Yep. Seems like treating it as a sensation is the side effect of monolingual Anglo culture where learning more than a handful of words in a [non-English] second

Yep. Seems like treating it as a sensation is the side effect of monolingual Anglo culture where learning more than a handful of words in a [non-English] second language is seen as a quirky intellectual pursuit, not something the majority of humans in the world do as part of their basic education or out of necessity, irrespective of their general cognitive ability and standard of education. I remember there was a scandal about a Spanish Paralympic basketball side being stuffed with regular semipro basketballers that didn't actually have the kind of intellectual impairment. One of the two guys on the team that actually did have severe learning difficulties was quite capable of giving interviews to foreign media in his non-native English though about his difficult experience though.