Can an embedded Flash SWF save and get a variable with Reader?

Question

My SWF content contains text in different languages.  The user selects a language and it appears.
Is there a way to store this setting locally so that the correct language appears when the pdf is reopened?
I only need a two-letter string, like "EN," "FR," "ZH," etc. and the SWF does the rest.
I've tried calling multimedia_saveSettingsString from the SWF Actionscript, and I've tried setting an Acrobat global variable and setPersistent using Actionscript and local .js files. It works in Acrobat, but not Reader on a users system.
I also tried using a separate pdf form to store a global variable, and then attempted to get that variable using the SWF Actionscript.
Could the be an issue with security settings or Acrobat properties?
I'm not a virtuoso at this, so script examples would help.
(Windows 7; Actionscript 3; Acrobat 9 and XI are available; Adobe Reader 9 is in the installed base, but I may be able to switch to a higher version of Reader)
I asked a similar question in the Acrobat Javascript community, but got no responses. I reworded it here with additional detail
Thanks.

Answer 1

Here's the section from my example that's linked to the Save and Load buttons. evalText, infoText and replyText are the three TextArea fields.
Note that it's important to send a string, but return an object and cast it back into a string. EI.call() has no clue what's being sent back from JavaScript.
// button handlers
butSave.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, doSave);
function doSave(e:MouseEvent):void {
    var rtn:Object = ExternalInterface.call("multimedia_saveSettingsString",evalText.text);
    if (rtn == null) {
        infoText.appendText("Save: REPLY = null");
    } else if (rtn.toString() == "") {
        infoText.appendText("Save: REPLY = empty string");
    } else replyText.appendText("Save: reply = " + rtn.toString());
butLoad.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, doLoad);
function doLoad(e:MouseEvent):void {
    var rtn:Object = ExternalInterface.call("multimedia_loadSettingsString");
    if (rtn == null) {
        infoText.appendText("Load: REPLY = null");
    } else if (rtn.toString() == "") {
        aT(infoText,"Load: REPLY = empty string");
    } else replyText.appendText("Load: reply = " + rtn.toString());