I'm bilingual and could easily speak 2 more languages since I can easily read them. I was diagnosed very late, grew up in the country of my native language and moved to the states in my late teens. I'm a woman as well, so take this comments considering all the above.
The one thing I wish is that I had been diagnosed much earlier and then have been taught to use my language ability to recognize that I shouldn't take things so literally. The ability to understand meaning via other languages would have helped me tremendously if I had been able to apply that to understanding how other people spoke in relationship to how I took what they said. You have no idea how many times I got into trouble, socially awkward situations by not been able to understand sarcasm, irony and such, which I finally kind of understand as a result of so many times I hit that wall.
Another thing languages can help is in finding better and more appropriate words to communicate. I found myself relying on both languages to select the best meanings. I now do that unconsciously and just translate the proper word, although that does create some challenges with my native language speakers because then I become way too literal.
One more thing I believe language can be use is to lean on understanding different cultures to try to understand empathy. I have incredibly challenge with empathy and the word didn't enter my vocabulary until my early 40s...I wished I had been able to apply the differences between cultures to understand the separations of self, bounderies and so forth...
I hope these help.
12 Feb 2013, 5:35 am
