Do you "subtitle" your conversations?

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Sometimes it's hard for me to understand people directly, so I do one of two things: first, I sort of "translate" what they say into charts, diagrams, maps, and timelines, and second, I view mental subtitles of what they say - I'm so used to doing it that it takes no effort at all, and reading the subtitles is a lot easier than listening to the words themselves. I was just wondering if other people do that too.

That's awesome! I wish I could do stuff like that. When did you first start doing that?

i do
if someone says something, i try to 'translate' it, or subtitle it as you call it, what they are saying and reply to the closest thing i understand.
I have what I call my mental office. I have my mental translator that converts what people say into something i can understand, and i have my mental filing cabinet where i store all the information i process. i can literally picture it in my mind i'd close my eyes and say 'wait, i'm just storing it' lol

As someone is speaking, my mental translator/visual and schematic rendering subsystem/filing and storage system are furiously at work, trying to make sense of any meaningful sequences of sounds I succeed in filtering through the background noise. On many days, I can discern enough words and do all of this fast enough to achieve near-real-time conversation. Even then, there can be a significant delay, perhaps up to 15 seconds, between when someone actually says something and when it is "registered".

Throw in other concurrent conversations or other background noise, or just mental overload from trying to listen intently for too long, and you wind up talking to an unresponsive, zoned-out autistic person – it's shutdown time.

I guess when I first started reading (age three or so). The vast majority of my communication is written (whether reading or writing), so I thought maybe that's the reason it's easier for me to read "subtitled" conversations. But when I was diagnosed with Asperger's, I started thinking that it had to do with it, too.

LOL, that's a nice way of thinking about it!

Thanks. Some of what you said applies to me as well. There's also the additional problem of "between the lines" text not being recognized in real time - it has to processed separately after the conversation by replaying it a couple of times.

Yes , i translate into subtitles what other people are talking.
Also, when i am talking i am reading subtitles.
I guess thats why i do not make eye contact or - i make unnatural "looking trough" eye contact.

My daughter has that "looking through" eye contact as well sometimes. I wonder if she is doing this. Except, she can't read yet, so maybe she's reading pictures? Or do some Aspies avoid eye contact or have that look for other reasons...like sensory?

My daughter is 4 yrs old and is not diagnosed with Aspergers...she may or may not be down the road. We still don't know. She sure does keep us guessing.

I have to imagine subtitles, lines, charts or tables, because my brain doesn't work on spoken words. I have to translate it all to my brain's language and then I understand it. Sometimes people speak too many words than I can compile. So I rearely understand spoken instructions.

It looks somewhat like:
listen to words;
see words;
check grammar --> correct if wrong;
translate to pics;
is it possible? --> correct if not;
do it.

That's amazing.

I often see words in my mind when people are talking or when I'm thinking, especially if it's a foreign language. I think I used to do it more, so maybe I have gotten better at processing auditory language.

I have some translation thing going on but it seems to be between my thoughts and symbolic representations in general. A word is symbolic just like a graph, chart or diagram. Even a picture is a symbol. Where my thoughts "live" isn't even visual. Though I must admit the translation to and from visual symbols seems to be the easiest.

Spoken words seem to require two translations, one to a symbolic form more akin to the written word, then another from the symbolic to my thought's modality. Mathematics is just another form of symbol that needs to be attached to a thought. My 'special ability' is being able to disconnect from symbolic and visual thinking and just "think". But for years I have been training myself not to go there because it doesn't translate well into anything communicable to others and I thought for a long time it was a form of insanity. As I learn more about the autism spectrum, I have realized it isn't insanity, just different. So recently I have been giving myself permission to decouple. Basically allowing myself (retraining?) to be what I am, recognizing that all the layers of translation exist only to interact with the external world.

Does this make ANY sense?

I was bugged today at one point
I was defrosting some fruit in microwave.

Father came and asked me : Hello, what are you doing ?
Suddenly picture of microwave appeared in my head instead of subtitle.
I just couldnt translate it to subtitle .
I was like ... mhmm ... mhmm ... baking fruit ! And he was like lol omg who is baking fruit.

Those are situations that make me nervous .
I am getting nervous because suddenly picture appeared instead of subtitle.
I cant translate it fast enough to answer simple question and that makes me look like idiot.
That makes me even more nervous and boooom i am ready to start arguing :
Wtf you care what am I doing, mind your own business or something like f****ing those who are asking.
(those phrases are always subtitled and ready, only new event can appear as a picture)
Or I just remain silent.
Luckily I didnt started to argue, I didnt remained silent also. I calmed down in a last momment.
I just used another "default subtitled phrase" : come i ll show you.
(which also sounds weird showing someone so simple thing because you cant explain it, but its still better than being a jerk or mute man)
Those situations makes me nervous and aspie looking.

Those communities that are made for one theme are not much of a problem for me since limited amount of words and phrases are used in a such community so "buggs" are rare.
In my law school or in gaming communities people are considering me as eloquent person.
Good memory, ability to photograph text to memory and make combinations of subtitled words from it helps alot.
Sometimes I even talk too much. It looks to me that I am trying to compensate for all "muted moments", which is bad also since talking and knowing too much can make other people feel threatened and me being hated.


@wavefreak58

Yes, it does make sense.
Everyone has its own form of visual thinking.

I sort of translate their words visually if I feel the need, if that makes sense. I don't know how else to explain it.