Asperger's and learning foreign languages

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IstominFan
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20 Jul 2017, 6:31 am

I am fascinated with languages. German was my first language. I learned English at six and took Spanish in high school. Lately, I've been interested in learning Serbian and Russian.



Childofthemoon
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20 Jul 2017, 7:10 am

Language is a huge interest of mine.

Apparently, I struggle a lot more than I realised simply speaking in English (my native tongue). I'm exaggerating a bit here but there's some truth to most jokes ... this is no exception.

I studied French and Russian in school and independently. Grew up close by a super multicultural city too so exposed to many. And always wondered if people were talking trash! ;) One thing that always fascinated me was that changing the language always also atleast slightly influences or changes the meaning.

Independently studied Modern Greek, Bulgarian, Serb-Croatian, Ukranian, Polish, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Icelandic, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog (as well as other filipino dialects) and others... but I'm obviously a rebel almost no mainstream "western" "first-world" languages. XD

I struggle to from a sentence in French (the other official language here) but can read and understand others speaking almost fluently. Russian and many of the other slavic languages I can read almost fluently and same with hearing spoken but it's a bit easier (more logical?) to speak. In almost all the others I can read the alphabets, have varying intermediate-beginner basic conversational skill and vocabulary. The 2 chinese are pretty hard to read though since they're pictographic but I did study them quite a bit.



Childofthemoon
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20 Jul 2017, 7:22 am

I'm not trying to brag about abilities. I work really hard to learn everything I do. Unfortunately with languages without practise live and use often you can lose some of what you know. Practise your greetings and curse words!!

This will sound incredibly autistic/aspie but I mostly just chose languages that looked aesthetically pretty IMO. And I made up my own complex coded language to write all my journals in. Or they were languages of ex partner's families and I had to know when they were trash talking! :heart:

Japanese was really easy aside from the more complex Kanji. Helps to be a big anime nerd and gamer. Had an ex aspie with same language interest and my grandmother undiagnosed aspie spoke 13 completely fluently.

If anyone wants to practise I might be up for that!



AllanB
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20 Jul 2017, 7:53 am

KiannaKitter wrote:
Love languages. Can't do math to save my life. :lol:


:D

Biscuitman wrote:
Always been fascinated by languages and desperately want to learn another aside from my one but find it so hard. The only language I have tried is french and have failed a number of times (went to college evening class, did a CD thing, did a Web thing)

What is our tip for learning a language? How best can I do it? I would like to try Spanish.


According to "Benny the Irish Polyglot" of Fluentin3months fame the fastest way is by immersion, either by staying in a country where the language is spoken (and forcing yourself to speak in the new language, instead of using English etc.) or by making friends with speakers of that country (and talking on Skype for instance). I tend to agree. I understood a lot of Arabic after a few years of learning, but was embarrassed to speak it much (afraid of making mistakes), but then an Arab friend of mine decided that from that day forward he would only speak to me in Arabic and wouldn't reply if I spoke to him in my native Danish. In a matter of days/weeks all my passive Arabic became active and I'm able to speak well enough to fool native speakers (spoke to a Syrian refugee who thought I was a Syrian myself).

Apart from that I use the Duolingo app (available as a smartphone/tablet app and online) a lot and I think it's an amusing and effective tool.

AnonymousAnonymous wrote:
My math skills are terrible, so I'll learn a language any day. :)

Even though my mother is native to Central America, my Spanish is terrible, so I'll utilize other sources to improve my Spanish. I also want to improve my ASL skills along with learning Japanese.


Great... I love both Spanish and Japanese. You should check out Duolingo (mentioned above) - I'm using it for Spanish.

AshtenS wrote:
I love languages. To me they seem like another form of math.


That's a great way of looking at it. A friend of mine who is quite Aspie-like and a programmer found language learning hard until he realized that "grammar is just another coding language"! :D

Keladry wrote:
Learning languages (especially German) is my special interest. Luckily I also seem to have a knack for it, and am employed teaching English as a Second language. Can't imagine doing anything else!


That's great :)

soloha wrote:
Ever read Born On A Blue Day?


I haven't, but I watched a documentary feat. Daniel Tammet which was very interesting.

MoatsArt wrote:
I love languages and linguistics, although I haven't really pursued them as a special interest. I'm thinking of digging deeper into comparative historical linguistics and learning about the relationships between language.

Spent a few years studying classical and koine Greek and modern German, but that was a long time ago. I'm interested in studying the following languages:

Cornish
Tocharian
Sanskrit
Farsi
Icelandic
Old English
Basque


Very interesting list. Icelandic (and Old Norse) and Farsi are on my "language todo list" as well and I was just accepted in a Koine Greek course at university. :)

naturalplastic wrote:
Am fascinated by historical linguistics. How languages evolve and are related to one another. And give clues to ancient migrations and the like.


Ah yes, that's so interesting. I have spent so many hours surfing Wikipedia on that topic.

DeepHour wrote:
I've always been extremely interested in the technicalities of how languages work, but am too self-conscious to be any good at actually speaking foreign languages. That's probably why I specialized in Latin and Ancient Greek. When I came top in a French exam at school, the teacher commented in my report book "Excellent result. I wonder if he realizes that French can be spoken too?" Sarcastic bastard, never did rate that teacher, lol.


Hahaha :D

Childofthemoon wrote:
Language is a huge interest of mine.

Apparently, I struggle a lot more than I realised simply speaking in English (my native tongue). I'm exaggerating a bit here but there's some truth to most jokes ... this is no exception.

I studied French and Russian in school and independently. Grew up close by a super multicultural city too so exposed to many. And always wondered if people were talking trash! ;) One thing that always fascinated me was that changing the language always also atleast slightly influences or changes the meaning.

Independently studied Modern Greek, Bulgarian, Serb-Croatian, Ukranian, Polish, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Icelandic, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog (as well as other filipino dialects) and others... but I'm obviously a rebel almost no mainstream "western" "first-world" languages. XD

I struggle to from a sentence in French (the other official language here) but can read and understand others speaking almost fluently. Russian and many of the other slavic languages I can read almost fluently and same with hearing spoken but it's a bit easier (more logical?) to speak. In almost all the others I can read the alphabets, have varying intermediate-beginner basic conversational skill and vocabulary. The 2 chinese are pretty hard to read though since they're pictographic but I did study them quite a bit.


Wow! :)

Childofthemoon wrote:
I'm not trying to brag about abilities. I work really hard to learn everything I do. Unfortunately with languages without practise live and use often you can lose some of what you know. Practise your greetings and curse words!!

This will sound incredibly autistic/aspie but I mostly just chose languages that looked aesthetically pretty IMO. And I made up my own complex coded language to write all my journals in. Or they were languages of ex partner's families and I had to know when they were trash talking! :heart:

Japanese was really easy aside from the more complex Kanji. Helps to be a big anime nerd and gamer. Had an ex aspie with same language interest and my grandmother undiagnosed aspie spoke 13 completely fluently.

If anyone wants to practise I might be up for that!


Amazing! :)



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20 Jul 2017, 8:56 am

One of my special interests is learning about different countries and trying to learn basic expressions in that language. One day, when I was taking tennis lessons, I met a Russian former professional tennis player and his family. I said goodbye to him in Russian, and he smiled at me. It was a fun moment. I tried learning some Russian, but it's really hard. As I said, I would love to meet Denis Istomin. Fortunately, his English is excellent, but it would be fun to say a few words to him in his own language.



Lace-Bane
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20 Jul 2017, 12:30 pm

learned enough spanish that spanish teachers assumed there was a desire to go to spain... never used it outside of class, nor since finishing the classes, so it’s completely gone from memory.

most interested in learning japanese and thai. had started learning the writing system for japanese and learned kana, but had a seizure earlier this year after learning it, and adjusting to the anti seizure medication took months... so now it kind of has to be reviewed, if not restudied, before moving on to kanji. luckily, it didn’t take long to learn the first time. more a visual person, so seeing the language seems very important to make sense of hearing it... had a good friend who spoke japanese, and she’d keep repeating herself, but it’d rarely stick unless she spelled it out.

also wanted to learn cantonese and mandarin, but working abroad in hong kong doesn’t seem particularly likely... and it’d seem a bit much effort just to go on a visit(some day) to a place that already speaks english.

something found most interesting is that knowing etiquette appears as important as language... since it's used in unison to convey the unspoken. japanese etiquette seems rather fascinating, and daunting simultaneously.


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IstominFan
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20 Jul 2017, 3:57 pm

One of my passions is tennis, and I have learned how the score is called in the various languages of the countries in which they hold the tournaments. I also learned some bad words in Spanish I never learned in school and would have been in big trouble for saying.



AranAren
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22 Jul 2017, 8:31 pm

I was really good at mathematics and languages in approximately equal measure. As a context example for math, I was part of a small accelerated group (less than a dozen students in the district) who were bussed specially from the middle school in 7th and 8th grade to attend high school math classes. I actually didn't enjoy math at all, but it was never difficult.

What I actually liked was foreign languages. The structure of different languages (like Japanese or ASL - different grammatical types, different pronouns, etc) was fascinating. I started teaching myself languages as a child and pre-teen; borrowed Pimsleur cassette sets from the library, played language computer games, read tons of books, listened to songs and translated the lyrics, etc. Desperately wanted Muzzy but no luck. :lol: Took advanced placement language classes in high school.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of pursuing languages/linguistics in college simply because I liked them so much, not having any career plans in mind. Never actually used my degree, cannot see much use for what I learned. Still an interest, but a waste of money -- could have just kept learning these things on my own for free.



Keladry
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22 Jul 2017, 8:55 pm

AranAren wrote:

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of pursuing languages/linguistics in college simply because I liked them so much, not having any career plans in mind. Never actually used my degree, cannot see much use for what I learned. Still an interest, but a waste of money -- could have just kept learning these things on my own for free.


Have you considered teaching languages, especially at the college level? I did the same thing as you as an undergrad (German), graduated, and realized there wasn't much I could do with it. I then did a master's in ESL, and am working at a university teaching English to international students. It's pretty fun, and if I want I can also go anywhere in the world, get a job, and learn the language in-country ;) One of the best parts is I can still learn more languages and count it as professional development on my annual evaluation!!



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22 Jul 2017, 9:05 pm

Keladry wrote:
AranAren wrote:

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of pursuing languages/linguistics in college simply because I liked them so much, not having any career plans in mind. Never actually used my degree, cannot see much use for what I learned. Still an interest, but a waste of money -- could have just kept learning these things on my own for free.


Have you considered teaching languages, especially at the college level? I did the same thing as you as an undergrad (German), graduated, and realized there wasn't much I could do with it. I then did a master's in ESL, and am working at a university teaching English to international students. It's pretty fun, and if I want I can also go anywhere in the world, get a job, and learn the language in-country ;) One of the best parts is I can still learn more languages and count it as professional development on my annual evaluation!!


Your position sounds cool, I am glad it works out so well for you. I did think about something along those lines, as teaching was the only thing I could imagine doing with languages... but I am currently working in special education -- a small separate public day school for teens with social/emotional disabilities like autism, ADHD, severe anxiety, trauma history/PTSD, etc. -- and even though part of me likes being helpful to relatably 'special' kids, education in general feels like a bad fit. Extremely exhausting working with people all day (especially with the chaos that sometimes comes with a program like ours.) Most days I come home and immediately sleep, occasionally cry, too drained to do anything else.



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22 Jul 2017, 9:46 pm

AranAren wrote:

Your position sounds cool, I am glad it works out so well for you. I did think about something along those lines, as teaching was the only thing I could imagine doing with languages... but I am currently working in special education -- a small separate public day school for teens with social/emotional disabilities like autism, ADHD, severe anxiety, trauma history/PTSD, etc. -- and even though part of me likes being helpful to relatably 'special' kids, education in general feels like a bad fit. Extremely exhausting working with people all day (especially with the chaos that sometimes comes with a program like ours.) Most days I come home and immediately sleep, occasionally cry, too drained to do anything else.


I do that too (come home exhausted that is). I think the university level isn't quite as bad though as there is less bureaucracy and other stuff that happens than in the public school system, and you're left more to yourself except for when you are actually teaching, which is only a couple of hours a day (I don't think I could ever survive in the public school system from the things I've heard!). Special education would be very interesting and rewarding to work in though :) What else have you considered doing?



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23 Jul 2017, 3:36 am

I'm very good, just don't have the patience at all. I pick up languages fast. On the other hand, I seem to crash and burn when I'm rushed at any speed other than my own when it comes to math. I never spend the time on languages that I want to so whenever I do it I end up losing all the stuff I learned a few days later.



AllanB
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23 Jul 2017, 7:12 am

Keladry wrote:
AranAren wrote:

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of pursuing languages/linguistics in college simply because I liked them so much, not having any career plans in mind. Never actually used my degree, cannot see much use for what I learned. Still an interest, but a waste of money -- could have just kept learning these things on my own for free.


Have you considered teaching languages, especially at the college level? I did the same thing as you as an undergrad (German), graduated, and realized there wasn't much I could do with it. I then did a master's in ESL, and am working at a university teaching English to international students. It's pretty fun, and if I want I can also go anywhere in the world, get a job, and learn the language in-country ;) One of the best parts is I can still learn more languages and count it as professional development on my annual evaluation!!


That's very interesting! I might consider doing something like that too! :)



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23 Jul 2017, 2:56 pm

I took Spanish throughout grade school and am signed up to take ASL (American Sign Language) this fall in college. I've always wanted to learn Japanese too.


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24 Jul 2017, 1:52 pm

I was good at Spanish and French at school. I had the idea that since I was so good at it, I'd end up working as a translator for FIFA and work as the person who translated interviews for Zidane (French) who played with (Real Madrid). I'd be there holding a microphone while he spoke, just basking in his presence.

(Do we have a thread on strange long-running, overly developed obsessions about other people?)

When I realised how idiotic this idea was, (and how strange listening comprehension was, because I generally need to see people's mouths when they speak to be very sure what they're saying), I decided not to go further and went back to maths. (Because it made more sense to try to do medicine and maybe be a sports doctor who also spoke french and spanish, and this way I'd get to actually touch him. I don't touch my own mother, but I've a 20 year obsession with touching Zidane's bald head)

Lots of people have math and language in one group or another, but on paper, it's a lot the same. Rules and syntax. Languages only need you to memorize the vocabulary, so it's got that extra difficulty, but it's more interesting that way. I remember people thinking in school, hey, why are you doing both subjects? You're smart. As if language was an easy subject. I was like, "Well, I can do math at home and just come for the exam. I need to hear and see this french lady." And as I barely know English, this is more challenging and rewarding for me.

I was very good at maths, but I had no real interest in it. Maths, further maths... I just liked the routine and coming to the answer after about 15 minutes. My sister did a literature degree and she believes that you can't be good at both. But I feel that's just a thing maths/english people say if they can't do english/maths.

I'm jokingly teased as having dyslexia. I can read and write when I concentrate, (I have those spelling and penmanship trophies still), but casually, I'm bad with words and I mix up homophones all the time. (The sound the same ones). I listen to a rap sound like "Yeah, words... probably."

When people were sweating over chemistry and calculus, I was dreading English. I've gotten back essays where the teacher just put "What?" in read ink. And then, when I did something really well, they accused me of plagiarism and they did some kind of scan on the internet or something, IDK. Made me wait for judgement.

I was better in french and spanish that english :? I'm thinking about learning Japanese in hopes it will jumpstart my failing english brain sectors... Japanese seems like it would be ridiculously easy to learn, but I'm wondering if it would be worth the time investment. I'm 30 now, and I no longer see myself trying to go to Japan to become a kendo master.