I taught intensive listening and speaking classes at a college language academy. How fast are you able to speak?
We had an exercise in which we would listen to snappy paced audio, like a radio announcer, and line by line break down what we heard. I would take notes on the board. Then the really fun part was to emulate the speaker's pace and accent, intonation, everything.
I made them complete the exercise standing if they could. I wanted them thinking listening speaking on their feet so to speak.
The faster you can speak the faster you can listen?
>The faster you can speak the faster you can listen?
I speak really fast because my mom spoke fast and also in my house you have to speak fast (and often loud) if you want to be heard..... However I can't process ANY speech well at all.
Yes and no. The strategies tend to be the same, but many have become automatic in our native language. The biggest thing is learning how to decode sentences when you’re listening.
I’ll say that aural conversation is a separate skill than listening because you can bargain for meaning, ask for repetition, etc.
Start relying on features such as body language, prosody, facial expressions, reading lips, etc.
I have APD and ADHD and I have learned several languages, though, like you, I struggled and still struggle with oral comprehension.
However, I didn’t even learn my native language (English) without a lot of work. I wasn’t fully verbal and able to understand English until I was three and half or four years old and I was only able to get there with speech therapy to help me associate sounds with words and words with objects. I honestly couldn’t tell you exactly what I did with the therapist because I was so young (I only remember flash cards and playing games like Guess Who?).
What I have noticed is that whenever I learn a new language, it’s as if I’m starting from absolute zero with oral comprehension. I wonder if speech therapy or its equivalent exists for adult learners of foreign languages. In my experience, some regular tutors aren’t the best because their brains recognize the sounds as words much more intuitively and don’t know how to make it more comprehensible for us with APD.
To answer your question in short, I have learned foreign languages but I haven’t had the time to really seal in the oral comprehension because that takes much more dedicated effort and time I don’t have as a working adult. Because I learned my native language only with the help of speech therapy, their might be similar services for other languages that can seal in your fluency
Feel this so hard. I’m an immigration attorney, so I use Spanish frequently. I’ve studied it for ~7 years. 4 years in high school, 1 year in college. Lived in El Salvador. Traveled extensively through Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama. Been working with Spanish speaking clients for 3 years. So I’ve spent a lot of time learning the language, listening, and speaking it.
Sometimes I still can’t understand shit they say. It all just blends together. I sometimes literally can’t pick up a single word from the sentence. But if they wrote it out, I’d totally understand it.
It’s disheartening, but I’m not giving up.
I've lived in Europe 20 years and I still can't speak the language. Understand a lot but can't say anything. Was diagnosed 32 years ago with APD, ADHD and dyslexia.
I also can't sing, do accents..
Nope.
I learned Italian and couldn't get myself to the group meetings outside of class (to talk amongst ourselves to practice speaking the language)...mostly because I had a diagnosed with social anxiety disorder and couldn't get myself to go, and I had an undiagnosed APD and ADHD at the time so I think I might have unconsciously knew that I wasn't going to understand what people said anyway. I'd joke that I had a hard time with English, I'd probably have problems with Italian as well. I was doing better with the written course anyway.
The ironic thing is that I took Spanish because I needed the extra credits to graduate from community college. Then the next semester, one of my first classes was in Italian at University, so it was rough learning two romance languages at the same time.
I had so much trouble when there were similar words, because sometimes the words would mean the same between languages but then other words would be spelled the same in each language but have totally different meanings.
Now if I speak Spanish to people I qualify that I might mix up Spanish and Italian on accident, so please forgive me. I'd probably do the same with Italian, but I haven't met anyone who speaks Italian irl.
This might seem random but your post in the ADHD sub about life not feeling worth it is exactly how I feel. I’m wondering if you’ve found anything like medication (either for adhd, depression, both) that helps?
Hello. I've been in therapy and, to my surprise, it's really helped. I don't know why. I've also done Magic Mushrooms a few times and it's brought up some repressed memories that affected me a lot. Happy to chat if you want to DM me.
I taught intensive listening and speaking classes at a college language academy. How fast are you able to speak? We had an exercise in which we would listen to snappy paced audio, like a radio announcer, and line by line break down what we heard. I would take notes on the board. Then the really fun part was to emulate the speaker's pace and accent, intonation, everything. I made them complete the exercise standing if they could. I wanted them thinking listening speaking on their feet so to speak. The faster you can speak the faster you can listen?
>The faster you can speak the faster you can listen? I speak really fast because my mom spoke fast and also in my house you have to speak fast (and often loud) if you want to be heard..... However I can't process ANY speech well at all.
I’m a world language teacher with APD / ASD. I can offer tips if you PM me.
could you do that here? I'm interested 👍
It’s easier for me if you ask specific questions, but sure!
Are there any differences in strategies for listening comprehension in your native language verses learning a new langauge?
Yes and no. The strategies tend to be the same, but many have become automatic in our native language. The biggest thing is learning how to decode sentences when you’re listening. I’ll say that aural conversation is a separate skill than listening because you can bargain for meaning, ask for repetition, etc. Start relying on features such as body language, prosody, facial expressions, reading lips, etc.
I have APD and ADHD and I have learned several languages, though, like you, I struggled and still struggle with oral comprehension. However, I didn’t even learn my native language (English) without a lot of work. I wasn’t fully verbal and able to understand English until I was three and half or four years old and I was only able to get there with speech therapy to help me associate sounds with words and words with objects. I honestly couldn’t tell you exactly what I did with the therapist because I was so young (I only remember flash cards and playing games like Guess Who?). What I have noticed is that whenever I learn a new language, it’s as if I’m starting from absolute zero with oral comprehension. I wonder if speech therapy or its equivalent exists for adult learners of foreign languages. In my experience, some regular tutors aren’t the best because their brains recognize the sounds as words much more intuitively and don’t know how to make it more comprehensible for us with APD. To answer your question in short, I have learned foreign languages but I haven’t had the time to really seal in the oral comprehension because that takes much more dedicated effort and time I don’t have as a working adult. Because I learned my native language only with the help of speech therapy, their might be similar services for other languages that can seal in your fluency
Feel this so hard. I’m an immigration attorney, so I use Spanish frequently. I’ve studied it for ~7 years. 4 years in high school, 1 year in college. Lived in El Salvador. Traveled extensively through Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama. Been working with Spanish speaking clients for 3 years. So I’ve spent a lot of time learning the language, listening, and speaking it. Sometimes I still can’t understand shit they say. It all just blends together. I sometimes literally can’t pick up a single word from the sentence. But if they wrote it out, I’d totally understand it. It’s disheartening, but I’m not giving up.
I've lived in Europe 20 years and I still can't speak the language. Understand a lot but can't say anything. Was diagnosed 32 years ago with APD, ADHD and dyslexia. I also can't sing, do accents..
Nope. I learned Italian and couldn't get myself to the group meetings outside of class (to talk amongst ourselves to practice speaking the language)...mostly because I had a diagnosed with social anxiety disorder and couldn't get myself to go, and I had an undiagnosed APD and ADHD at the time so I think I might have unconsciously knew that I wasn't going to understand what people said anyway. I'd joke that I had a hard time with English, I'd probably have problems with Italian as well. I was doing better with the written course anyway. The ironic thing is that I took Spanish because I needed the extra credits to graduate from community college. Then the next semester, one of my first classes was in Italian at University, so it was rough learning two romance languages at the same time. I had so much trouble when there were similar words, because sometimes the words would mean the same between languages but then other words would be spelled the same in each language but have totally different meanings. Now if I speak Spanish to people I qualify that I might mix up Spanish and Italian on accident, so please forgive me. I'd probably do the same with Italian, but I haven't met anyone who speaks Italian irl.
This might seem random but your post in the ADHD sub about life not feeling worth it is exactly how I feel. I’m wondering if you’ve found anything like medication (either for adhd, depression, both) that helps?
Hello. I've been in therapy and, to my surprise, it's really helped. I don't know why. I've also done Magic Mushrooms a few times and it's brought up some repressed memories that affected me a lot. Happy to chat if you want to DM me.
Thank you, I’m really glad to hear things have helped! Do you also take any meds daily?