The article doesn't say he took a sabbatical to re-teach her English -- it says he took the sabbatical to support her. It also doesn't say he didn't work on improving his German during that time.

I worked from home for 12 weeks to help my wife recover from a surgery. She initially needed help moving around the house, for her safety, and slept most of the day.

Brain injuries are EXTREMELY difficult and time consuming to recover from, far more so than more typical injuries. The woman in the article was almost certainly going through a massive adjustment and needed tons of help. It's not a simple matter of a bump on the leg and shoulder, and whoops, she's living in a country where she doesn't know the language, as if she was a tourist.

I take ~3 weeks off to help my wife post-baby for the same reasons.

Presumably she still needs to interact with other English-speaking people.

Right. I think this is the real reason for teaching her English.

Also the psychological trauma of no longer being able to speak a language you technically know.

I imagine there could also be some hope that through "exercise", the brain and nervous system could try to rebuild its former capacity. Physiotherapy for the brain. I imagine that would be a good thing for her health in general. I've read a lot of articles over the years about the possibility, but never read anything conclusive. So it's just hearsay, but I can imagine hanging onto this kind of hope if I were in his shoes. It wouldn't be about communicating with her, it would be about helping her heal and preventing anything from getting worse.

What? It's far more practical to reteach his wife the language she lost, which also happens to be his first language AND the primary language of the country they live it.

If she can't retain it, then teaching it to her is not practical, regardless of how useful it would be if she hypothetically learned it.

A lesson the American school system could stand to learn too. :/

That's not the situation. She did improve significantly, although not to complete recovery.

>Not questioning the husband's devotion to his wife

But baseless assumptions are ok?

I am happy for him he was in a position where he could take an 18 month sabattical. I would be fucked.