Drade 2013
New Member
I have worked with thousands of students who have difficulties with language retention and sometimes they fall under the umbrella of Dyslexia. It can be about learning phonetically, through the sounds that are are associated with the letters on the page - it depends largely upon how a set of phonemes are pronounced in your native tongue. For example, Chinese speakers do not say the Emperor, Shi HuangDi phonetically...it is a completely different set of sounds when translated!
Often there is a visual impairment (Irlen's Dyslexia - the coloured glasses) but much more common is multi-language confusion which can be too readily diagnosed as a Dyslexic condition. This is a HUGE problem for Asian and Indigenous students due to their lack of pluralism, tense confusion and gender differentiation...the Italian language also has a whole different set of rules but they are not as prone to 'exceptions' as the English language. Aboriginal languages have been translated into a form of English sounding/looking words for the purpose of communication and to record the history that was once only spoken or illustrated.
I take my hat off to Jade and any other child who learned another language BEFORE English; i before e except after c... Sometimes! To change a word ending in o to plural, you add es... Sometimes! Just a couple of examples of the complexities that many people with English as their FIRST language never quite grasp.
I completely agree Jane, that it would have been more interesting and intriguing if BB had highlghted Jade's struggle with her education rather than typify her as the blonde bimbo. I actually believe that much of her low self-esteem stems from the fact that she thinks she's not 'smart'.
I totally understand this problem, English being my second language, some things can get very confusing. Saying he instead of she or him instead of her, present tense instead of past tense... argh. Annoying because I end up sounding stupid, I've mentioned here before that if I don't pay careful attention (and sometimes I can still get it wrong) I can get it easily wrong, it just doesn't come naturally for me.