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Joe90
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04 Jul 2012, 3:00 pm

It's funny - every few weeks a thread asking this same question comes up, only sometimes it asks if Aspies find it easier to learn a foreign language and other times it asks if Aspies find it harder to learn foreign languages. So I don't know what one is right.

There are a lot of foreign people in my country now, and half of them are good at learning English and half of them aren't, even if they've been over here for a few years. It depends on age, younger people can learn foreign languages much faster than older people, generally.

Personally I am no good at learning foreign languages. I struggled with French and Spanish at school - and Spanish was my special interest for a little while but I was still behind on it! 8O


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Wandering_Stranger
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04 Jul 2012, 4:07 pm

I used to have French and Spanish lessons whilst at school. Learning both at the same time (we'd have 1 lesson of French, then 2 of Spanish and vice versa in a week) was too confusing.



amboxer21
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04 Jul 2012, 5:48 pm

I started learning sign language and was up to 300 or so signs in a matter of a month and a half. I quickly lost interest due the lack of someone to sign with.



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Sea Gull
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05 Jul 2012, 9:39 am

Learning languages is one of the things I am best at. In English class, I was always a straight-A student.

This talent developed into a job - currently I work as a translator and everyone tells me I'm very good at it. I don't even have to think - I just look at the text and it speaks to me, guiding my hand :wink:



Davidlorenzo41
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07 Jan 2013, 1:38 pm

CanisMajor wrote:
I love learning languages! It's one of my passions. I took four years of Spanish and three years of French in high school. I would've taken more if I didn't have to take phys ed and arts classes to graduate. :roll:

However, I don't learn languages to communicate. I learn them just because they fascinate me. I love learning complex grammar. I love finding out an entirely new grammar structure that I never would have even thought of, that takes me a week of study before I get the grasp of it. I think it's amazing how babies in other countries can pick these things up without too much effort, yet for an adult it's a challenge. I also love learning new sounds that don't exist in English. I'm really good at hearing the subtle differences between different sounds (like a Spanish "D" verses an English "D"), and I'm really good at making the sounds, too... which I always read was near-impossible beyond about 18 years old. I used to think that was crazy, but now that I know I'm Aspie, it could very well be an example of hearing sensitivity. I'm also fascinated by English grammar, by word histories (etymologies), and the way language branch out into families like a genealogical tree...


Sounds like me. Except I have managed to learn to communicate in Spanish, but that was the last thing I mastered. I love the grammar and perfecting my accent. People have to ask me if I'm Mexican or American after they hear me speak, even though I really look like a "gringo." I'm into etymologies too. Since I made the effort to learn to actually communicate, which is hard even in English, I've gotten to the point that people tell me I seem more comfortable conversing in Spanish than English. And I've really gotten good with everyday spoken Spanish since I married a Mexican woman three years ago. Now I'm working on teaching her English and just got her Rosetta Stone. We'll see how that goes.


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