Copious amounts of alcohol have been known to increase the in- and outflow of words in the mostly silent phase. Once a friend returned from Moscow with a big bottle of Stolichnaya, which a group of us proceeded to empty along with other Mitbringsel and a big bag of catnip for humans. Soon we were all free associating in five or six languages, and I noticed that the Japanese student in the room understood Russian surprisingly well for not knowing a word of the language.
Copious amounts of alcohol have been known to increase the in- and outflow of words in the mostly silent phase. Once a friend returned from Moscow with a big bottle of Stolichnaya, which a group of us proceeded to empty along with other Mitbringsel and a big bag of catnip for humans. Soon we were all free associating in five or six languages, and I noticed that the Japanese student in the room understood Russian surprisingly well for not knowing a word of the language.
Other things besides alcohol can have that effect, including sexual attraction.
That would have been an interesting little scandal with all those folk present, but actually kind of normal for that time, I suppose.....