Emil Krebs: biography of this prodigious multilingualist

This German translator mastered at least 68 languages.

Many people claim to know dozens of languages, but very few actually master them.

While there are several people who have proven to know more than ten languages, one of the few known cases of polyglots with up to half a hundred languages is the German Emil Krebs. It has been said that he mastered 68 languages, and even took the trouble to learn up to 120 dialectal varieties of these languages.

His life is not at all boring, being held as a great example for those who wish to be able to break free from the barriers of monolingualism to the point that he is considered a savant. Let's get to know his interesting life and what he did to be able to speak so many languages, through this short biography of Emil Krebs.

Short biography of Emil Krebs

If mastering German, his mother tongue, is already considered by many as a real milestone given the difficulty of this Germanic language, possessing extensive knowledge of up to fifty languages of all kinds is already something breathtaking.

His life began like that of any other German child of the 19th century.But little by little, having contact with many languages, he became the story of an excellent sinologist, i.e. the one who knows about Chinese culture.

Early life and first contact with multilingualism

Emil Krebs was born in Freiburg Silesia, today Świebodzice, Poland, on November 15, 1867.on November 15, 1867, when this city was still in German territory. His family was not upper class, his father being a carpenter and his mother a housewife.

In 1870 he moved with his parents to Esdorf, where he attended elementary school. Between the years 1878 and 1880 he went to the Freiburger Realschule, a secondary school and, in the period from 1880 to 1887 he attended the lyceum of Schweidnitz.

The education he received in these centers was quite complete, having in his educational curriculum the learning of multiple languages besides German, among them classical Latin and Greek, French and Hebrew.

However, the desire to learn more languages led Krebs to study modern languages on his own. to study modern languages on his own, including GreekThese included modern Greek, English, Italian and, a little later in his life, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Polish and Arabic.

When he finished high school he enrolled at the University of Wroclaw for a summer semester course in theology. At that time he already had an advanced command of twelve languages.

Subsequently moved to the University of Berlin, where he studied law.. It was in that city that he was attracted to the newly founded Oriental Seminary, which offered courses in Asian languages.

The first Asian language he studied was Mandarin Chinese. The choice of this language was not accidental, since he was struck by the fact that it was known to be the most difficult language to learn, and he took it as a challenge to master it.

Having begun studying Chinese in 1887, in 1890 he passed the exam to graduate as an interpreter.In 1890, he passed the exam to graduate as a Chinese interpreter, with very good grades.

Over the next two years, Emil Krebs was able to acquire a level of Mandarin Chinese comparable to that of a native speaker with a thorough education in his mother tongue.

However, although the study of foreign languages was his greatest hobby, it did not keep him away from his studies in law.He also passed his university exams with good marks.

After completing his university studies, he was accepted as a student lawyer at the Gottesberg court and later in Berlin.

In 1893 he was accepted as an interpreter to travel to Beijing, China.China, thus beginning an important period of his life as a scholar of oriental cultures and training as a sinologist.

Trip to China

In 1893 Emil Krebs set foot in China for the first time, working for Germany in the eastern country until German-Chinese relations ended with the outbreak of the First World War.

During that time, Krebs worked as a diplomatic translator for German interests in Beijing and Qingdao.. Due to his fluency in Mandarin, the polyglot became increasingly popular with both German and native Chinese colleagues.

In 1897, two German missionaries were killed in Qingdao, causing the German Reich to interpret this as a perfect excuse to invade the region. Thus, Krebs, for a year and the following year, joined the occupation forces of Kiau Chiau.

Later, after the occupation, the polyglot became the region's leading interpreter.He became a close confidant of Empress Zishí, because the aristocrat was impressed by Krebs' writing in Chinese. In fact, Emil Krebs was invited on several occasions to the palace to have tea with the empress.

However, as great as his passion for Mandarin was, he also took advantage of his stay in Asia to learn Chinese. his stay in Asia to learn other oriental languages, among them Mongolian, Manchu and Tibetan, and he even took it upon himself to teach other languages.He even took it upon himself to teach Chinese officials languages from other parts of his own empire.

In 1913, while in Shanghai, Emil Krebs took another fellow German citizen in China, Mande Heyne, as his wife.

Years later, after gaining a great knowledge of the Chinese language and culture, Krebs had to leave the country due to the end of relations between China and Germany, when the First World War began in 1917. World War I in 1917..

In the conflict, China sided with the Triple Entente (France, United Kingdom and Russia), while Germany was on the opposing side, the Central Powers. It is for this reason that the Germans began to be harassed by the Chinese.

Return to Berlin

In 1917 Emil Krebs was forced to return to his native Germany. He was accepted as part of the German intelligence in Asian affairs.He was accepted as part of German intelligence in Asian affairs, taking charge of the codification of the language of the enemy for the duration of the war.

After the end of World War I, the polyglot continued to work in language-related jobs, translating and interpreting several languages for the German authorities.

In his spare time he continued to study languages, and was also curious about their dialectal varieties.

After a life in which he focused on mastering dozens of languages, he spoke no more and no less than 68 languages and, taking into account dialectal varieties, some 111, Emil Krebs died on March 31, 1930 in Berlin at the age of 62.

Study of his brain

After the death of this polyglot, scientists did not want to miss the opportunity to study the brain of the man who had mastered more than a hundred different forms of language. His brain was sent to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in Berlin, an institution that several years later, at the end of World War II, would be renamed the Max Planck Society.

In more recent times, in 2004, three scientists, Katrin Amunts, Karl Zilles and Axel Schleiche published a study on the brain of Emil Krebs a study on the brain of Emil Krebs, in which they revealed certain differences in his Broca's areawhich could be behind his great ability to learn to speak new languages.

Currently, Krebs' brain can be found at the University of Düsseldorf.

Curiosities

The life of Emil Krebs is full of curiosities that, although they have not been confirmed, if true, are a clear example of his abilities and personality when he was alive.

The first remarkable anecdote in the life of this polyglot was when he was still a young man. At that time he received an application form to attend the Oriental Language Seminary in Berlin. On this form he had to specify which language he wanted to study, but instead of specifying one, he answered only one, instead of specifying only one, he answered with "as many as there are"..

The form was not accepted at the first time, since the Seminary understood that Emil Krebs had not understood the instructions. It was necessary to resend it ten times before the Seminary finally accepted him and he was invited to come to Berlin.

Years later, when he was traveling in China, he received a letter from the Mongols, which he was able to translate without any problems. Subsequently, a Mongolian tribe asked him to come to Berlin, a Mongolian tribe asked him to translate some documents that had been written in the ancient Mongolian language, and Krebs was able to translate them.Krebs was able to carry out the task immediately.

Also while in Asia, Krebs made contact with people who spoke Chinese dialect varieties that had hitherto been little known to Europeans. Despite not having much information at his disposal, Krebs managed to understand some of these unknown dialects.

Another curiosity was that Emil Krebs once received one of the issues of the journal Argiaa Basque publication. In that issue it was stated that an American professor who had mastered 53 languages had just passed away.

After that, Krebs learned the four main dialects of the Basque language in just a few weeks, and sent a reply to Argia.and sent a reply to Argia. On this basis, the magazine itself decided to publish an article in honor of the polyglot, called "Young Basques! Take an example from Emil Krebs".

Finally, and as a discreditable curiosity, there is a method of language learning called the Krebs method.which honors the polyglot protagonist of this article. This method was not actually invented by Emil Krebs, but is rather a reinterpretation of how he studied and acquired proficiency in foreign languages.

It has been said that by means of this method one is able to master a language in just ten days, which has not really been demonstrated with sufficient empirical evidence.

Bibliographical references:

• Amunts, K., Schleicher, A., & Zilles, K. (2004). Outstanding language competence and cytoarchitecture in Broca's speech region. Brain and Language, 89(2). 346-353.