do you not know how to talk?

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Let me give the examples of what happen first. There was this women who called 911 and her problem was fake etc. My response "I can't believe someone would fake that." (Another example) Dad is thinking of starting a business I said "Hey I could work I come cheap"

Both of these statements confused my dad. He said I should of mention pretended or something similar rather than fake also he didn't understand the come cheap comment either. Am I in the wrong? I feel sometimes I don't know how to talk or I use words others don't understand. IMO what I said are correct replies. I confused him twice in a row!! ! DARN IT!! !! !

There are times I need my brother to
translate my oen English to something
the normals understand.

I understood what you meant the first time. I don't know what you're dad is talking about.

I thought fake and pretend are similar words with the same meaning. The second statement I can understand too.
He may want you to extend your vocabulary maybe.

Both of your comments were clear to me, but I'm bad at communicating so it could just be that we think alike!! !!


For the second comment: "I come cheap", while I clearly understood you, I can see something to nitpick at there,.

"cheap" is how someone would describe the price of something that they would buy. "Low Wage" is the cost that indicates a non-expensive cost to use. Your services as a worker is being used, not bought. So technically, the more correct statement would be: "I work for low wages"

"I come cheap", sounds like a tag on a discount doll in a store.

I think that when your Dad does things like that, you could ask him, "Why?" and I really think he would tell you.

Your "I come cheap" line was a good joke. But he might be worried about your self-respect. Maybe he's (overly?)protective.

I don't understand what he had against the "fake" thing - but you could ask!

Yeah, ask him what you're supposed to say. People often just get irritated with us and expect us to get it. It doesn't work that way.

Last edited by pensieve on 16 Feb 2010, 10:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ditto. I don't get why he didn't understand either. I can't even detect an unusual utilization of a word, such as in the phrase, "I appreciate cats" rather than "I like cats". Maybe this is one of the times when the problem is on the non-autistic's end?

I immediately understood both of your statements. All too frequently, I make mistakes with word choice. I know this because I'll figure it out moments after I finish speaking. I've found that most people, most of the time figure out what I meant or at least come close. There is one guy I know that has a limited ability to compensate for less-than-perfect word choice. For example, if it wasn't already a common phrase, I'd expect the phrase "actions speak louder than words" to utterly confuse him. He'd argue something like "actions don't speak, people do" or "words can be spoken at any volume". I'd have to explain to him "a person's actions are more significant than that same person's words". It's like he somehow takes the wording too literally. It's can be a chore having a conversation with him.

Well with the "fake" comment he rather me used the word pretend. (It's simpler I guess). With the 2nd comment I'm not sure about.

I understood both of those statements...I'm a little confused as to how they would be misunderstood. Maybe it was the way you said them? Sometimes inflection of the voice can cause misunderstandings. Yet, I can't think of way to say those things that would make them confusing.

"I can't believe she would FAKE that." seems fine
"I can't believe she would fake THAT." seems fine too
"I could work I come CHEAP"
"I could work I COME cheap" could be misinterpereted maybe IDK.

I'm confused about all this. Maybe you have a monotonous voice and that's what confused him? A lack of inflection could also cause misunderstandings, just because the words blend together I guess.

I understood both of your comments with ease.

I understood your comments immediately. Maybe it's him who's got the communication problem?

I agree. I understood you, Zelda, perfectly and this isn't something related to AS. There are many people in the area where I live that use those, or similar expressions......I've used similar expressions.

Maybe your dad had a problem in the fact that he wants you to use more proper English?

But I could understand you completely the first time.

Assuming that your parental unit is a native speaker of one of the half dozen main divisuions of Standard English AND assuming he generally did not comprehend:

I have no idea how or why.

As has been suggested, he might have a motive for adjusting your spoedech, which sounds perfectly normal to me. OR it could be some idiosyncratic cognitive dissonance.

Once someone said to me "Where's your please?" I just stared - it made no sense. Then he revealed thAt in his family that was the cue for getting the young or the species to add please to a request, equivalent to my indigenous "What do we say?"

But I can barely speculate in this case.

Both of those statements parse easily into normal English. I suspect the problem may have had more to do with your delivery.