How Should Someone With ADHD Or Asperger’s Learn Japanese?

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Did you make it past that highly distracting image of the butterfly? Whew… then you might not need this article… or maybe you do? We can all learn how to be more motivated and inspired, and we’re all human in that shiny things distract us a …. what was I saying?

Dear Koichi,

Also – and damn what an awkward question this is – is there anything one with both Asperger and ADHD should think about when using TextFugu? I wouldn’t even consider asking this to most teachers out there, but let’s face it: when I read the parts about motivation, excuses etc. it felt like you were reading my mind. Of course, you’re not to be expected with a magical answer on this one…

That is a question I got in my e-mail a few days ago (and of course, I’m keeping this person’s identity secret), and I thought there’s probably others out there who could use some help in this regard. I sent an essay of an e-mail back, but I’ve gussied it up and rewritten it to be a little more in depth and easier to understand. The answer to this question also holds true whether you’re learning Japanese or not… I use these techniques in my work, in my play, in my hobbies, and in my everything else (get your mind out of the gutter!). You definitely don’t need to have ADHD or Asperger’s to try these things out, or at least think about them.

Now, before I start, I just want to say that I’m no professional on either ADHD or Asperger’s. I don’t have either of those disorders myself (wasn’t allowed to watch too much TV as a kid, and I think that saved me) either, so I can’t say I’m speaking from experience. Despite all of that, I have spent a lot of time studying the psychology behind learning, and have done a good amount of research on what motivates and inspires people. Those two things together, I think, helped me to create a formidable theory behind learning Japanese (as well as how to circumvent and fix things like ADHD or Asperger’s).

That all being said, I’m totally prepared for a barrage of angry parents who don’t think it’s anyone’s fault (and sometimes it’s not, though I do believe that a majority cases of ADHD are the fault of environment over time… not to mention prescription-happy doctors who want their pharmaceutical handouts), and I truly am looking forward to hearing and learning from those of you who have more knowledge in this category than I do.

So here we go… prepare for some wordiness.

Finding Your “Flow”

Whether you have ADHD, Asperger’s, both, or neither, you have to know about “Flow.” Flow is a term coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (don’t even try to pronounce it), which is a psychological state in which you are “in the zone.” To put it less bluntly, Flow is a time where you are doing something challenging and you are completely concentrated on the thing that you are doing. This feeling comes about not because you are getting external motivation to do it (i.e. money, sex, power, etc), but instead because you are getting internal (also known as intrinsic) motivation, characterized by feelings of “absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill.”

So what kinds of things create flow? Well, it depends on the person, but there are a few common characteristics of these things:

  • Time goes by quickly
  • There is a clear goal (for example, if you were a mountain climber getting to the top of the mountain would check this one off).
  • Everything you do gets you closer to your goal

Probably the most common “flow” experience among the Tofugu reader base comes from video games. Sure, you’ve probably all experienced it elsewhere (and I hope you have!), but if there’s one thing I notice about people who have ADHD, it’s that they are somehow able to focus on video games really really well. Even though it’s not necessarily a positive thing, that is flow. Time goes by quickly, there is a clear goal (well, for most video games), and everything you do in the game gets you closer to that goal. That is flow. So, if you have ADHD and you can still focus on video games, I’m going to call BS on you if you claim you can’t focus on anything else. You can, though it’s going to take some practice.

So why in the world can you focus on video games and not learning? It’s because…

Schools Have Destroyed Our Desire To Learn

Alright, alright. I don’t want people saying I’m anti-establishment or anti-school. I’m a huge supporter of schools and learning, I just think there needs to be some big changes (like we need teachers who know how to teach… which is strangely lacking).

One of the biggest problems with schools is that they’re too structured. Grades shouldn’t exist, and kids should choose what it is they want to learn. Here’s the thing. Children are naturally curious. They want to learn. The problem is that it’s beaten out of them at a very early age. Let me tell you a little bit about my early education, and how it actually saved me from following the rest of the sheep out there.

I was lucky enough to go to Montessori School, which is an elementary school that has as little adult intervention as possible. Students progress in math at their own pace. They progress in reading at their own pace. They progress in everything else at their own pace. Teachers help when helping is needed, but there was no lecturing, and the funny thing is… every single student was leaps and bounds ahead of other public school kids their age. We kept our innocence, and learning for the sake of learning was rewarding. We were intrinsically motivated to learn. Humans are naturally want to learn new things, but once you add rewards for learning these new things, it is no longer rewarding and becomes extrinsic. It becomes “what can I do and what loopholes can I take to get a higher grade?” Suddenly, learning is a chore.

I was in “alternative” school programs until 6th grade, and that’s when I noticed things starting to change. Learning stopped being fun. I was working for my grades, not for the greater purpose of improving myself. Over the years, I got worse and worse at math (which I was several years ahead in by 5th grade), got worse at reading, and got worse in just about everything else. Yes, the public school system destroyed my motivation to learn. Ouch.

There are plenty of examples of this in the real world, too.

  • Open source projects like Firefox have armies of volunteer workers, not making any money at all. The reason they do it? Most of them just feel good about doing something, helping, and learning something new.
  • For those of you who have graduated college – have you noticed that it takes a couple of years to want to read again? I’m just getting to that point. In school, reading is rewarded with grades, which actually makes you less interested in doing it. After a few years being away from that, you rediscover your interest in reading, and start reading because it’s intrinsically rewarding, not because you’re getting an extrinsic reward.

Right, so what does this all have to do with ADHD and Asperger’s? It all comes back to “flow.” You have to change the way your brain thinks of things in order to give yourself the ability to reach flow in your Japanese (or other) studies. Learning is most likely ruined for you (if you are reading this, you’ve been in school long enough). The challenge is changing the way you think about learning (or making it so you don’t think about it at all!). How can you make learning as flow-worthy as video games? It’s hard, but it can be done.

Changing The Way Your Brain Thinks

Our brains are a funny thing, but the cool thing about them is that you can actually change them in whatever way you’d like (at least when it comes to thinking). You can exercise your brain too, just like you’d exercise your arms, legs, or abs. Depending on how you exercise these things, different parts of them will get stronger. With your brain, you can change the way it’s wired by forcing yourself to rethink certain things. Think of your brain like a blanket of snow with one path cut in it. Maybe you decide you don’t like that path (because it makes you think negatively about things). You can let snowfall fill that path, and create your own path. The new path won’t be easy to create (there’s a lot of snow in the way!), but you can do it with persistence.

The same thing goes for reworking your brain so that you can enjoy learning again. Although what I’m going to say seems a bit drastic, it’s not.  You have to convince yourself that grades are not important, and that they should be completely ignored. If you do this properly, I guarantee your grades will be way higher than if you paid close attention… or, at the very least, you’ll be more confident, smarter, and better prepared for the real world (seriously, I use only like 5% of what I learned in school).

This is going to sound a lot simpler than it is, but here’s how you do it.

  1. Every time you get some homework or school work, catch yourself every time you think “how will I get a higher grade on this.”
  2. Whenever you catch yourself thinking that (or something like it), replace it with something else. Perhaps “how can I solve this puzzle?” or “What part of this research am I interested in?”
  3. Do this over and over again, and if you’re persistent, you’ll begin to find learning enjoyable again. Something that you do for yourself because it’s genuinely interesting to you, and not because you’re getting an A, B, C, or D on it.
  4. When you get something back that’s graded, try not to look at the grade. Work something out with your teacher if you can, where they can keep your grade on file (or whatever they are required to do), but they don’t put it on your papers, assignments, etc. Instead, just ask for the feedback and corrections.

One other thing that’s also very important is changing your mindset on how you approach new challenges and problems. Tell me, do you think:

  1. “How can I do this task with my current skill set” or…
  2. “What can I learn in order to accomplish this task?”

You have to think the second one. People who go into challenges and problems thinking “what can I learn” are far more successful than those that only try to use the skills they currently have. These are two completely different people, and the second one is always happier, more successful, and has more meaning in their lives.

I do also believe that those with ADHD and Asperger’s can change the way their mind works too. It will take persistence, and it will be difficult, but those are the only thing stopping you from a very meaningful life. Humans are naturally interested in learning, but our upbringing and our schools take that away from us. If you can change the way you think about learning and attain flow, then things like ADHD and Asperger’s will only be an afterthought (especially if you make it to the end of this very long article, then you know you can do it).

To sum it up, catch yourself when you think “I can’t,” and force yourself to change it to “I can.” It’ll be slow progress, but you’ll get there if you really want to get there.

Applying All This To Japanese Learning

See! I knew we’d get back to the topic at hand. To be honest, though, there isn’t too much more to say. You’re going to fall into one of two camps:

  1. The camp that learns Japanese for extrinsic motivators (grades, to make friends, to get a job, etc).
  2. The camp that learns Japanese for intrinsic motivators (because it’s genuinely interesting, because it’s like solving a puzzle, etc).

Now, I’m not saying that wanting to get a job with your Japanese or getting good grades is necessarily a bad thing (okay, it is when it comes to long term learning), but I guarantee you the #2 camp is going to study a lot longer and a lot more effectively than the #1 camp.

It’s been shown time and time again that extrinsic rewards, such as grades, money, etc., only provide short bursts of motivation. Sure, give someone $100 bucks to learn Japanese for a week and they’ll study really really hard for a few days, but after that I guarantee they will end up studying way less and enjoy it way less by the end of the week (whereas the person who studies for personal growth is going to surpass the first guy no problem). Plus, if you want to keep motivating the first guy, you’re going to have to give him $200 the next week, and $300 the third. It becomes a situation of “that first $100 wasn’t enough, I’ll need more now to get that excitement back.” When you do something for a reward (other than the reward of doing something great) the excitement goes away and you associate the action (learning Japanese) with money. It’s like parents who give their kids money to do chores. Do that for a few months and try to ask your kid to take out the trash without paying them. They’re not going to want to do it, even though it helps the entire family out.

So, to learn Japanese more effectively, you need to figure out how to make learning Japanese intrinsically gratifying. You need to cut out all extrinsic rewards and come to terms with the fact that learning on its own is rewarding in itself. You’re going to have to backpedal all the way back to preschool, where learning wasn’t about grades and golden star stickers. Becoming a better person has to be the reward, and if you can do that, I promise you that you’ll learn a lot of Japanese in a short amount of time.

Recommended Reading:

P.S. Despite the lack of extrinsic motivators, you should follow Tofugu on Twitter

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Newer Comments →
  • http://twitter.com/aciara14 Ashley Thompson

    Great post – and I definitely agree. I always loved learning and was highly motivated (intrinsic), and though I did very well in traditional school, I just hated being forced to do things. Like forced reading – why couldn't I read books that I wanted to read? Not that those books weren't interesting, but they probably would have been more interesting had I chosen them myself. So much of forced learning takes the fun out of it.

    I think the best time for me was in middle school (junior high) and I was “homeschooled.” Except, my parents were so busy that I was basically in charge of my learning and let my curiosity lead me in learning (and also, learning in ways that fit my particular learning style). I loved it.

    Anyway, well done!

  • http://www.twitter.com/christaran Chris Taran

    Fantastic article. I will make a point to refer to this whenever I'm feeling negative about my ability to do things. Thank you much for writing this Koichi.

  • http://gakuranman.com Gakuranman

    Interesting article Ko. I think you're pretty much spot on identifying intrinsic aims as the better of the two, but I do wonder if perhaps a learner couldn't have both?

    I've always said I find Japanese easier than French (French is reputed to be easier because it has similar roots to English) because I enjoy it much more. Finding something stimulating and enjoyable is one of the most important things required to really excel at it – those intrinsic aims you were speaking about.

    However, I think external (extrinsic) aims are also helpful and in some cases essential. For me, although I do love studying Japanese and improving my ability just because it's fun, without set goals provided by my excellent teachers, my textbooks and examinations like the JLPT, I'm not so sure that I would have progressed this far. Having some external feedback – that metaphorical pat on the back – is motivating and helps keep me energised and pushing forward. Without those external goals, I feel I might just become content with my current Japanese ability and stop learning so much (which has almost happened since I graduated from University…)

    It's also (sadly) the case that external factors like the competition for good grades are required by companies to set you apart. It's very hard to prove your intrinsic worth to employers without the necessary piece of paper…

    But I hear what you're saying – in order to really be successful, you must first identifying the intrinsic worth in what you are doing (in studying Japanese). Only once you have found that can external factors push you higher and further. My, this is all sounding mighty Yoda-ish to me… ;)

  • http://ramenfanatic.com/ Ramen Fanatic

    I have to admit, I was the same way in school as well. In fact, though I did “okay” in school, I could have done much better but the fact was that the school made it so dis-interesting(by the way they taught it, forced it, etc) that I didn't even want to learn about the topics they were teaching.

    I actually brought computer programming books to my classes and studied those instead. Heh, turns out I'm a computer programmer now… who would have thunk it? ^_~

    Anyways, the point is that when you're turning people off of the idea of learning, about anything really, you're most likely doing something drastically wrong.

  • http://alexdesu.wordpress.com Alex

    It blew me away when I read the part about not caring about grades, even though it makes perfect sense.
    I've kinda been doing that, but the grades on the report card have always seemed kinda important.

    Anyway,
    ありがとうございます、koichiさん。

    PS: If you still need guest writers, I would be more than willing to help out. I have a blog going right now about the trip I am planning to Japan for a year (and hopefully more) as a student:
    http://alexdesu.wordpress.com

  • http://alexdesu.wordpress.com Alex

    I absolutely agree with you. My mum is even the teacher in my French class, but I enjoy learning Japanese much more.

  • Friendly objector

    I have my own take on this – just get past the rant for more constructive discussion :-)

    “So, if you have ADHD and you can still focus on video games, I’m going to call BS on you if you claim you can’t focus on anything else. You can, though it’s going to take some practice.”

    You don't need to call BS – it is true and most people with “genuine” ADHD would understand this. ADHD is not an inability to concentrate as such, rather, it is the lack of gratification required for sustained learning – the anticipation of the reward (or continued focus on the reward) rather than the reward itself. That is why one of the main symptoms of ADHD is something called “hyperfocus” which comes about in situations where the reward feedback is more tangible – video games, sex, even exams which are one and done. The key is in having the right balance of Dopamine in your pre-frontal cortex. This has been proved over and again scientifically and there is no doubt that “true” ADHD (as opposed to comorbid issues such as anxiety, depression, or other) is a biological issue with minimal environmental inputs. Not that the prevailing popular culture would miss a chance to stigmatise people. Put it this way – the scientific evidence for the biological basis for ADHD is some factor of a lot more than the evidence we have for climate change :-)

    That said, I understand why people believe it is over diagnosed – and almost certainly is – amongst the middle and upper class populations in some societies. However in certain socio-economic and ethnic groups, or even amongst females, it is radically underdiagnosed.
    If you want a good easy read on these issues, I really recommend this book by a renown writer, Judith Warner, who started off with the intention of proving the contention that you have raised – and found that actually the media panic and political extremes had completely warped the conversation.

    http://judithwarneronline.com/jwarner-issues-ov…

    Now! For something more positive, I think that you are 100 percent right about the style of learning. ADHD people have a harder time staying motivated – but that just means you have to be more creative and aware of your limitations. For example, in learning Kanji, it is more important for people with learning disabilities to use things like Mneumonics, rather than learn rote and repetition. You are also going to want to get on to reading interesting novels in order to enhance your vocabulary, as again lists of vocab and flash cards may not work – the learning has to be done in some sort of stimulatory context (after all, Methylphenidate is a stimulant that calms people down – an interesting irony for ADHDers). In a way, Japanese can be a great language for ADHDers – the visual nature of it and the difficulty of it can actually be very rewarding – that word again. The key however is that demotivation is much more of a risk – and thus you need to be much more vigilant. So the psychology of learning that you have put forward is very valid – but it becomes more important in the case of ADHDers to use the more creative solutions. Fundamentally, for ADHDers, going to Japan and learning by doing is extremely important – learning from a textbook overseas is going to have rapidly decreasing returns on investment for such an individual than for a “normal” person.

  • Beth

    I completely agree. Prior to high school, all I cared about was passing because that was what society expected of me. I always loved to learn, I just found the repetative worksheets to be boring and arduous. When I was given my choice of classes for grade 10, I picked midlevel courses because they were easy but still looked good to employers. I did most of my work in class and had no homework, so I was able to get an average of 98% at the end of the year. Of course, that slaughtered the bell curve and made a lot of people look bad, so in 11th grade I was REJECTED from all low or mid-level classes, and forced to take academic classes. I had homework every day, but I found that because these courses were more challenging, they were more interesting, so I was able to maintain grades over 90%. My biggest downfall was in Biology(which I love) due to my teacher's inability to answer questions! Anything that wasn't in the textbook(and some things that were) could not be answered by my teacher. I have a notebook full of unanswered Bio questions! I didn't have trouble understanding the school work, but I did poorly in this class because I couldn't satisfy my curiosity. Well, gee.

  • edtomorrow…

    Hmmm…. Well Im not a dr either so I dont know if dyslexia fall into this topic but honestly this does not help me for my situation. But! I find what you say very interesting and agree with pretty much every thing you've written…

    Motivation is not a problem for me to want to learn the things that interest me. Hmmm… Its hard to explain what that is exactly(learning difficulty).. Ive said once that my brain is like a brand new blazing fast, top of the line, computer fresh out on the market. But with the worst possible OS loaded on it. And broken peripherals that input everything backwards… Then the correction software only works every other day… Only when the sun and the planets are aligned…. etc…

    Eh, it sucks man…

    Oh by the way… Victor sent me… I watch his videos a lot. He seems to have a touch of something… So I try and ask him every so often questions about learning… Im still waiting… Busy fella I guess.

    Well I guess Im going to take a gander around here for a bit. Thanks for doing what you are doing. We are all very lucky for it!!!

    Gambatte!

  • Nick

    I think you would also be interested in the Waldorf education system: http://www.whywaldorfworks.org/ I joke that they wait until the children a begging to be taught.

  • Irene

    Hahaha sooo true, group 2 person here. For still not beleveable reasons I have survived school while staying in group 2, but that's defenitly not the case for people around me…
    In my country it is a law that you have to go to school from the age of 5 until 18(Yay a fine of 300 euro if you skip class)… And they only motivate the less uh… well the dump people, so that there will be a job for them in the future. And for the smarter people they just give you more subjects if your grades are good(wich ends up in a lot of languages since there aren't that many subjects). This worked the other way around, very demotivating… I don't like western languages(France, German, English, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Latin, Turkish, Russian enz. are given in the higher levels)So I got stuck doing nothing on the 2nd level. (Yay, no learning, yay no homework, …. I'm going to sleep in class from now on… my grades are above average so why should I even try?) But as soon as something interesting comes up its like YAY I would like to know more! And there is time enough so ~~ But then without guidence I couldn't realy get far with that too… The only good thing about this system is that you don't have dropouts… But does it sound effective? That is why students are protesting here ~~ Any country that does have a good working system? We would love to share it… But I am very happy now that I have chosen a study that keeps my interest up :)

  • Pingback: Overcoming Anxiety in Performance « Mikoto's Adventures in Japanese

  • http://threeamcomics.wordpress.com/ teax2

    What a wonderful post. It addressed things I was wondering about myself in relation to art, Japanese, and other things I study or practice to improve myself. I try to force myself to work harder thinking it will make me better at the thing in question, but it sometimes just makes me dislike doing that thing. Are you a mind reader, Koichi?!

  • Helena

    Wow… I definitely agree.

    I think maybe Japanese and the culture in general is a great intrinsic motivator.. no idea why exactly yet. It just really seems like it, if you look at the amount of interest and community on the internet. Seems much more than for any other language. Well, that's why I'm studying it anyhow. Never been to Japan and have no prospect of making it there, but Japanese is the only thing I can study with success and full interest.

  • gec

    Yes on many counts. The most valuable assessments I had during my university time were the ones with spoken as well as written feedback. Instead of vaguely discussing arbitrary things after yet another “let's give everyone 60%” was stuck on the wall. Never helpful.
    And also yes on motivation. Nothing new there as far as language learning theory is concerned. All other variables are fairly unimportant, if you have enough motivation, you will succeed.

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    That's super interesting stuff – As you can probably tell from my article, I did almost zero research, so I'm happy to learn from your comment :) Thank you!

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    Well, feel free to send me an e-mail if you have any Japanese questions. Not sure if I'm faster than Victor, but I try to clear the inbox at least once a week.

    Thanks for making your way over here!

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    haha, yep, that sounds about right. I think everyone likes to make fun of Waldorf kids, though. I feel like they're a little too extreme for my tastes, but they definitely have some good ideas too.

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    Apparently you weren't wearing your tin foil hat yesterday ;P

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    Well, some extrinsic sources of motivation are good, namely (as you say) the “pat on the back,” but _only_ when this pat on the back is specific praise (for example: “I liked the shading work you did on the painting, it made blah blah blah” versus the not at all motivating “you did good”).

    It's been shown time and time again though that grades, money, and other non-related things actually do demotivate people, though. It doesn't mean someone isn't motivated by these things, it's just that it's like a drug, and they need more and more and more the more they get. of course, it's important to have a baseline of these extrinsic motivators, because if people weren't getting a fair salary, then they wouldn't want to work somewhere. So, yeah, I partly agree, but partly don't. The more I read about psychology in relation to education, the more screwed up I realize everything is :( Kind of makes me want to start a private school or something.

  • sozuichi

    I'd like to start off by explaining something. Asperger's Syndrome is not really similar to ADHD, but a great deal of people with Aspergers (and Autism) have ADHD as well. I myself am Autistic, but what they call a “high-functioning” one. There isn't a great deal of difference between people with Aspergers and high-functioning Autistics, or at least I won't get into that here. They are both disorders where you are essentially socially impaired. There's different levels of it, but generally at my level, the kind of stuff that's just kinda “understood” goes right past us. We have to be told or learn the hard way to figure that stuff out. Anyway…I'm getting off the subject here. The main thing I want to correct is that bit about you not watching much TV. It's simply not true that this stuff is developed. And I can say this for certain because I was raised without being told I had a disorder. My parents bribed a doctor to take the diagnosis off of my records. I've managed to cope with it rather well, but I always knew I was different and had a hard time dealing with other people for a long time and still have some issues today. My parents just informed me of it maybe a year ago, and just told me I was too shy before and made me think I was just eff'd up… (I'm 17) The point is, nothing in my environment was different from say, my brother's, but I still was aware I had problems, and it's still there. (and my brother's fine. a jerk, but fine) Anyways, I just wanted to rant about that a little bit and shed some light I guess. I'm not angry, as you obviously don't really know much about this stuff and it's not your fault.

    Now the school part of the article…that's what I've been telling everyone since like 4th grade. School discourages you from learning. It actually encourages you to memorize stuff short-term and then dump it after the test. That's pretty much what I do, but thanks to a good memory, I still do okay in school. I've never stopped wanting to learn though, probably thanks to the internet. I just don't care about what's in school, and learn anything I want to know through the internet. (Like Japanese, with textfugu) Anything I teach myself will be better than years of it in school. Like my Spanish, which is abysmal even though I've had three years of it; within only a few months I'll probably bypass my ability in Spanish with Japanese even though it'll be significantly less time that I've studied it. (And once the sour taste fades, I'll probably go back and re-learn Spanish)

    Anyways, I've rambled on long enough. Thanks for the article!

  • http://pervertedcoffee.webs.com pervertedcoffee

    Wow. I almost cried reading the part about ignoring grades. I'm one of those people who measures their worth against the grades they get and its caused an awful lot of problems thus far. Thanks for writing the article though, I completely agree with it.

    I studied Japanese for my Leaving Certificate but without a teacher! I was never pushed or examined until the day itself and it was the second best subject on my certificate. The year I spent studying for the Leaving Cert was a very depressing, pressure filled year and I could only relax and enjoy myself while studying Japanese – I ended up hating everything else, apart from English, which ended up being my best subject.

    So I guess that's my own personal experience, I'm in college now and I'm extremely lucky to have a Japanese lecturer who hates exams and grades as much as the class does! She's very focused on self-motivated learning which gives us a lot of scope to be curious and to enjoy ourselves!

  • Mike Gibson

    Hey koichi

    I just recently stumbled across your site and I LOVE IT !!!!!!!!!!!! dood you are a wonderful writer and you give me a completely different way of looking at learning Japanese. This article was awesome!! thanks for the insite and i look forward to hearing more.

  • Emil Ervolder

    Hey! Just had to drop in and say what a Good solid read!

    I'm diagnosed with both Aspergers and ADD myself and for years i've had this strong burning passion for Japanese. Been watching animes for years, just picking up words and such, heck i even turn my GPS to Japanese tho im Danish, cuz I find it more fun!

    It's not untill recently that i've made a serious attempt at actually Learning the language and I must say, I do have problems. Mainly because I don't “Know that many people”, so whatever Japanese I do self teach, I never get to actually use, which is a huge motivator-killer. However… I keep on learning, cuz in the end, i would like to visit Japan and stay there for a month or two to see if i could actually live there and then take it from there.

    Anyway, good read! This will deffo' not be the first and only time i'll throw my voice in

    - hiffer

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    I hate to be “that person” but I just had to put in a word about Asperger's. I'm fascinated by it, and it's getting a lot more attention in recent years. One of my best friends was diagnosed with it (something he disagreed with intensely and would probably kill me if he knew I was talking about him), and after years of observing him and taking behavioral science classes, I really think it's a remarkable state of being.

    People with Asperger's have more trouble setting projects down rather than getting motivated. In fact, they get so obsessional in areas of specific interest, they let everything else fall by the wayside. In a few ways, it's opposite to ADHD. Attentional problems aren't one of the keystones of a diagnosis.

    I have noticed persons with Asperger's will get intensely annoyed with material which is below their level, perceived as pointless busy work, or doesn't get to the point fast enough. But I think many of them are masters of “getting into the flow” — well beyond the norm.

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  • Pachi Rin

    Very interesting article, especially since I have a bad attention span and procrastinate on schoolwork due to stress. Definitely going to try these techniques out during the summer as I'm learning Japanese, and hopefully these will also help me when the Fall semester for classes starts up again.

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    Very interesting article, especially since I have a bad attention span and procrastinate on schoolwork due to stress. Definitely going to try these techniques out during the summer as I'm learning Japanese, and hopefully these will also help me when the Fall semester for classes starts up again.

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  • Blayke

    I am pretty much undiagnosed with Aspegers and I agree with what you said, but there's more to it than that.

    We don't just “get into” anything, it has to be either factual or artistic. For example, I can completely immerse myself to the point of just saying “uhh-huhh” to anything somebody else says when I am doing math, playing the piano or on the computer. I get so immersed that I literally do not pay any conscious attention to the outside world. Somebody could break into my house and steal something out of my fridge and I would not notice. On the other hand, I can not stand sports, athletics, matters of preference like fashion/shopping or anything that cannot be either intuitively created (like music or art) or broken down into cold, hard facts.

    Generally, we also do not just get immersed into just anything factual or artistic, but we have VERY strong interests that can last anywhere from our entire lives to a few months or weeks. For example, Computers is my main interest (I have been obsessed with them since Kindergarten. I know more about them than the average BestBuy Employee… and I am only 14), and I also immerse myself in music and linguistics, but other than that I find myself a bit bored, especially if it is something I already know. It is not that I get angry or anything or frustrated, just bored. But I am not an angry person, so it may be different for some others. =)

    Our intense interests seem to absorb all of our time for their time. For example, if I get interested in Cooking, but it only lasts for a week, that will probably be all I do in my free time that week. I drop everything else. After that week, I could care less. It is kind of strange. I remember in elementary school I found the covered material so boring that I would finish it very fast, have no homework and every week I would have a new “interest” that I would research. After school, I would go onto the computer and learn new things about whatever it was I wanted to learn about that week. One week, it might have been molecular structure, the next might be astronomy. The funny thing is, when I was very young I didn't really “learn” these things at all. I collected what I now know was useless information, not information about how things worked and why. For example, I might be able to tell you that water is also called “H20″ and that it meant 2 molecules of hydrogen and one of oxygen, but I would not know what hydrogen and oxygen were and where they were. I just knew that that made water. It is hard to explain… I might be able to tell you that there was a galaxy near us named the Andromeda galaxy, but not know what a galaxy is. It is very hard to put into words, but I understand it… In Grade 3, I came to school with a book of words in Spanish but did not know how to conjegate the verbs or grammar of Spanish, and tried to “speak” Spanish by finding each word I wanted to say and wrtitng it down in English word order, then reading it. Terrible. I had words, but did not understand that they needed to be used differently. I knew some words, but had no understanding of the broader sense of the Spanish language. Does that make sense? xP

    The funny thing is, I was never a shy kid until I was bullied in Grade 2 because another kid thought I was “gay”. I was always the first one in a new place, checking everything out, excited to meet new people. Social ackwardness is supposed to be the major staple in people who have Aspergers, but I did not experience it. Nor did I have “tics”, rythmic body movements associated with Autism Spectrum disorders. I pick up social queues, body language, etc, but I remember being very interested in a book about how to tell if somebody is lying through body language, so maybe my developments there are more recent.

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    This is exactly how I feel everyday I go to school, luckily I have good teachers but still the grades are just horrible, its just too much pressure on getting the grade…worse then that add the state required test and you get unmotivated children. I think this is going to help me alot with my japanese and school work. I do believe that I am an intrinsic learner when it comes to Japanese (really what other reason would a teenager have to learn it lol)

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  • Jen

    Your post was gracious and informative. I was worried about misinformation regarding Asperger’s and was going to comment until I read your stuff. You’re smarter and nicer than me, and I am (supposedly) a “neurotypical.”

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