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Having Aspergers and language learning.

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
28 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3
Ezy Ryder
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 Message 25 of 28
02 April 2013 at 8:53am | IP Logged 
I think having Asperger's might help. And that's because of the "obsessive interests". Many
aspies tend to have some kind of (often unusual) hobbies, that they can spend considerable
amounts of time on. Obviously, not every person with AS is like that, and it helps only as a
motivation aid if the interest is about languages. Though having Asperger's myself, I notice that
once in a while the interests might change, or interchange. For example, in 2010 I was often
reading about physics, in 2012, I was designing a computer architecture, and I started really
focusing on languages only around December of the latter year. I just hope I'll remain interested
long enough to learn a few.
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Brun Ugle
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 Message 26 of 28
04 April 2013 at 7:28pm | IP Logged 
Bao wrote:
   
Thor1987 wrote:
Everyone has autism to some degree

That's not what 'spectrum disorder' means. Autism is caused by having a number of genetic alleles that in their expression make things like bonding, information/sensation filtering, neural connectivity etc harder to build and maintain; something which may be triggered by environmental factors in the case of some of the genes playing into the game. GDA describes people who show some of the traits without experiencing any suffering from them, but who are more likely to have relatives who are autistic than the general population. But on the other side of the spectrum there are people who are clearly not austistic, regardless of whether they have no or only a few of the possible contributing factors. You can't say these people are 'somewhat austistic'. They simply don't suffer from a developmental disorder that makes life very difficult for the individual because the majority of people doesn't have it, that's why having it is a disorder, and not the normal state.


Thank you, Bao. Autism isn’t exactly rare, but most people do not have it. Of course, everyone has experiences of misunderstandings and communication problems and most people have experienced having an interest in some hobby, but that doesn’t make them autistic any more than someone who has been both happy and sad is bipolar. (I am both, by-the-way.)

Bao wrote:
As for the initial question, my first thought was what I read some time ago: 'If you've met one person with Asperger's, you've met one person with Asperger's.'

From what people told me and what I read, people with it can be very different in whether they suffer a lot from their condition or have arranged their life around their interests or strengths. There are many co-morbid disorders too, so that isn't always easy. One of the things I remember reading is that at least for those nearer to the GDA side of the spectrum, learning a language in an immersion environment can be a good experience, because they aren't expected to behave like a native speaking adult and when they don't get how they're supposed to behave they simply can ask. Many aren't averse to social interaction - many even crave it - but feel helpless when they're supposed to know something others learnt by social imitation and they never knew it existed. At the same time, an immersion environment can be very overwhelming, especially when there's no retreat.


That was a point I was going to make myself, but hadn’t gotten around to. One of the advantages of living in a foreign country, communicating in a foreign language, or just having foreign friends is that your weirdness is a lot less noticeable. Foreigners are supposed to be odd and misunderstandings are expected of people speaking a foreign language. It is particularly good for hiding our difficulties with understanding jokes or with interpreting things too literally. Those kinds of things happen a lot for anyone speaking a foreign language regardless of whether they are autistic or not. Social awkwardness is also more acceptable since foreigners are likely not to understand or catch all the subtleties that a native speaker would anyway.


Ezy Ryder wrote:
I think having Asperger's might help. And that's because of the "obsessive interests". Many aspies tend to have some kind of (often unusual) hobbies, that they can spend considerable amounts of time on. Obviously, not every person with AS is like that, and it helps only as a motivation aid if the interest is about languages. Though having Asperger's myself, I notice that once in a while the interests might change, or interchange. For example, in 2010 I was often reading about physics, in 2012, I was designing a computer architecture, and I started really focusing on languages only around December of the latter year. I just hope I'll remain interested long enough to learn a few.


I also have the problem of changing interests. I come back to languages again and again, but I get intensely interested in other things sometimes as well and they tend to push my language studies aside for a while.

Another difficulty I have is a tendency to stress and depression. Autists are generally prone to these, but their reactions to them can be different. Some people when stressed, sink deeper into their hobbies as a kind of escape. I wish I was that way. I would probably know dozens of languages by now! Unfortunately, when stressed, I lose my ability to concentrate, and when depressed, I lose my interest in just about everything.



Regarding the discussion of whether one should “out” an autist or not, I think anyone who is writing or speaking about it on the internet probably isn’t too concerned about people knowing, unless perhaps they are discussing it on a private forum. However, I think it is very kind and thoughtful to err on the side of caution and not name names. In my own case, I have experienced prejudice due to having autism and bipolar disorder, but I still prefer to be open about it and I don’t care who knows. I am perfectly happy to be as I am.

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ReachingOut
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 Message 27 of 28
26 January 2014 at 2:29pm | IP Logged 
I have Asperger's and find that is both helps and hinders me when learning languages. I can pick up languages easily and acquire a passive vocabulary fairly quickly, and I find it easy to spot patterns in the grammar and learn rules. However, I tend to learn the languages academically rather than use them to communicate. I have little difficulty in writing, but speaking in real time can be very hard for me because of the Aspergers and my pronunciation isn't as good as other people's. Also, I'm afraid of making mistakes and agonise over every sentence I write or say, and don't have the confidence to speak unless I'm absolutely sure of something.
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tarvos
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 Message 28 of 28
27 January 2014 at 6:13pm | IP Logged 
Your strong point as Asperger's is also your weakness. Having the memory, the ability
to quickly retain grammatical structures and so on is a valuable asset, and so is the
concentration bonus. I'm guessing that an Asperger's whose main interest was foreign
language would not grapple much with cognitive aspects, but much more with their
integration within society.

What you lack is the ability to diversify your interests, to go broad, and to see the
bigger pictures, relationships and links between phenomena, and the ingraining of the
language in culture. What amazes me more is when I see how a phrase or a feature is
used in vivo - that is much more fascinating than seeing the plural suffix -im or -ot
in Hebrew.

Every plus is a minus, and every minus is a plus. The better language learner - the
more experienced one, who can cover up his shortcomings and maximise the input from his
strong points.




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