ESL & Asperger?

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I was wondering if anyone here is ESL as well as Asperger...

I'm not exactly diagnosed as asperger, but I relate to lot of description of asperger, especially about social skill problems and clumsiness. I was diagnosed as ADD several years ago but now I feel like the problem might be little bit bigger. Right now I don't have health insurance, so I can't find it out for sure anytime soon My little sister was diagnosed for PDD-NOS recently, so it's very possible that I have something close that. Although my problems are lot more mild then my sister. (But still not quite "normal")

Anyways, back to the topic. It's bad enough that I'm kinda awkward and struggling to learn & pick up social skills from normal people, I wasn't born and raised in U.S. so it makes it lot harder to socialize. I lived in US for nearly 10 years, and I would say my English is between intermediate and advanced level.... I feel insecure because there are people out there who lived in U.S. less years then me and speak nearly perfect English, blending in with Americans just fine.

The problem is I feel like me having both of Aspie/developmental problem and English problem makes the 2 of these issues more complicated and hard to improve. I know that if you don't speak not-so-good English but still have great social skills, you are going to be just fine. At my workplace there are some latino people who speak Spanish to eachother, and they would speak very broken English to Americans but they can joke and have conversation just fine, having way worse English then me.

Since I have a accent and cannot understand when Americans talk fast (not being able to understand young american's casual language when spoken fast is one of my biggest problems), AND being awkward and don't have these people skills to come back with funny, witty comments, makes me get left out in conversations. Which makes it harder for me to make friends. When I don't have friends, it makes it harder for me to improve English as well as social skills. It's a vicious cycle!

It's killing me.. I wish I spoke perfect, general-American English, or don't have aspie problem. I would feel lot better if I only had 1 of these problem.... Does anyone relate to this?

I would say you can use the ESL to hide the other stuff. This is what I have been doing my whole life. They think that you are different because of your accent and then they will give you some leeway because of that. If I go back to my "own culture" and native language group, then I'm eventually pushed to the side and forgotten about in a matter of minutes.

Yes, I have been doing this ever since I came to US as well. Like you, I thought being a ESL is a good way to cover up my awkwardness. Well, actually I never actively thought about it, but I did this subconsciously. I remember at my past jobs with co-workers and bosses being all American, I will make sure that I stress about where I'm from, and that I was raised under influence of different culture. (I had to do this because I look more or less like regular Caucasian. I'm mix.)

But recently my desire to REALLY fit in without covering up is growing stronger and stronger.. I want to improve my English. I want to improve my social skills. I want to be respected like everyone else and not be left out. I want to have small talks like other people and laugh over little jokes at my workplace. But I can't afford for speech therapist or counseling or whatever to get professional help.... I want to move forward but I'm not sure how :'(

ESL + AS here. I've sent you a PM.

I think I had a similar problem. English is my second language, and I had an accent and horrible grammar when I was little, but I could still understand what others are saying in English. However, people assumed that when I didn't talk at all it meant that I couldn't speak or understand English, and tried to put me in ESL classes instead of thinking I had issues with socializing instead.

I'm a volunteer ESL teacher. Most of my students are Bhutanese refugees, but I also teach many Iraqis and people from different African countries. I agree that it's a good "cover", however I would say that NT people who use English as a second language begin communicating in an opposite way to autistic people. They rely on their social skills to make sense of situations. As they learn more English, they rely less on social skills and are more comfortable with the words by themselves.

I'm not sure if people who aren't familiar with people speaking a new language would be aware of this. Usually any kind of "difference" is good cover for another "difference."

But it's good to imagine figuring NT mannerisms out as similar to learning a new language. It'll never be as natural as speaking your own language, but you can become fairly fluent in it over time.