Trouble with learning a foreign language

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I wanted to know other people with autism's experiences with learning a foreign language in school and outside of school. I've always had trouble with learning a foreign language but my school system still forces me to take a foreign language if I want to be eligible to go to many of the colleges in my area.

I'm a big fan of WWII documentaries and movies and stuff, so I decided to learn German so I can learn more about my own partial heritage and understand German shows better. I am just using the Duolingo app and going at my own pace. So far I'm at about 17% fluent, and I'm able to retain more information.

when you get to be my age, it will become immeasurably harder to do, so by all means give this your all now.

I'd say there are people on the spectrum who are extremely good with languages and people who aren't. It seems to go with the uneven skill set a lot of AS people have.

Learning languages is always a good thing. It develops your brain and allows different perspectives - I recently saw a piece of research that said people focus on different things in the same situation depending on which language they are speaking.

Seriously, for a lot of people in this world, knowing several languages is the norm, like in India and South Africa. Not being from a large, monolingual country, I find the idea that one could go through life knowing only one language a bit odd.

One of the best ways to improve your use of your mother tongue is to learn foreign languages. It gives you a better grasp of grammar, structure and the many layers of meaning found in words. I learnt four languages at school, one at university, and have since taught myself five more - and just keep learning new ones. In three of these I am at professional translator level.

Obviously I'm a language geek, and appreciate that not everybody shares my obsession. If it's not your thing, it can be very hard. But speaking a foreign language is a wonderful way of broadening the mind. Recent neurological research also suggests that, like other forms of intense intellectual activity, speaking another language can help prevent or slow the onset of dementia.

I had trouble with foreign languages till 10th grade (my English was at C, German at A but only because grades depended on word memorization there). Then I realized English is really useful in playing MMO games and somehow it just went into my head, without me even trying. As it currently is - you can see. I am 27 year old, I have been using English online everyday since last 10 years and now I can communicate freely and I understand pretty much everything.
I still prefer typing to speaking and writing to speech but it's exactly the same as in Polish (my mother language). It is related to my general problems with speech, not language specific.

My German is still poor. Because I never found it particularly useful. I can vaguely understand what people talk about but when I communicate I use English and ask them to use it too.

Currently I am trying to learn Japanese. Only speech for now because the alphabet seems very hard. I recognize hiragana symbols and remember sounds of some of them but when I see actual Japanese writing it contains a lot of symbols I am unfamiliar with. I don't understand where they come from and where to check what sounds they are related to.
My motivation? I want to understand anime.

Check out the website for Mango Languages. You pick any language you want and study at your own pace.

I pick up on new languages really easily. I got a 100% in Spanish class last year and never had to study. ^.^ And I'm teaching myself Japanese by talking to Japanese people online. Not quite fluent yet; I wish my school had Japanese classes.

YES this is a topic I know well!

Learning a foreign language with autism is unique. We don't have the social slickness that allows us to hop into a bar and just chat it up with strangers, so the whole "immersion" thing doesn't come naturally.

I failed three years of Spanish in high school and college, I had to move to Czech Republic and, after four years, I haven't absorbed pretty much anything. I don't see much of a reason to learn, which adds to the problem. I don't want to socialize and the society isn't all that interesting to me (horrible for me to say, I know, I know).

What has been helping me is twofold:

1. Draw a picture or make a pun for each word and gradually it'll enter my memory.
Example: Pondeli (Monday). I picture a frog in a chef's hat running a Pond Deli.
It takes a very long time since it's one word at a time but it's better than nothing.

2. Get a book on slang and dirty phrases.
Since it's funny it becomes more interesting to read than textbooks. Then you try to figure out which word is the cuss word and try to find out how it fits into a sentence.

I've come to accept that I'll never be fluent, and probably never even be conversational. If I can at least understand what people are saying to me to a degree.

Hopefully that'll help you out as well.

English isn't my native language, yet I've become fluent in it.
I think it's mainly thanks to the internet, movies, etc. I also started reading novels in english, and that certainly helped my vocabulary. However I still absolutely suck at german, which I've studied at school for over 4 years now. I've tried french too, but dropped it. I think being exposed to the language daily is key.