelligence can vary enormously. Poets, novelists, journalists, comedians, scholars, lawyers all benefit from significant linguistic intelligence—but how that is represented in the mind—and in the brain—and in the world of practice—remains an unexplored area. 

Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash