Misunderstanding spoken language

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Sometimes I might hear such things as 'what's air n'aim?'

And then I've got to consider what 'what's air n'aim?' is supposed to mean. Since it doesn't sound plausible that anyone would say that sentence, the words must have been different but similar. Unexpected words turn into gibberish. Sounded like 'wodtseehrnaime?' Probably 'what's her name?' which might apply to the situation...

Anyone experienced something similar?

hi, i started a thread about something similar:

Press this sentence!

it sure sounds like my problem...but maybe you have problem separating the words? maybe your mind cannot separate the sounds as words and only hear it in the same way as background sounds?

yes,am misunderstand a lot though have been tested as having hearing higher than software could go [though doubt that was hard as altrincham hospitals audiology dep. is mostly useless for those who are the extreme opposite to lacking in hearing],for self at least,am think it's to do with processing and sensory overload,am fed up of being told am doing something wrong and with the hearing have got-should have heard correctly.

guess tough accents could also cause problems for people as well.

Heh, oh, yeah, all the time. Just a little background noise is all it takes, and wham--no more understanding conversations without thinking very hard indeed!

My auditory processing is a little messed up, apparently. No wonder I prefer to e-mail.

Yeah thats aditory processing, i suffer with abit of that myself. Apparently it's linked to my dyslexia.

I have had experiences where a person was speaking in a foriegn language that I had never heard before in my life, but have understood every word they said as if they spoke in English. I have also heard people speaking in English and been unable to understand a word they have said as it sounds more like a foreign language to me. I also have some disorder with audio processing, because I know I will hear something, but it just doesn't register in my head for a couple of seconds. Also, when I hear someone speaking English, I have to translate it into the English I think in because I don't understand it the way most people understand what a person says in real time, it takes me a couple of seconds to decipher what a person has said, and then by that time I may have moved on to another train of thought and forgotten they said anything.

Well, I understand some Spanish, Latin, Dutch, Greek, and French words (and others whose languages I forget now) without ever having been told what they mean. I speak German and English, and apparently I'm applying my knowledge of etymology and grammar in those two languages to the languages related to them. Seeing them printed is the easiest way; hearing them said gets complicated by accents. There's a surprising amount of interconnection between the languages, if you're a pattern-matching sort of person. It's not surprising that people who study languages have much more trouble learning their second than their seventh--after a while there's so much common ground to draw from.

Eh, I usually cause the problem. I mumble. Even more irritating is a boy at our church who does this weird thing at the end of sentences... he does the usual teen mumble but then rockets through the last few words like he just wants the sentence over with. Often the last word doesn't even make it through.

I'd blame all the mumblers if I were you. Still, they always turn around and blame you, so I guess that gets you right back to the beginning.

auditory processing difficulties. sensory integration dysfunction.
My apsergers psych strongly suggested earmuffs or ear-plugs the other day.
i'll get some for home as filtering sounds can be very diffiuclt and comprehending can be like trying to pour soup into my ear canal.

Thing is I don't know any other language, I understand enough german and french to say I do not speak those languages, and that is it.

Yes, my brain frequently seems to turn the sounds of words into some unintelligible utterance that was never really said and doesn't really have any meaning whatsoever.

I've had this problem when I've been in highly stressful situations. My native language is English. And, at those times, it sounds completely foreign to me. This only added to my stress level, because before I came to WP, I never knew it happened to anyone else. So, thanks for the post.

It is a bit of a concentration issue. When I am focussed on some thing and somebody talks to me, I can miss the whole thing, like I do not understand.

I have this problem all the time.
Three things that help:

1. A lack of background noise.
2. People making sure they have my attention before they speak to me.
3. Watching people's mouths as they speak.

You are certainly right there.

Sora,

There is a famous German Singer named Nena Kerner(her group was named Nena). I once managed to pick out a part of one of her top 10(in the US and probably Germany) songs, and had to point it out to my NATIVE BORN GERMAN teacher, who didn't believe me! "hielten sich fuer Captain Kirk"(Considering themselves to be Captain Kirk)! ALSO, I once listened to a Hindi tape, and SWORE I heard "furchtbar"(Terrible). It turned out it was "fars par"(on the carpet)! So knowing another language CAN complicate things. HECK, many concepts are UNKNOWN to indian languages, so they often switch to english! So a word that sounds like english MIGHT be english.

ALSO, foreigners add to the problem. And YOU, being German, may believe an English word to be pronounced very different from how it is. Likewise, I may have problems with some German words and throw you. Even declension may do it.

Still, you seem to write english well. I bet you do as well with german.

Everybody sounds American to me. I hate it. I don't hate Americans, though. I love everybody.