aspie polyglots

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As I recently found out I am an aspie, I am contemplating a bit on my whole previous life, the experiences I had and the "superpowers" I have. What I noticed is I am very good with picking up and deciphering languages. Of course, I am better in reading than speaking, as for speaking fluently you need to be a bit of an extrovert, too, which I guess is hard for aspies. It's hard to put a number on the number of languages as I don't use them regularly and some of them are so alike I don't even count them as separate languages in my head, but I would say it is in the range of 10-15 (European) languages. Anyone else have this?

It would be cool to have some kind of a multilingual thread or a group somewhere, where we could chat in several languages at the same time. Anyone up for something like that?

Polyglots are rare among neurotypicals, and they're certainly rare here too. Just super rare in general and a very amazing talent. My sister will probably become a polyglot one day, already picked up two languages (so three total) and working on a third; but, she's a neurotypical person. Still, I am fascinated by people who can speak a few languages, and my fascination is only increased tenfold by polyglots. Please share some fun phrases in multiple languages!

Finding so many aspies are polyglots is rather amusing to me. That is, considering the fact when I was diagnosed with ADHD 20 years ago, the professional testing me said she was puzzled--all tests showed I had ADHD but some criteria didn't fit. Such as my avid interest in languages and computers, reading/writing/math since age 2, and reading "more grown up" books (such as Nancy Drew) when I was 6. But, she added, if those things (that normally were areas of struggle for those with ADHD) really held my interest, that may be why I excelled in them. She obviously was blind to recognizing autism.

It took 10 more years for me to learn about autism and another 10 years to get an official diagnosis. (Well, I'm still being tested over many months. I'm 2/3 the way through and so far each professional testing me has said it's definitely autism.)

So, my languages started with English, of course. Then about age 4 I was mesmerized by the small squares of Japanese newspaper my teen sister showed me that had come out of the worn binding of her old diary. I wanted to read it but she couldn't teach me, not knowing the language herself. Even to my teen years I'd be mesmerized by instruction sheets that contained multiple languages besides English!

When I was 7 I started teaching myself a few phrases in Spanish, then about 9 I taught myself the American Sign Language alphabet, Braille, and after learning rudimentary Latin in 4th grade, learned more Latin on my own. I also tried to learn Morse Code but didn't have an easy way to practice so gave it up.

Then when I was 11 we briefly lived in Canada and I became interested in French. As a teen I took Spanish classes in high school and taught myself more French and teaching myself German. In community college I took American Sign Language and German classes. When I reached the highest levels offered for those (only two levels each), I took more Spanish classes. In my last Spanish class, intended for native speakers only, I got B+. I had never heard the English word "polyglot" but in that class was introduced to the Spanish word "poliglota" first!

In addition to these languages, I'm also dabbling in Russian after several years ago watching Masha and the Bear in the original Russian on YouTube. (At that time no English or Spanish dubbing were available.)

Spanish is my strongest foreign language, as Spanish TV is more available. With captions I can understand 90% or better. As typical aspies love puns, among my favorite Spanish language shows are those by "Chespirito" (Roberto Gomez Bolaños) who did "El Chavo" and other characters. All of his shows use play on words which makes it funny.

Also "Cuentos de Hadas" is a Spanish dubbed version of the German fairy-tale series "Sechs auf einen Streich". But the Spanish TV network only has a few dubbed in Spanish. For more shows, I watch the original German ones on YouTube. They also have French dubbed versions there, too, besides the Spanish.

About captioned shows, when I can't find captions, such as on YouTube, I do find my listening comprehension is greatly improved by wearing earbuds instead of listening through the computer or smartphone speakers.

Being a polyglot has been especially fun when I could use languages in the workplace. At one place, a deaf customer always came to me because I could understand her, despite my limited signing skills. At a retail store I worked temp during Christmas season, in one day I helped a deaf customer, a German-speaking customer, and a Spanish-speaking customer, none able to speak English. My manager thought I was from another world, being the only one able to communicate with them. At another job, we received an order in what I now know is Afrikaans. My coworker had opened the letter with the order and said in disgust, "What am I supposed to do with this?" I looked at the letter and was amazed I could read it! The language looked like a mixture of French, German, and Dutch. I told her the writer said he enjoyed our landscaping magazine and was sending money for a subscription but if this wasn't enough to cover the costs, let him know and he'd send more money.

As a final note, about two years ago I found some interesting polyglot podcasts. Haven't had time to listen to them in the past year or so, but episodes I did listen to were very interesting and informative. There is a big polyglot community and they even hold conferences at various places worldwide.

Languages have been my special interest for five years now. In this time I have learned over twenty to varying degrees. It would probably be true to say I can speak several, read and understand a dozen and decifer some of the rest.

Speaking isn't the point as my social anxiety is so huge I don't go anywhere, and hate telephones and any sort of communication. I watch tv in many languages and listen to audio books and music. I am hoping that if I understand enough languages I will better understand humans in general. I love the sound of voices; I just don't like being the focus of attention. It feels so invasive, like unwanted touching. I would love to use my languages but that doesn't seem possible:(

I'm sure there's some place somewhere you can use your language talents. But even if not, such as in my case at present, just enjoy your language abilities for your own pleasure. To me, knowing languages, when you're really immersed in them, gives you insight into each language's culture. Something special that the typical monolingual could never experience.

To me, it's thrilling to discover nuances in each language. I enjoy foreign language comedies that use puns while introducing me to new slang, such as those shows by Chespirito. When shows are dubbed in other languages, I like analyzing the subtle or blatant differences in phrasing. Such as in Sechs Auf Einen Streich (Fairy tale series) in original German and the other languages dubbed, it had Puss N Boots speaking French. But the French version had him speaking Italian. I like discovering trivia in shows like that, but nowhere to share it (until here, just now) because so few could appreciate or even understand these interests.

It's too bad about phones causing anxiety for you. I go through phases of not wanting to talk to people in person, but phones rarely cause problems. I will admit when I worked some jobs that required phones I did have anxiety but that was usually incoming calls that made me nervous. I had to hide my anxiety or get fired. But as long as I'm in control and making outbound call on my terms, I don't mind phones. I think why that is, for me, is that I don't feel on the spot for what to say. If I initiate a personal call, it's to gather or dispense information for my advantage. Such as calling a manufacturer of a product I use, for more information, and while I'm at it requesting discount coupons. I benefit from this.

So I was wondering if you had something like audio email, that is, instead of typing conversation if there were a way to exchange voice audio clips with someone, if that might work for you. There might even be a polyglot on this forum with similar anxieties. You could speak on your own terms and time, with no pressure to speak "on the spot". Because I do know from experience that as much as I enjoy languages by myself, I always feel a sense of accomplishment after sharing a foreign language dialogue with someone else, no matter how short the conversation is.

Languages are my favorite obsession. I don't communicate much with others let alone practice speaking. People tend to believe that to master a language one has to speak. An Aspie's kryptonite is communication so speaking is hard. Additionally, when I grew up family would make fun of us for trying to speak their language and it was the only language we could communicate to them with.

I used to stare at languages when I was little. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever begin to understand some of the crazy looking and awesome sounding languages of the world.

Just like another poster, I have varying degrees of ability in hearing, speaking, writing, reading(, and calligraphy).I have a firm grasp on about 5-6. An understanding about 5 more. Know how language works and how some crossover and have identified the crossovers and grammatical rules. Some alphabets are hard enough. I tried to grasp this one African language with about 950 total vowels, letters, diphthongs, tripthongs, even up to 5 or 6 letter combinations. The 3-d spatial skills one has to have to read it is crazy. But depression and burnout always hold me back. If not that, then discouragement in getting stuck.

I've studied off and on for about 22 yrs? About 15. Varying in degrees from kindergarten level to almost college level and calligraphy from basic to near expert. But, I'm still like a kid. Things like this are my obsessions not my identity nor some form of bragadocious knowledge heap. I wish many times I was just normal with friends.

Examples of the forementioned writing system for mainly 4 African languages; technically not a language but the most mind-blowing writing system ever devised IMO:

That's really interesting. Especially your study in not-so-common languages. My studies are more common ones, with easily accessible materials. Such as Spanish telenovelas and music, German and French shows on YouTube, Russian cartoons, besides books in these languages.

With the skills you have, have you ever considered working with Wycliffe Bible Translators even as contractor a few hours per week? They might even have telecommute options via computer. Over the years I've toyed with idea of joining them myself. But they have plenty of people working with the languages I know. It's the type of languages in your study that'd be much in demand there and in similar translation organizations. From what I understand about these organizations, one needs not be fluent, but at least know the workings/rules of the language.

For me it is fun studying some of these an hour here, fifteen hours there, or months and even years on end with no pressure. An organization similar to that one is something I had considered in the past (SIL). But with anything that is turned 'lucrativo' and varying levels of subject-matter expertise, it turns into a chore and a burnout. I tend to dislike any of my likes when the motivation for it is steered financial. Since that is not my motivation, I wouldn't do so hot in the end. These interests are personal.

Eg: playing with basic Arabic in around the year 2000, I got frustrated because I would get stuck on certain things (and most other subjects). I advanced in that language but would get stuck on easy things like a pronunciation or letter morphology, etc. I quit that one for about 2-3 years then something clicked and upon picking it up again, I became pretty good. Later on, I took 2 courses and an intermediate one (while studying Persian on the side for fun). Everyone in the intermediate Arabic class thought they failed the final, including myself. Everything was spoken and written front-to-back and the questions were all in Arabic. To my surprise one person got a 100% and that was me. I was in complete disbelief b/c I doubt myself a lot. In that class I sharpened others skills as well: writing Arabic has now become near perfect even with a dull pencil I can mimic the angles of calligraphy. I enjoy more of the written art forms from different cultures using Arabic, Persian, and similar alphabets like Urdu, Pashto, or other variations in which the letters use the Arabic alphabet but with morphs & strange looking additions and so on.

Knowing the crossovers in to other languages (like spanish for one), some linguistic rules (like S-O-V etc), helps me decypher others that I might not have a book for. One difference is that I do not get any of these confused with each other. These languages are compartmentalized. Except for one thing that occasionally temporarily tricks me: the letters - E, I, H, and И. Since I've looked at or studied varying degrees of Russian, Coptic, & Greek (maybe someone else recognizes why this is tricky cross-language).

Not many people I have met have this same interest. Just another thing that I usually keep to myself.

Happy new year R_G

From when are you considered a polyglot? Is it about how fast you can learn a language or how easy it is to learn/ understand one or how many languages do you speak or understand or what is the indicator?