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Aspergers have a natural talent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6276 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 33 of 36 06 October 2007 at 7:55am | IP Logged |
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Some aspects of some Aspergers sufferers might help, but the defining characteristic of it is communication difficulties and extreme social awkwardness. These do not help you learn a foreign language or understand the speech of others, I would have thought. They are obstacles.
I have encountered one person who I was told had been diagnosed with Aspergers. He was not a linguist. This individual had a very pedantic speaking style and was extremely poor at reading social cues from the people he was talking to. He tended to engage in monologues on subjects that interested him, and was oblivious to the fact that he was boring the people he was talking to. He was quite doctrinaire, and probably without intending to, came across as arrogant. He was very honest in his reactions, not perhaps because of personal virtue but simply because deceit often requires a social sensitivity and an awareness of context that he lacked because of his condition. Somebody like him, it seems to me, might learn a language by memorising a dictionary if it interested him, but fail to distinguish between language registers and have trouble finding people to talk to because of appearing "odd". 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| FSI Senior Member United States Joined 6363 days ago 550 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English* | Message 34 of 36 06 October 2007 at 8:13am | IP Logged |
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And another thread positing some people were better suited to learning languages than others as a result of their genetic makeups crashes in flames. I agree with risby. This thread is essentially a recreation of the "bipolar talent" thread, but with a different disorder subsituted in. Perhaps next week we'll have another permutation of the same theme (without evidence, but with plenty of anecdotes, as in every one of these threads)? I can't wait! :^)
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| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7160 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 35 of 36 06 October 2007 at 8:59am | IP Logged |
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To be honest, I'm starting to see a pattern with these threads.
On one hand there are those such as fanatic and audiolang who put forth that having certain traits may have advantages in learning a language, and then are those such as FSI, Cage and risby who dismiss such threads outright. Why can't people around here see the middle ground like William Camsden or me? To be honest, I'm just as surprised by some of the arrogance of the skeptics as I am by the stubbornness of the supporters. People seize these threads and say something along the lines "Aha! See I told you so! We do have an advantage! or "Aha! See I told you so! You're dead wrong!" I just don't see the harm in saying that certain traits lend certain advantages to some people. Chances are that those advantages are offset by disadvantages and that it's questionable whether that person has a clear advantage. I agree that being single-minded (sometimes to the point of obsession) can help one learn certain things about a language much more quickly than someone who doesn't have that kind of determination or obsession. For me, it doesn't matter if one learned that trait, or has some sort of mental condition that somehow "programs" him/her to be that way. Conversely, it doesn't matter to me if one is socially awkward because he/she just learned bad manners, or has some mental condition that somehow "programs" him/her to be that way. The bottom line is that being socially awkward can hinder learning of other things in a language. Therefore, I consider it to be a wash overall. Perhaps someone with Asperger's could blow me away when it comes to learning vocabulary or fine points of grammar in short order, but I could probably blow him/her away when it comes to finding opportunities to practice that language with other people and use it to learn about different cultures or to enhance my travelling experiences. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7380 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 36 of 36 06 October 2007 at 12:03pm | IP Logged |
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Gentlemen, I've had it with this thread which is now closed. Please refrain from ad hominem attacks on this forum. Thank you.
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