Accents and aspergers = learning difficulties?

Post Reply New Topic

I have a college professor who has a very noticeable thick accent, possibly Chaldean descent or maybe Turkish, who knows. Although I can understand him fine, I have a heck of a time retaining the information. It really brings on the aggression and hits my nerves, I get fidget and lose all focus because of it. My ears become pretty sensitive leading to anxiety. Other students are perfectly fine and can go on without a problem in the world!

In another one of my classes this isn't really an issue at all. Anyone else have problems with accents, whether British, Asian. Indian etc. that distract you from learning? It it some freak thing, or could the aspergers or autism be partly responsible?

I think most people have difficulty with "foreign" accents. I know I do sometimes. Sometimes, I even have trouble understanding my wife, even though we've known each other 20 years. She has a Trinidadian accent.

I think it's "normal" to have some difficulty understanding people with an "accent." I don't think this is an Asperger's thing.

I'm actually really good at understanding pretty much any accent going.

Plenty people have issues with accents so it's probably just a normal person thing.

I know what you mean. I know this girl she has a speech impairment but a lot of people can still understand her fine. And can have a proper conversion. But I can't understand a word she is saying. I have to ask her again multiple or guess what she said and I'm impatient and it's awkward. And I don't wanna come across as rude, or misunderstanding.

I have a hard time with anyone whose English isn't their primary language because their accent is very hard to understand and normally they don't speak our language well but other people don't seem to have any problems with understanding them. I used to work at a job that had a lot of immigrants and lot of them didn't speak very good English so it was very hard for me to understand what they were telling me and at my current job I deal with that again but there isn't much communication between us. They don't try and have conversations with me and they can tell I don't understand them so they find someone else who also works there that can speak English because he is an American and he also seems to have no problems understanding them so he tells me for them.

I knew one immigrant who spoke English very good but I would sometimes have a hard time understanding her because of the way she would say words so me repeating what she was telling me made her think I was making fun of her when I was trying to understand what she is telling me so she will be more clear. Also another thing that sucks is misunderstandings because they can mistranslate what you are saying to them and they go to your boss to say what you told them that is totally untrue. This same person told our boss that I had told her she didn't speak good English and I never said that so my mom told me because English isn't her first language, it was probably a misunderstanding. When we talk, she has to translate our words into her language she speaks to understand what we are saying and she probably mistranslated. But it made me uncomfortable to even talk to her because I feared another misunderstanding.

That's why I felt uncomfortable talking to her. I was worried she thought I was making fun of or bullying her.

Sometimes I wonder if aspies growing up in environments with less literal dialects (The southern US for example, with lots of nonsensical phrases) have a harder time, or ultimately learn linguistic pliability better than someone like me who grew up in a more .. formal .. setting.

Ok, so for the record, I don't have trouble understanding him. But the accent stroke a nerve, distracting my whole sensory process. The same way the ticking of a clock, or some ambient noises does for me. That's why I question if (as ridiculous as this may sound) even an accent can cause sensory overload.