He wrote another one where an alien got drunk and wanted to have a conversation with a guy, but since the alien was out of “speaks alien language” pills instead he gave him a “messiah” pill, which happens to include the ability to speak all languages.
Reminds me of this Niven story where a human takes some pills that are supposed to teach aliens how to teleport, but since he can’t teleport he just gets an amazing sense of direction and orientation: https://www.larryniven.net/?q=bibliographic-reference/fourth-profession-the
He wrote another one where an alien got drunk and wanted to have a conversation with a guy, but since the alien was out of “speaks alien language” pills instead he gave him a “messiah” pill, which happens to include the ability to speak all languages.
That might be the same story? I don’t remember well enough; I should hunt it down and reread it :D