Re: ADHD ruined my language learning experience.

[Anonymous]

Be our guest! I really feel the need to encourage you NOT to give up!!!!!! Try to remember that it may not be the language as much as the classroom format which we all know is farthest from ideal for ADDers. Remember the teacher from the “Peanuts” series??? You may need to come at it from an entirely different perspective, go back to your childhood and learn the way a child learns–curiosity, immersion, use your senses (another thing we are good at!!) Do not beat your head against the wall because you are trying to fit a round peg (ADD brain) into a square hole (conventional learning)!! At this point I might interject to tell you the reason for my optimism–I too have learned a language, albeit not perfectly, but enough to hold a conversation, and although I took a formal class for 6 months, the most of what I learned was from the above methods. BTW, the language was Mandarin Chinese, including all those wonderful characters! I am now also starting to learn Cantonese. Try not to pressure yourself to keep up with others, only keep challenging yourself and your known limits!! Try to tap your creativity and use those daydreaming sessions we are so good at to your advantage, also immersing yourself (learn what you can) in the culture, food, dress, and the way they think. Knowing why they think the way they do will help with the language, trust me! Sometimes I “forget” that I am not chinese and join in on conversations or even smile at someone and get weird looks, like why is this “white person” staring at me????

Try to remind yourself why you “love it so much” every day and when you are staring at homework. Or take a break and go have some sushi!!! lol Just learn at YOUR pace and try not to worry about “catching up” even though I know a class has deadlines!!! Focus on WHAT you are learning and not HOW FAST…

Oh yeah, picture dictionaries are AWESOME!!!!!

Okay, I think I have exhausted every cliche in the book!!!!!!!! Hope this helps even somewhat, you are not alone!

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