6 ms·

There is a reason why German kids don't have spelling bees.

by btreesOfSpring 4mo ago

taeric 4mo ago
And, of course, the main reason we have spelling bees is that people enjoy them.
- phainopepla2 4mo ago
  But they are only possible because the phonetic rules of English are far from consistent
  - taeric 4mo ago
    This feels like a strong reason to keep both, to me. People enjoy them, and they enable fun games. :D
    - phainopepla2 4mo ago
      I completely agree. I love the weirdness of English and would hate it to have it smoothed out
- pessimizer 4mo ago
  In Western alphabetic languages other than French, English, and Portuguese, not being able to spell the word is virtually identical to not knowing how to say the word. People who spell words wrong in Spanish are either on the one hand mixing up "k" and "que," "b" and "v," maybe screwing up "c" with "k," "s" and "que" or forgetting the accent placement rules; or on the other hand they've literally heard and said the word incorrectly all their lives. Also, even the misspellings in Spanish will 99.9% result in perfect pronunciation. The accent rules are just about where you're allowed to omit it, or when you add it to a one-syllable word and it doesn't actually indicate an accent. The error you're most likely to make is to put one in when it is unnecessary.
  - taeric 4mo ago
    My apologies if it came across differently; but I'm well aware what a regular orthography is. I do have a bit of a pet peeve on the stance that English doesn't have a phonetic orthography. It absolutely does. To teach kids otherwise is a massive disservice to the kids. It is easy to think that all of the exceptions to how things work in English are problematic. The catch, of course, is that many of them are specifically used as fun games to play with the words. To me, it is the equivalent of planned city centers versus organic variants. Reality is almost certainly that both can work. And there will be preference of folks between the two.

There is a reason why German kids don't have spelling bees.

taeric 4mo ago

And, of course, the main reason we have spelling bees is that people enjoy them.

phainopepla2 4mo ago
But they are only possible because the phonetic rules of English are far from consistent
- taeric 4mo ago
  This feels like a strong reason to keep both, to me. People enjoy them, and they enable fun games. :D
  - phainopepla2 4mo ago
    I completely agree. I love the weirdness of English and would hate it to have it smoothed out
pessimizer 4mo ago
In Western alphabetic languages other than French, English, and Portuguese, not being able to spell the word is virtually identical to not knowing how to say the word. People who spell words wrong in Spanish are either on the one hand mixing up "k" and "que," "b" and "v," maybe screwing up "c" with "k," "s" and "que" or forgetting the accent placement rules; or on the other hand they've literally heard and said the word incorrectly all their lives. Also, even the misspellings in Spanish will 99.9% result in perfect pronunciation. The accent rules are just about where you're allowed to omit it, or when you add it to a one-syllable word and it doesn't actually indicate an accent. The error you're most likely to make is to put one in when it is unnecessary.
- taeric 4mo ago
  My apologies if it came across differently; but I'm well aware what a regular orthography is. I do have a bit of a pet peeve on the stance that English doesn't have a phonetic orthography. It absolutely does. To teach kids otherwise is a massive disservice to the kids. It is easy to think that all of the exceptions to how things work in English are problematic. The catch, of course, is that many of them are specifically used as fun games to play with the words. To me, it is the equivalent of planned city centers versus organic variants. Reality is almost certainly that both can work. And there will be preference of folks between the two.