I am not that intelligent for an Aspie

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When I was 12 I had a special interest in Spanish, and it was a typical Aspie special interest; I thought about it non-stop, wanted to learn everything about it, and spent hours drawing pictures of Spanish people. I wanted to be really excellent at speaking Spanish, and thought I would become the best in the class at it (at least one lesson I would actually be ahead of other children in!) But actually, I still scored low on Spanish tests, while the other children scored higher, and I just could not grasp the information and could never be able to speak a full sentence in complete Spanish, while the other children could, and the children with things like learning difficulties were on the same level as I was (level 1, while the rest of the class were on level 3 by the end of year (grade) 7).

So for an Aspie with a special interest, I was supposed to be better at Spanish and know everything due to good focus on special interests, but for some weird reason I wasn't. I still struggled at it, and probably just liked the look of the Spanish flag or something.

Does this mean I'm underaverage intelligent? Because even NTs excel at lessons they are interested in at school (my NT cousin enjoys art, and got really good grades in art at school because he studied well). So I thought an Aspie would be even better at being able to focus on a special interest that was actually a subject in school. Is this really weird for an Aspie, or are there some Aspies out there who can't even focus on their own obsessions?

(Be honest with me, I won't get too upset if you reckon I am slightly underaverage with intelligence because I am more worried about how I physically/socially appear to others, more than how clever I am compared to others).

it doesnt matter if you're good at the thing you like or not. just do it couse it is fun to you and try not to think of other people and their abilitys.

If I were you, I would get tested for cognitive and/or learning disabilities before calling myself "unintelligent". I think that's your problem. I have dyscalculia and was diagnosed at 19, but it was so poorly understood in 1994 that I got no help. It sounds like you have some sort of learning disability. Problem is, adults get pretty much no help. Especially in the UK.

Being interested in something doesn't mean you have a talent for it. Also, the way performance is measured in schools doesn't always correspond with what interests you in a topic. (if you find it fascinating how the language sounds, it doesn't make you better at spanish grammar)
Not having a particular talent doesn't mean you're not intelligent.

How much time did you actually spend learning? Do you feel you spent a lot of time and didn't learn enough?
You also never know how much other people do for their grades.

I'd rather have a 'dumb aspie' wife over a 'smart NT' anytime. Even the girls here who call themselves LF seem to have 20 IQ points on most of the normies I see in the world.

I am highly interested in certain jazz musicians, doesn't mean I can play 1/100 the notes they play

What do you mean by "for an Aspie?"

Are you implying that all Aspies should be highly intelligent? That is not the case. We are all individuals and some of us are clever and some of us are stupid. We can't all be good at everything. People who are clever at one thing may be no good at another.

If you are not good at learning a language you don't need to despair. Maybe you will be good at something else. Maybe you will be good at sport or music or gardening or art or...anything. Anything at all. There are tons of hobbies you could have. Just pick something you want to learn, and do it.

Plodder is spot on. Not everyone has high intelligence but they can probably do something that someone with high intelligence cannot or struggles with.
Besides, I think your intelligent Joe.

You can be very intelligent in one area and deficient in another. Like you, I do not excel at language. I have taken Spanish (D-) Latin (Low Bs and Cs) and French (F with a C when I retook the class). I also have no skill at music. I have tried to learn many instruments and have failed at every one (including the kazoo)

But I'm also very intelligent in a lot of other areas. I have a great deal of native talent in visual things such as photography and analysis of images. I am pretty good with logic and practical strategy. While I was a remarkably poor writer when I was young, I learned how to write competently. At times I can even write well.

My point is that you shouldn't look at one aspect of yourself and assume it applies to all aspects. You may have no talent for language but may be highly intelligent in psychology or drawing or computers etc.

Judging your intelligence based entirely on your performance in Spanish isn't a good idea. Sometimes particular concepts just give us trouble, I'm terrible at art for example. You certainly write fairly well so I doubt you're too bad off

Well one of the main difficulties aspies have is with language. I wanted to learn French but was always crap at it. When I got into science on the other hand, I excelled in it. I think one thing all people on the spectrum have in common is they struggle with verbal abilities and language. I lived in Montreal for years and I tried hard to learn French and while I'm real good with nouns, I can't put a sentence together. Play to your strengths, not your weaknesses.

BTW are you a visual thinker?

You could have a slight learning disability like I have, I was obsessed with learning the Deaf sign language or Auslan as its called here and even did a course but I just found it hard and while everyone else went further ahead I was left behind I ended up dropping out as I felt like a fish out of water.

Later I did a caligraphy course and I was just as good as everyone else in the class I found something I could do.

Well I know I'm not as clever as what I should be. Most people know that 2012 + 100 is not 3012, which I thought it was. Apparently that's 2012 + 1000.

Also I still think the world is 2012 years old, and that the year 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 was the year the big explosion in space happened, when the Earth was born. Apparently it's not that.

And also I don't know if 5 x 0 is 0 or 5. Still gets my mind confused today.