My son, currently in 7th grade, has dyslexia, dysgraphia, and ADD. The 7th graders at his school are supposed to choose their 8th grade elective within the next few weeks. My son has heard that there is a two year foreign language requirement to graduate from high school (there is), so he has chosen Japanese 1 as his elective. He knows this will count as one of years of foreign language and is actually looking forward to the class.
My question is - is he shooting himself in the foot by choosing this class? I tried to warn him that Japanese writing isn’t anything like a foreign language such as Spanish (he won’t be able to guess at how a word is read or sounds, since the characters are so different from what we’re used to seeing). He said he understood and is still willing to give it a try.
I hate to try and dissuade him from taking the class, maybe I’m underestimating his abilities… I just don’t know.
Has anyone had any LD kids taking a Japanese/Chinese course - if so what were their experiences? Teachers - what do you think - is he getting in over his head or will we all be pleasantly surprised?
Re: Japanese foreign language elective?
There may be some other factors that deserve to be considered. The smaller one may be that he could put off taking a foreign language for a few more years as only two years are required. The bigger one is the teacher. Teachers make a big difference in any course. Who teaches this Japanese class and what’s their reputation? Is the teacher student-friendly, user-friendly and receptive to those students with alternative learning styles?
I advise my students and my sons to consider the teacher when choosing classes. The best teachers can make the hardest subjects seem easier by virtue of the excellence of their teaching and the worst teacher can make the simplest subjects obtuse by virtue of their inability to teach the subject.
Re: Japanese foreign language elective?
You bring up some good points.
I honestly don’t think he’s trying to achieve something too difficult, just so he can quit - that’s not his nature. He is usually VERY selective in his interests, regardless of what the current fad is. He also insists on trying to do his best on a subject that interests him. He’s always been interested in the far east - I think he would have rather chosen Chinese, but it’s not offered! Your info on what languages are easier for dyslexics does tend to have me sigh in relief. Maybe he knows what he’s doing when he chooses Japanese!
Re: Japanese foreign language elective?
Your points are well taken. He could postpone the foreign language requirement until later - but neither he nor I are sure what that would accomplish. As for the teacher, I’ll have to get more info on that, I don’t even think he considered who the teacher was when he made his choice. It was just something he was interested, and it also fulfilled a high school graduation requirement.
Greetings Lynn,
I just read an article today from an AP Science Writer entitled Study: Dyslexia Tough for English. In this article, the author reports from a study by an international team that Japanese is easier than English for children learning to read because of its consistency of sounds and symbols. He also indicates that the English language has 1,100 ways that letters in the written language are used to symbolize the 40 sound in the spoken language. However, the 33 sounds in Italian are spelled with only 25 letters/letter combinations and the 32 sounds in French are written in about 250 different letter combinations. Also, Spanish, Finnish and Czech are ‘dyslexia friendly’ because they lack the sound-spelling complexity of English and French.
With that said, Carmen & Geoffrey McGuinness, in their book Verbal Intelligence report that researchers have found that low achieving students are likely to attempt things that are much too difficult for a good chance of success. These low achievers place more value on the lofty attempt rather than on eventual success. So low achievers will fail the overly difficult goal and quit whereas high achievers are more apt to attempt a moderately difficulty task, succeed and then move on to the next level.
Now with all that said, you will need to try and determine why your son wants to learn Japanese. Does he truly want to learn Japanese or does he want to learn it in the hopes of impressing his friends and to look cool since there is obviously cachet in saying you speak Japanese versus the to-be-expected Spanish. Does he have a history of setting too difficult of a goal and failing? Has he previously shown interest in Japanese culture? Will Japanese enhance his career goals? You will need to answer these questions in order to help guide him through the process of making an informed decision about his education.
Blessings, momo