Difficulties with foreign languages - CHADD's Adult ADH...

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Difficulties with foreign languages

Mikk1 profile image
12 Replies

Do persons with ADHD/ADD have more difficulties with foreign languages?

Maybe due to lack of memory or whatever else reason.

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Mikk1 profile image
Mikk1
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12 Replies
MTA- profile image
MTA-

My wife has ADHD (we both do), and she speaks five languages.

But she has a knack for languages. ADHD varies from person to person. I find that you can't make blanket statements like 'people with ADHD have trouble with X'. We generally have difficulty with academic pursuits, given we find it hard to be motivated for anything we're not interested in. But if you're interested in something, you can learn it just as easily as anyone else.

Mikk1 profile image
Mikk1 in reply to MTA-

Wow. 5 languages ... I was completely wrong then ... :)

STEM_Dad profile image
STEM_Dad

I have ADHD. I speak only one language fluently (English), and understand a little bit of another (French) which I learned in high school but have not had any practice with since HS graduation.

I have a son who is not diagnosed with ADHD, but he has most of the same traits as me (perhaps not as severe as mine). He speaks Spanish really well, because he not only took two years in high school, but he also practiced a lot with his mom, who is fluent in Spanish.

My parents both seem to be sub-clinical ADHD. They both speak English natively, German fluently, my mom is fluent in Spanish, my dad was fluent in Russian (now a little less than fluent due to disuse), and my dad speaks Spanish very well but is not quite fluent. My mom understands a tiny bit of French, too.

------

As with all ADHD people (and all people in general), I think that learning languages is a combination of: interest, necessity, effort, and opportunity.

Tadogsinger profile image
Tadogsinger

I agree with STEM_Dad . I’m an ADHD learner and a language professional. I speak Portuguese and English fluently, and I can also communicate pretty well in Spanish. As a language enthusiast, I’ve tried learning a bit of French and Japanese, but would also like to learn Italian and Russian. I know how to greet people and say thank you in all those languages, plus German, Dutch, Finnish, and Chinese.

jilllewis84 profile image
jilllewis84

It makes sense a lot of the responses are from people who have a knack for languages -- I wouldn't take it to mean that foreign languages *are* an ADHD thing either. But maybe like everything ADHD we either find it really easy or really hard.

I studied linguistics in college, and they would say the biggest key to learning a language is the desire to learn it. If you try to force it, it makes it infinitely harder, creating resistance in the brain (in theory). I speak 2 other languages I learned in my 20s, one fluently enough to do professional translations as a side gig. And yet, even though I've always wanted to learn Spanish, I have Spanish speaking friends and long to read epic novels and poetry in Spanish, I've never gotten it to click. I think it's because there's tons of bilingual people where I live and I've never had the need (or desire) to embarrass myself enough to get good at speaking it. The other languages I learned living abroad and seeking out people who didn't speak English, so pushing through became a necessity. I guess that's my secret for languages revealed, lol, move away and find people you can't talk to without learning the language. My guess is, my fear of embarrassment is crushing to my desire to learn a language, so I fail to progress. Because yeah, like you said, trying to rely on memory-based learning gets me nowhere.

Mikk1 profile image
Mikk1

Ok, thank you for the replies, but ... Haven't you got a lack of memory associated to ADHD?

Isn't that lack of memory an added difficulty, not in learning, but in remembering words for example?

jilllewis84 profile image
jilllewis84 in reply to Mikk1

There's different ways of learning languages. Usually languages are taught using memory based learning, which works fine for most neurotypicals.

So like, if in your head:

house = 🏠

a French instructor might teach you:

maison = house = 🏠

That's where is becomes very memory dependent, rather than engaging directly with meaning, imagery, emotion, etc. You need more working memory to do all of that translating back and forth for each word. But, again, this memory-based learning is enough to get neurotypicals to that next stage, where fluency develops and instead of thinking:

maison = house = 🏠

you start thinking:

maison = 🏠

For me and I believe other ADHDers, the key to learning is finding ways to go directly to creating a new meaning for a word in a foreign language (right to the maison = 🏠 part). That way it sticks to emotion and meaning-making rather than drawing on working memory. So learning songs in another language, watching movies, and getting drunk with friends who speak that language tend to be more effective ways for us to learn than trying to get something out of books or recordings or apps.

(Hope it's ok I went for the double reply. Again I've studied this for years and get excited to geek out.)

bushbum profile image
bushbum in reply to jilllewis84

Yes yes and yes. I struggled severely with high school Spanish and college Arabic. But when I moved overseas with an organization that used the GPA approach for language learning, I found that it was EXACTLY what my ADHD brain needed. Check it out. growingparticipation.com/

Here's a specific example of it applied for English language learners. sil.org/resources/english-w...

I consider myself awful at languages but managed to become professionally proficient in Chinese through sheer stubbornness and was able to become reasonably competent in Spanish while living in Latin America. Memory difficulties can actually be of great benefit for learning a language or really learning anything. Two of my favorite gurus are Jim Kwik and James Clear. Although neither Jim nor James has ADHD, both of them suffered severe concussions with younger and had severe memory difficulties. Now, Jim has one of the best memories of anyone in the world - you should check out some of his youtube videos, and both of them have written outstanding books on learning and habits. Jim Kwik's Limitless and James Clear's Atomic Habits are outstanding books, but even better, both of them have lots of resources available online for free to help with memory and language learning.

Shnookie profile image
Shnookie

Hi this Shnookie. I speak English Hebre, Spanish , Yiddish and bits and pieces of Italian and French because they’re Romance languages. Also A majority of Hebre words come from roots, so one root can produce for example 6 words. With the way my ADHD brain works, this structure works well 4 me.

plantaunt profile image
plantaunt

i majored in one foreign language and was strongest at learning and memorizing vocab and grammar structure and then speaking what I had learned -- but my comprehension was always terrible. It was so noticeably unbalanced and frustrating bc I was afraid to speak it for fear of a long response back I wouldn't understand. It was like all my brain went into speaking, so there was nothing left to take info in. Whereas in English it's the opposite, I'm great at listening and often stumble when speaking! maybe speaking and listening are totally different areas of the brain.... maybe adhd brains are just extra-specific

KinivTerranova profile image
KinivTerranova

I don't know if you're trying to learn a new language right now, but I learned English on my own from the age of 7 or 8. Of course, I had some difficulties because I didn't have a teacher, but the main thing for anyone who wants to learn a language on their own is willpower and focus. Now I think that unfortunately, as you get older, it becomes more difficult to learn certain things. You tend to lose some memory capacity over time and this unfortunately seems to have implications for learning any language.

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