Unusual ability to pronounce foreign languages?

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I wonder if it has something to do with us having a less fluid definition of 'self' and therefore 'other' than nt people. I find myself getting frustrated that americans aren't interested in music in other languages the way that people in non-english speaking places listen to and accept music in english, even though they may not understand the words it is almost always on the foreign charts I look at (though a good percentage are bi-lingual and multilingual).

I must be very spongelike. Once had a houseshare where one of the other inhabitants had a stammer. Within weeks, I'd developed a stammer. A couple of decades later, it still pops up sometimes. *rolls eyes*

Just remembered that after two months of sharing rooms with a Turkish girl, she greeted me in the morning telling me I had begun to sleeptalk in Turkish, saying coherent things.

I think I love precision and "shapes", I mean external appearance, I think it relates to pronunciation. For example when writing an email, I use to check it until I know it's perfect, I use colors, font attributes, everything I can to make it perfect and very clear.

I think it helps that in the beginning of learning a new language the focus is on the words and words only. There is no body language or mixed messages to deal with. Plus when dealing with native speakers of that language we get to say we are still learning and they will cut us some slack and overlook our messed up non-verbal skills.

There is a certain level of adaptability, when it comes to languages, I've found. At least with mimicking accents and reading a foreign language (after being taught the basic rules of intonation) without really knowing what I'm saying.
My grades for French were horrible, because I'm not fond of the language, but my pronunciation was at the level of the bilingual student in my class. My English pronunciation depends entirely on which accent I've heard most recently.

This is funny, because I had something almost like that happen to me. When I was in Grade 4, I won a school-wide spelling bee. Which was probably not a major accomplishment, given the size of my school, but I was very proud of myself (the winning word was "xylophone"). A few years later, in Grade 7 (I think), during a spelling test, we were given the word "voucher". I had never heard this word before, and with my teacher's Canadian accent, it sounded like "vulture". That was a case where I probably could have justifiably disputed the teacher's pronunciation, but then there was this weird case (perhaps the same test) where we were given the word "cities," and for some reason, the word didn't compute in my head, and I ended up writing "sitties". And that was just embarrassing.

... and as for foreign languages, I don't think it's weird that I can read almost a half-dozen languages without being able to understand them. I like sites like Wikipedia and Bible Gateway, because they come in dozens of different languages. Some of these languages I will read aloud (German, Dutch, French, Portuguese, Esperanto), simply because I like the sound of them. I believe that language is like a river, in that each has its own particular "flow" to it.

I feel awkward bragging about myself, but since it's relevant to the thread, here goes...

Your post describes my signing skills well. When I picked up American Sign Language, I surprised many of my Deaf friends with my ability to pick up the nuances and not only the manual aspect but the facial expression, mouth movements, and body language as well.

When I was hearing, I was known for my ability to pronounce languages very well. I was often a source of confusion because I wouldn't have an accent but did have the occasional to frequent grammatical errors of non-native speakers.

I should mention, though, that I'm not ASD but I'm not NT either. Languages are probably my strongest area and I'm very passionate about Linguistics.

I'm excellent at pronouncing French. Too bad I don't know enough of the language.

Today, I made an attempt at doing an Arabic accent. I did surprisingly well, even though I was just using nonsense words.

yes foreign languages are an obsession for me. I speak French/Turkish and some Spanish and Mandarin. Right now I am minoring in the Turkish language.

btw: this website is the best foreign language practice tool of all time.

http://www.euronews.net/ because the news and science articles are broadcasted in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Russian and Arabic.

yes. can pick up on accents well. probably linked in with our echopraxia tendencies.

I pick up on accents and will subconsciously pick up the accent of someone I am talking to.

However, I'm terrible at learning a foreign language as I have problem hearing sounds in words, if that makes sense. I can't look at a word I don't know and pronounce it as I can't remember what combinations of letters sound like.

When I took my first French class, the teacher called my mom and demanded to know where I had heard French. I hadn't. But apparently for most people there is a developmental period past which they can't hear sounds in foreign languages and thus pronounce them with an accent. I either didn't go through it or went through it late. That period is, an autism researcher told me, a good example of how if typical people lose a skill in the course of normal development it doesn't get called regression, it gets called normal.

Accents are very easy for me to pick up and I learn languages very quickly.