Language Barrier/Misunderstood.

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Having one of those days, one of those sucky days! Work has always been super agonizing for me but some days are the worst!! One of the hardest things I've dealt with at work is communicating with people whose first language is not english. It's one of the most awkward things I ever have to encounter!! ! . . . And I work in a hotel. Most of the staff speaks spanish and now I'm wishing I had studied spanish in high school instead of 2 stupid years of french! The cultural barrier has always been an interesting concept to me and I love to study and learn about all cultures but the language barrier combined with what I'll call the Aspie/Neurotypical barrier is extremely hard to overcome. I try to communicate as best I can with everyone but I always seem to come off as just weird and painfully awkward! Also, in certain social situations it's like my non-verbal cue meter shuts off completely and I just default to smiling like an idiot and making totally odd gestures to fill the void of proper body language.

I want to just put it out there that I'm not racist or anything, I wish I could talk to the people I work with because they are all so sweet. I know these are really nice people and I see that they can interact just fine and get along great with other non-spanish speaking co-workers. Most of them are very nice to me but I can tell that they are totally put off by me. There used to be one housekeeper here who seemed to actually HATE me! I was never anything but polite to her but it's like some people just pick up on the fact that I'm different and they can't stand it. The hardest part is that even with the people who misunderstand me or actually seem to hate me, I still find myself wishing I could talk to them and get to know them. It's such a conflicting feeling!

I'm at work now and I had to either vent or cry . . . So I just had to put this out there and see if anyone else has ever had trouble with it. Today it's really grating on my sanity!

Yeah, thats why In find it hard to communicate with asians from asia. Its weird, they allow me(the aspie) to facilitate the conversation more. I try to talk to them and they cant understand everything Im saying besides how Americans and Asians communicate is different. I already had a hard enough time learning the American ways. So I cant always understand what their saying and they cant always understand what Im saying is a situation for failure. Asians tend to be extremely polite and sweet while at it which normally most people love, I dont particurly care for it because I have trouble reciprocating their sweetness.