As I was listening to the BBC World Service today, I was intrigued by a news topic about President Putin who was, unusually, speaking English rather than his native Russian. This led to a discussion on the impact of world leaders who make the effort to speak foreign languages. The guest invited into the BBC studio to comment on this phenomenon said that world leaders speaking foreign languages made a huge impact on their standing in the world of politics.

This led me, of course, to think about my own children and their opportunity at school and in other ways to learn foreign languages. Of course, with two dyslexic children, who are pulled out of class for special services usually during foreign language sessions, this provides little opportunity. But more significant is that modern foreign languages are said to be a challenge for dyslexic learners. These languages are based on Western letter-based alphabetical writing system and difficulties arise in matching the alphabetical symbols to the sounds they represent.

So, is the area of foreign language closed to the dyslexic learner? If so, are there avenues of life that are also closed? What about languages, such as Chinese, which is based on a non-alphabetical system? Research has found that Western dyslexic children have brain deficits in different areas of the brain than Chinese dyslexic children. Perhaps we should not give up on the possibility of mastering a foreign language for our children.