Skill or talent to learn Asian Languages? What is your gift?

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Dej
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16 Aug 2005, 7:00 pm

As we all have AS, it has been said that we all have some kind of gift or (savant skill?) I'm just wondering what abilities do you guys have? I am American, first language is English, but I have an amazing ability to learn Asian Languages (Korean, Japanese, Chinese) it is easy to learn languages that have different characters.......does anyone share this ability?

What are your gifts and talents?

Dawn



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16 Aug 2005, 8:10 pm

I passed the New York State Spanish Proficiency Exam. Two of the letters in the Spanish alphabet are different from the ones we know.


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16 Aug 2005, 8:44 pm

I have never formally studied any Asian languages, but one of my co-workers is trying to learn Japanese for school and I have actually been able to help her with it. Several of the characters are very logical and when strung together make sense, like iceberg is literally "ice mountain" and volcano is literally "fire mountain".


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16 Aug 2005, 10:15 pm

Dej wrote:
As we all have AS, it has been said that we all have some kind of gift or (savant skill?) I'm just wondering what abilities do you guys have? I am American, first language is English, but I have an amazing ability to learn Asian Languages (Korean, Japanese, Chinese) it is easy to learn languages that have different characters.......does anyone share this ability?

What are your gifts and talents?

Dawn


I tried to learn three foreign languages, French, German and Greek and pretty much nearly forgotten what I tried to learn't. I know only a very little French and nil German or Greek (although I only spent a year trying to learn both of them).



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16 Aug 2005, 11:57 pm

I don't know if I have any gifts or talents...

GA



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17 Aug 2005, 8:47 am

I thought the stats were that about 10% of the AS population had savant skills? (vs less than 1% for the general population)

I am rotten at languages...but then again, I don't have AS. My son is PPD and rotten at languages...but he also has Learning Disabilities in the Written Expression area.

I don't think he has any particular skill. He's a smart little cookie and good at many things but...savant skills? We haven't seen them yet.

Interesting question.

BeeBee



PaulB
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17 Aug 2005, 12:57 pm

I'm actually pretty good at learning languages if I stick to it. The problem is that I generally don't. I took German, but haven't used it in years so I wouldn't be able to speak it without some refresher courses. I've also taken Spanish and Japanese. Don't ask my any Japanese, and my Spanish is horrible.

I'm often asked if I am good with math when I tell people about my AS. The funny thing is that this is a bit of a trick question for me. I'm quite good with advanced math like calculus and linear algebra, but I am horrible with basic math such as addition and multiplication. I think that is because I am really good at science, and I can see a calculus problem as a science problem. I can picture a temperature gradient more readily than I can picture an absolute number for some reason.


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17 Aug 2005, 1:11 pm

i was very good at languages at school - it helped that it was an interest for me but towards the end of alevels lost interest in it



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17 Aug 2005, 1:12 pm

i was very good at languages at school - it helped that it was an interest for me but towards the end of alevels lost interest in it



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17 Aug 2005, 2:12 pm

Memorising stuff, I guess. Lines and songs just come straight away to me (except for that stupid song I was trying to learn yesterday).

I used to have skills in math, like it would all come naturally to me with out having to work at all, but somehow that's changed and now, although I'm generally better than the rest of my class, I just can't improve or learn any of it. (if that makes sense)


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larsenjw92286
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17 Aug 2005, 4:24 pm

Paul, if there is an English word that you would like to know the meaning of in Spanish, please let me know. I don't mean to brag, but I am very good.


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Serissa
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17 Aug 2005, 4:36 pm

I'm miserable with languages; I can't hear or pronounce them right. Save for English. And even then I learn so much from reading every so often I'll use a word and totally mess up its pronounciation though I'm using its meaning correctly.

My bizarre ability that nobody else seems to be able to do is that I can do ambigrams that rotate 180 degrees. I can do almost any name or any word. Here's an example of what I mean, someone asked me to do the phrase "January Secrets" for reasons I no longer remember, but all the other ones I have on my computer are peoples' names and I don't want to do a new one tonight. Anyway you usually have to know what it's supposed to be before you look at it, but then you can tell that yeah, it does kind of look like the phrase it's supposed to be.

Image



tallgirl
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17 Aug 2005, 8:11 pm

Languages, I learn them easily and with fluency in a short time. Music is also my other talent, I have perfect pitch and can learn any instrument with relative ease. Does this help me in a professional capacity, no. Lame.

Tallgirl.



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17 Aug 2005, 8:23 pm

Spot the paradox over here! I can't learn a new language if my life depended on it. Oddly enough though, if I hear or see enough of an English-like language I can pronounce most words correctly. Especially French and Spanish, I've failed both classes but can still pronounce most words correctly. Old English is fun too.

Another talent of mine is music. I'm an awesome singer, and can play tuba and baritone (but I'm really good on tuba). Too bad I can't afford any instruments. :(


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TaliDaRadical
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17 Aug 2005, 11:25 pm

My native languages are several forms of Chinese. English is my second language. I really want to learn Arabic, but I'm afraid I'm too full of languages already.
I basically have no talents...



NBEAP
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18 Aug 2005, 5:18 am

Serissa wrote:
I'm miserable with languages; I can't hear or pronounce them right. Save for English. And even then I learn so much from reading every so often I'll use a word and totally mess up its pronounciation though I'm using its meaning correctly.

My bizarre ability that nobody else seems to be able to do is that I can do ambigrams that rotate 180 degrees. I can do almost any name or any word. Here's an example of what I mean, someone asked me to do the phrase "January Secrets" for reasons I no longer remember, but all the other ones I have on my computer are peoples' names and I don't want to do a new one tonight. Anyway you usually have to know what it's supposed to be before you look at it, but then you can tell that yeah, it does kind of look like the phrase it's supposed to be.

Image


that is vair cool