I’m having issues with the language I’m learning. Due to my autism I almost always speak with a flat tone. Speaking with any inflection requires an intense amount of effort I usually can’t keep for very long. With English it’s not really an issue since I can usually do stress okay.
With Japanese it’s a different story. If you want to sound like a native speaker you have to imitate a pitch pattern for every word. I can hear the pitch when others speak, but I can never replicate it consistently no matter how much I study. My voice just goes back to monotone like in English. Recently, a nurse at the hospital I was staying at overheard me and told his coworker I used the wrong pitch accent. Likewise, I tried to make friends with another Japanese learner and he criticized my pitch accent too. It still bothers me a bit since I’m trying my best.
Japanese isn’t a tonal language like Chinese, but some people are very insistent about learning pitch accent. My previous college for one graded me harshly for it. While other students were doing pitch accent okay I just couldn’t keep up. All I could do was one phrase. At my current college pitch accent is only briefly mentioned and then never graded. I’ve done better as a result. While the grammar is really hard, I was able to keep my grade up.
I’m just worried I’ll always be looked down on for not being able to replicate one part of this language. There’s little research on autism and language learning, but from what I’ve heard from others on the spectrum we tend to specialize in one area and struggle with others. For me reading is the easiest part, while accent and speaking are the hardest.
One of my moms tried to comfort me by saying that she’s been to many countries (which she has) and usually no one cares if you can replicate accents or not.
Does anyone here know anything about this?
With Japanese it’s a different story. If you want to sound like a native speaker you have to imitate a pitch pattern for every word. I can hear the pitch when others speak, but I can never replicate it consistently no matter how much I study. My voice just goes back to monotone like in English. Recently, a nurse at the hospital I was staying at overheard me and told his coworker I used the wrong pitch accent. Likewise, I tried to make friends with another Japanese learner and he criticized my pitch accent too. It still bothers me a bit since I’m trying my best.
Japanese isn’t a tonal language like Chinese, but some people are very insistent about learning pitch accent. My previous college for one graded me harshly for it. While other students were doing pitch accent okay I just couldn’t keep up. All I could do was one phrase. At my current college pitch accent is only briefly mentioned and then never graded. I’ve done better as a result. While the grammar is really hard, I was able to keep my grade up.
I’m just worried I’ll always be looked down on for not being able to replicate one part of this language. There’s little research on autism and language learning, but from what I’ve heard from others on the spectrum we tend to specialize in one area and struggle with others. For me reading is the easiest part, while accent and speaking are the hardest.
One of my moms tried to comfort me by saying that she’s been to many countries (which she has) and usually no one cares if you can replicate accents or not.
Does anyone here know anything about this?
