Linguist Mario Pei (1901 – 1978) was fluent in 5 languages (Italian, English, French, Greek, and Latin) and was capable of speaking in 30 languages. During his long teaching career, he wrote over 50 books; many of them on the subject of language. In 1959, he joined with Fedor I. Nikanov in writing the book “Getting Along in Russian.” The emphasis of the book was to aid American travelers in speaking Russian.