Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / September 2006

All depends on how you interpret the "to"
in the original post.

When Heinrich Schliemann was about to become
one of the first modern Westerners to learn Russian,
a feat many told him was not humanly possible,
he could not find anybody to learn from. Finally,
he hired some poor devil just to have somebody
to talk to, in [his attempts at] Russian. It worked!

This was the first time that hired man had ever
heard the language of Ivan the Terrible.

Cheers,
L.