Years ago, while in Brazil, we met a nineyear-old boy of average intelligence who could understand, read, and write nine languages rather fluently. Avi Roxannes was born in Cairo (French, Arabic, and English) and his (Turkish) grandfather lived with them. When he was four the family moved to Israel where Avi's (Spanish) grandmother on his father's side joined them. In Israel he learned three more languages (Hebrew, German, and Yiddish) and then at six years of age he moved to Brazil (Portuguese).

Since between them the parents speak as many languages as Avi does (but not individually), the Roxannes wisely carry on conversations with him in each of his nine tongues (individually where only one parent speaks a particular language, and collectively where they both do). Avi's parents are a good deal better linguists than most adults, having learned five languages each as children, but of course they are no match at all for Avi when it comes to English or Portuguese, which they learned as adults.