Second languages

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I have recently began to pursue a lifelong ambition of learning to speak French, something that when I was much younger, people seemed bent on discouraging any interest in. I got to thinking and wondering though about the idea of people on the spectrum and second languages. Is it likely any different from an NT trying to study another language? Surely others here have learned one, or at least tried to. Any thoughts on language learning?

Last edited by DashboardLogic on 28 Oct 2014, 12:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

I am trying to learn Korean. I know their alphabet and can read Korean but do not have a large enough vocabulary for perfect comprehension. If I listen to Korean people speaking I have a pretty good idea what they are talking about. Also I have no trouble identifying Korean people from other Asians on sight.

Where I live everyone has to learn a second language (well, a third language as well actually). We're all taught English in school (I'm not sure at what age people start nowadays but when I was in school you had to learn English from the age of 10 to 17). I have no idea if there are any differences in how someone with AS learns a language and how NTs learn a language. However, I suspect that if that language becomes some kind of a "special interest" for the autistic person, they probably stick with it longer and won't really give up until they've learned what they want to learn. When I learned English in school I was really interested in it and I found it easy to learn so now I'm pretty much fluent in it, but I've never thought of it as something I'm good at due to AS.

I'm not fluent in any language other than English unfortunately. I think I learn languages a lot quicker than the NTs I have met though. I learned an entire semester of high school Spanish II vocabulary and grammar rules in a couple weeks. I also gave a verbal presentation, without notes, totally in Spanish, and got nearly perfect scores on my grammar, pronunciation etc.

I don't know if this is something that is common in autistic individuals, but I know that I am very good at picking up new languages.

No.
Why on earth should an aspie be discouraged from learning a second language?
I've heard it's very good for the brain to learn languages.


This holds true for my situation too.

Language has never been a special interest for me, but I had a practical need for it because we had Sky Channel when I was 6-11 years old, and there was no subtitles on that. I was taught a very few words by my parents and grandparents, and some I picked up from repetitive posts on Fun Factory Show, like This week's Mystery Kid. When I started learning at 10, I already knew a little. In school I mostly learned grammar. My vocabulary comes from TV/videos/DVDs, books, music and more recently, the internet.
I think I have read more English books than Norwegian at this point, because a lot of the things I like aren't translated to Norwegian. Or occasionally they are translated after I have already read them. The English books are always cheaper too.
I love fiction, so I'm very glad I'm able to enjoy such a big market.
But despite reading and writing it okay, I am no good at speaking it. I stumble and mispronounce despite knowing how it's supposed to sound.

As rebbieh mentioned, we learn a third language as well. We could choose between German and French in junior high. I picked German. I was told by family that people who are good at language should pick French, and those good at math should pick German. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but I never got the hang of German (and I have severe problems with math). I chose it because I thought it would be easier since it's closer to my language.
Since I only went to vocational high schools, I never had German (or any other third language) again.

my mind was more retentive when young, too bad I didn't qualify for French class back then [was in special ed which was a disqualification even after elementary school, IOW I was on "the vocational track"]. my school district back in the day put students on "tracks" - either vocational or academic [I suppose this was an emulation of a gymnasium in Europe]. I was not considered smart enough to progress beyond vocational. I guess Bs didn't cut it. no fancy stuff available.

Ah, a fellow Scandinavian. Hello.

I think I'm good at speaking, writing and reading in English, if I may say so myself (I hope that doesn't sound arrogant). I definitely read more books in English than I read in my own language. I'd say about 90-95 % of the books I read are in English (and I read quite a lot). I also write in English very often and I speak it a lot (daily). Mostly to myself (I speak a lot to myself and for some unknown reason it has hardly ever been in my first language but in English) but also to my boyfriend.

At my school we could choose between German, French and Spanish. I chose Spanish. I barely remember any of it though because I wasn't really interested in it and when I'm not interested in things I don't really stick with them. In hindsight I wish I would've chosen German.

In my opinion, if an autistic person is seriously interested, he/she will learn a foreign language quickly and very well. The ability to concentrate on one thing for a long time, attention to detail and good memory should surely help (though I know not all autistic individuals have those traits).

English is my second language. My English pronunciation is rather artificial because I have had very few friends and missed out on opportunities to actually have conversations. I had to rely on dictionaries, songs and audio files etc for learning how to speak. My English pronunciation is very clear though I still have some ESL accent.

I've found that I can be quite good at learning new languages. I also at some point learned how to write in a fictional writing system and noticed that I could easily remember the individual characters.

Hello.

I have had very few opportunities to speak English, so I never got much practice.

I wasn't all that interested in German either. I would have been more motivated if I could have picked Italian instead.

My family is trilingual. My sister is a Linguist. She and my mom often learn languages together.
I can only speak English, but I can understand a wide variety of random phrases in Spanish and Amharic, providing they don't have too much of an accent and don't speak too fast.
I do like Ancient Greek, and tried to learn it, but I'm simply not good with language.

Always spoke a bit of French as my mom is bilingual and as an adult a few years back I signed up for French lessons. After three years of lessons did much better in French but then kind of hit a wall where I wasn't progessing so I quit.

I can sort of get by in French now but am not fluent by any means.

I wasn't aware that a person could learn a different language until I was about 10, and my older sister was taking French in high school. I tried when it was my turn, but by then my perfectionism was in high gear and really had trouble fumbling around, plus my shyness made it difficult to speak out in class, and that was what it's all about.

Later in life I tried Italian, because of special interests. It was a college course. Did OK, but got tripped up with all the grammatical rules, masculine/feminine, etc.

Now our 8 year old is in his 4th year at a French immersion school and I've taken some classes offered to parents. It has been a much more organic exposure to a second language, rather than the typical academic approach. I'm picking it up, though I doubt I'll ever be fluent.

I've always been good at the accents though, I'm a good mimic.

Why was learning a second language discouraged?

It's easier to learn another language if you go to the country where they speak it for awhile, then you learn it in a way that doesn't feel like learning and you are forced to practice it and hear it every day. You feel like you're just having fun or living life, but you're actually constantly learning at the same time. It's a great experience. After you learn a second language your brain is so much better at things- like memory, focus, etc. Because you constantly have to focus on what people are saying to understand and you have to remember all these words and rules. I feel so much more intelligent now that I learned a second language, my mind just feels so much better at things like focus and memory and learning itself.

I don't like learning new languages the only languages I'm good at are arabic and english
I tried learning french but I don't know I just got bored from learning a new language
I know some japanese words from watching anime lol

I'm learning German at school, and I've taken up French and Spanish on Duolingo.

I like learning languages and I want to learn more. I might like to do a job involving languages in the future.