I worked with a flight attendant who spoke 14 languages. His brother spoke 22. Their parents were Swiss and I think they worked for the UN, so they grew up all over the world.
He was absolutely amazing. He spoke Swahili, Turkish, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian- just unbelievable! He actually got furloughed and I don’t know where he is now. I can’t believe my company let him go!
You’d think he’d be an asset in any multinational company, banking, finance, shipping, trading, translating.
The Swiss have for some time had a rep for learning languages; I recall reading that people who learn a second language before age 12 or so find it easier to learn a third, fourth, etc, later on in life.