10 PEOPLE THAT WOKE UP SPEAKING ANOTHER LANGUAGE

Language, something that we take for granted sometimes. Being able to wake up and communicate to our loved ones is second nature. But what happens one day if you wake up to find that you suddenly speak a different language? From brain injuries, to paranormal experiences, we take you on a journey to different parts of the world to uncover what actually happened to ten people who did wake up speaking a different language. For some, it allowed them to find love, for others it ended in heartbreak and even death. As the great Nelson Mandela said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”.

1. The Welsh Sailor

An unnamed Welsh sailor found himself to be the centre of a case study in 1895 after suddenly experiencing bizarre episodes. He would wake up speaking English, a language that was foreign to the Welsh sailor and puzzled those around him. Dr Lewis Bruce, a physician at the time investigated the sailor’s case and found that the sailor was experiencing episodes of disassociation. He would have episodes where he would only speak in English and have no memory of it and at other times speak Welsh and have no memory of those times either. It was as if he were living two different lives. People who were around him during these episodes believed that he only spoke one language and were therefore shocked to hear him suddenly speak a different one. Yet, he was bilingual all along. His bilingualism had gone unnoticed due to his psychiatric issues. Dr Bruce, who worked at the Royal Asylum in Edinburgh published a brain study that mentioned the Welsh sailor and what he endured due to his psychiatric illness.

2. Medical Mystery?

In 2010, Dr Steven Novella, a renowned clinical neurologist took to his blog to debunk the latest neurological case that was dubbed a “medical mystery”. The mainstream media at that time had run a story about a thirteen-year girl from Croatia who suddenly started speaking German after waking up from a 24-hour coma. The cause for the coma was unknown, with some believing it was due to a high temperature. It seemed that the media had sensationalized the story and that the girl had actually studied German in school. The medical explanation was that the language centre in her brain had been damaged and was simply finding the best route to access information which happened to be in German, a language that she did have some knowledge off. Her German did not appear out of nowhere as it was reported at the time.

3. “¡Si Señor!”

Rueben Nsemoh, a sixteen-year-old teenager, put into a coma from a soccer related injury woke up to a strange world. Not only was he a fan of soccer but he now suddenly spoke the language of the country so enamored with the sport. After suffering from a concussion, Rueben from Georgia could no longer speak English. Instead, it was found that he could speak Spanish fluently. His family reported that he was a monolingual English speaker and was therefore surprised. His only exposure to Spanish came from listening to family and friends. It may seem like something that is quite peculiar, yet there is an explanation. Professor Berit Brogaard explains that after a brain injury, there may be parts of the brain that become active to compensate for other parts of the brain that was injured. This can result in a memory boost that can suddenly bring dormant memories to the surface, which may explain why Rueben suddenly became fluent in a language that he previously had little exposure to. We explore another case of Professor Berit Brogaard in number 4

4. A Beautiful Mind

Professor Brogaard (mentioned in number 3) has a background of Neuroscience and Philosophy. In her book, The Superhuman Mind she makes mention of a case similar to Reuben Nsemoh. She tells the story of a woman named Leigh Erceg who whilst feeding her chickens fell and sustained a head injury. After her recovery, she began to display unique talents that were not present before her injury. She became more creative and was suddenly able to pick up foreign languages really quickly and was even able to speak languages that she had last been exposed to as a child. Just like Reuben, brain circuits that were previously dormant, suddenly became active allowing her to access the languages. She embraced her new life by painting, writing poetry, and allowing her new creative lifestyle to flourish. Needless to say, she did not go back to chicken farming.

5. Language Lost

Hannah Jenkins from UK was cycling when she collided with another cyclist resulting in a head injury. She woke up not being able to understand or speak any English and felt as though she was suddenly in a foreign world. The doctors were baffled as her identification indicated that she was British and that she spoke English, yet she could not understand nor speak any English. The language that she could only understand and speak was German. This was only made known once her sister arrived and was able to translate for Hannah. Both women had grown up in a multilingual family and speaking German was only reserved for speaking to family. Hannah found this quite challenging as she had become accustomed to speaking English predominantly. It was as if all the English she had ever learnt suddenly seemed to have disappeared. Her partner was baffled as he knew her to be a first language English speaker and their communication after her accident was very different. Hannah has to basically relearn English. Her condition is known as secondary language loss and happens when the language part of the brain is affected resulting in functions being partially or fully lost.

6. Finding Love

Ben McMahon, from Australia, was one of those lucky people who found love by being “at a loss for words”. In his case however, he literally could not find the words due to a brain injury caused by a motor vehicle accident. Ben could not speak English for three days and instead began to speak Mandarin fluently. It seemed that his brain used the knowledge from his high school Mandarin classes to fill in the gaps that enabled him to become adept at the language. And it was through this amazing language that he found love, on a Chinese dating show of all places! He and contestant Ms Feng Guo were engaged in a long-distance romance as of 2016. Ben has made a name for himself due to his Mandarin skills as has used it to further his career and has even founded a Melbourne-based Mandarin walking tour company.

7. Voilà!

In this list, we have seen many cases of people affected by brain injuries who woke up speaking a different language, but what about an overnight personality change? This was the case for an Italian man only known as “JC”. His disorder (compulsive foreign language syndrome) was so publicised due to his complete transformation from that of an Italian man to a French man. He did not just speak French, but became French in all aspects: his mannerism, speech patterns, preferences, and even cuisine, much to the befuddlement of his Italian family. Just as a person can become obsessive as seen in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), it seems that a person with a brain injury can also become obsessed over a language as indicated by researchers.

8. Swedish Suicide

In 2013, Michael Boatwright from California was discovered unconscious in a Florida motel room. He woke up speaking Swedish and having no memory of his previous life. It seems that he travelled to Sweden as a young man and due to Transient Global Amnesia, this was the only part of his life that he could remember. Transient Global Amnesia is supposed to resolve within a few hours but in his case it continued and he could not even remember having a son. Looking for answers, Michael found himself moving to Sweden and living as a completely new person, Johan Ek. Sadly, he committed suicide in April 2014. It seemed that his loneliness at finding himself in a world in which he truly did know who he was drove him to ending his life.

9. Xenoglossia

An American housewife under hypnosis suddenly wakes up and introduces herself as Gretchen, a German woman. To those around her, it was believed that she was channeling an alter and it was a dubbed a miracle. The man behind the miracle was Ian Stevenson, a Professor of Psychiatry and Parapsychology. He was known for his theories about Xenoglossia. Xenoglossia is the ability to para-normally acquire the ability to speak, write, or understand a language previously unknown. Stevenson presented cases that seemed “miraculous” but was actually later debunked by scholar Sarah Grey. She discovered that he would manipulate data to support his claims. In this case, it turned out that “Gretchen” was an attempt to please her ailing husband and that she had been slowly learning German in private. Her “fluency” was actually just her simple grasp of the language and that the miracle was simply good acting on her part.

10. Gaelic Knight

Another Xenoglossia case debunked by Sarah Grey was that of unnamed hypnosis patient, Subject B. He believed that he was channelling Sir Guy de Maupassant, a 14th Century knight who was communicating from a past life. The man believed that he was and communicating in a Gaelic dialect and that this was proof of his channeling a spirit. People around him, unfamiliar with the language believed that he was indeed Sir Guy de Maupassant. After Sarah Grey conducted linguistic analysis, it was found that Subject B was actually just speaking Church Latin with French distortions. He spoke both Church Latin and French fluently and had assembled a language out of these two that resembled the Gaelic dialect.