I can’t spell… in any language.
As anyone who reads, writes, or speaks English will tell you, English spelling is a jumbled, illogical mess. Supposedly in German you spell things exactly the way you pronounce them… however, when your German pronunciation is only so-so, your spelling is also so-so. I know French too, but my spelling is no better there either.
When I was in eighth grade, my dad bought me a wonder of modern (ca. 1988) technology: The Franklin Spelling Ace. The premise is simple. You type in word like you think it should be spelled and if you are right, nothing happens. If you are wrong, it gives you a list of possible words to choose from. Sometimes if you grossly misspell a word it doesn’t work, but manages it about 90% of the time. It was (and still is) a life-saver! It also happens to come in handy if you do cross-word puzzles because it has a feature where you type in something with missing letters and it give you choices… but I digress.
Now I am totally dependent on my spell checker. It is sad, but true. About half of the time when I write these blog entries I copy them into Word (mBlog has no spell check) before I ever publish them.
But the problem is, when you can’t spell people may make many assumptions that are completely inaccurate. The worst assumption they may make is that you are either stupid or functionally illiterate. And while this may be true in some cases, many times it is not.
But today seven members of the American Literacy Society delivered a message by protesting at the National Spelling Bee: “Enuf is Enuf!” they say. Advocating the modernization of English spelling, they claim that “English spelling is illogical. And the national spelling bee only reinforces the crazy spellings that lead to dyslexia, high illiteracy, and harder lives for immigrants.”
And I koodn’t agre more!
(Read the USA Today article .)
neil says:
Oh, my speeling is useless too, and my English has also been corrupted by living here and reading English written by Germans (or Americans
for that matter) and I jumble everything up. And don’t even start on correct use of punctuation… I’ve even started to apply the German Rechtschreibreform rules to English spelling, which is unforgivable really.
3 June 2004 at 10:02
Duncan says:
?Now I am totally dependent on my spell checker. It is sad, but true. About half of the time when I write these blog entries I copy them into Word (mBlog has no spell check) before I ever publish them.?
Dear Blondie.
You are not alone…
3 June 2004 at 12:28