This is just a short one - I encountered this guy twice, and he didn't seem to have a very good memory because he couldn't remember meeting me previously, despite it only being an hour or so ago.
His name was Carl and I'm not sure how old he was; he could have been 30, 40 or 50, I don't know. I also don't know what was 'wrong' with him - a smattering of autism? tourrettes? - he had tics and obsessions. He spoke like it wasn't a very easy physical process and his body moved awkwardly. I was with a French man and an Italian woman when I met him. When he realised that was where they were from, he started saying words in those languages. He later did the same thing to a Chinese speaker. It was a really interesting insight into someone who comes across like their intellect is somehow not fully operational, like their body, but he retains all these bits of languages.
He said something to me which was slightly hard to make out, but the jist of it was that if you read and work too much, your brain burns out. I wonder if that's what happened to him.
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