Autism

Native English speaker.

I started trying to learn German from a book in second grade (not very successfully.) I took Mandarin and French in high school (for some reason, my brain translates 鸟 as « oiseau ») and some Spanish in middle school + working in a predominantly Latin American immigrant community. (You have to be careful with words like “chaqueta”)

Continued Mandarin study in college - I can read at maybe a second grade level. Took an online Turkish class when I was trapped during COVID, and a Sumerian one later. Dabbled in Korean, but realized the class was being run by a literal cult. Some formal Ancient Greek studies, some work in Wheelock’s Latin.

I can’t speak any of these languages - my brain/anxiety stops me from making words in other languages. But I can read French and Spanish literature (have a copy of Don Quixote I plan to work through one day), and enough Chinese to read children’s literature and menus.

Turkish though - agglutinative languages break my brain. Same with Sumerian, but it’s not like anyone finds it easy to read, barring maybe some U of Chicago professors.

I’d love to be a high level DND monk and be able to read everything. There’s so much stuff that isn’t accessible if you are stuck with English.

Conversely, why aren’t neurotypical people, who also extensively use language in their lives, also curious about it? Is it a disability that impairs abstract thought, or are they too busy cheering on their sports teams or thinking about the love lives of celebrities or something?

Just about every aspect of linguistics has always fascinated me, even basic phonetics. I didn't have much opportunity to study foreign language until I was older though, which I still regret. If I started earlier I probably would have gone a lot farther. Despite several years of intense Japanese study, my ability at using it is still poor. I keep practicing what I have even now though.

German is my first language, and also my third. When I started school I had to learn English; over the years I didn’t speak much German and I have forgotten a lot. Now I have started to re-learn German again.

But over the years I’ve dabbled in learning other languages — and not mastered any of them — (French, Spanish, Latin, Klingon, Esperanto, Yiddish); I find the differences in syntax and sentence structure fascinating. Now that I’m (involuntarily) retired and have plenty of time, I should go back and study some more.

Even just the weirdnesses and inconsistencies of English I find fascinating — why do “flammable” and “inflammable” mean the same thing? How can I be “disheveled” or “disgruntled” but not “sheveled” or “gruntled”?

And my boss told me off for being ambiguous on the phone:

“Hello, Kevin’s phone”
“Oh. Is Kevin not there?”
“Yes, he’s not. May I take a message?”
“Can I speak to him?”
“He’s not here”
“But you just said he was!”
“No, I agreed with you that he isn’t here”
“You should say what you mean” …

I'm not entirely sure what the first spark was, but I've always loved tracing the etymologies of words seeing how they transformed from one language to another has always been huge for me, how languages with similar origins could be drastically different.

I'm also in love with "Old English"-like dialogue in fantasy novels.

I think it's also related to my obsession with comparing programming languages, I've spent way more time learning new ones rather than actually writing code, it's just really fascinating reading about how they approach the same things differently

I AM I AM I AM!!!

I speak several languages but I grew up speaking only one.

I like spending time far away from my home country because abroad, people tend to be a lot more accommodating to my strangeness as they just assume I am this way because I am a foreigner. I can always ask for clarification, I am never pressured to understand everything right away, and I am never expected to be "a part" of the group. I am allowed - no - I am presumed to be different. Which takes away so much of the burden of masking.

Not everyone have mother or know what their mother tongue was. An alternative is native language or first language. I find it easy to learn languages because I can easily see logic and pattern in their rules, how word roots or formation of sentences work. Although I don't have much time to practice, I am fluent in 2 more languages beside my native. I would like to learn chinese writings next.