English spelling can make your head spin...

stretch5881 said:
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Gallagher was the king of making the truth funny. His English examples in that video prove there is no proper way to teach spoken or written English because of all the DUMB exceptions right from where he started.
And Raid kills bugs dead. Is there another kind of killing. Saw him twice live and miss his making fun of everyday life humor/humour.
 

As an aside, my eldest daughter's class on teaching reading American english to children was to have them memorize words, not teach phonetics. When she told me this I asked her, Then how can they read any words that they were never taught through memorization?
 
I don't have an opinion on phonetics vs. word memorization. We know many words before we even see them written, so it's more of a recognition.

What I have noticed is that English --certainly American English-- has rather devolved from vocabulary into idioms. It's exceedingly rare to hear anyone speak without their liberal use. And I won't start about grammar. The lack of good education, along with the frighteningly ubiquitous use of what I call cocaine phones, is steadily dooming the language.
 
Magna-Carta said:
That's disappointing, as it wasn't a trick question. Suggesting that you might have seen it as a trap?
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I did not see it as a trapā€”I just meant that expecting quick results from small reforms might be setting the bar a bit too high. Real change in spelling tends to be slow unless thereā€™s a major shift, like what happened in Turkey.
 
oslooskar said:
I did not see it as a trapā€”I just meant that expecting quick results from small reforms might be setting the bar a bit too high. Real change in spelling tends to be slow unless thereā€™s a major shift, like what happened in Turkey.
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To give some clarity on where I was coming from: in my 32 years of work in Quality Assurance, Iā€™ve learned that it's often about making relatively simple initial moves that can yield bigger early wins. The goal isnā€™t to expect massive shifts right away but to create a strategy that builds momentum. By showing significant early progress, you can bring people along and get buy-in. But Iā€™m also aware that while the early steps may be easier, the smaller, continued improvements become more challenging as you move forward.

When I said in my earlier post, ā€œDo you have any thoughts on what, if any, some small scale solutions might have in creating an immediate impact?ā€, my explanation here is the only place I was coming from
 
Magna-Carta said:
Do you have any thoughts on what, if any, some small scale solutions might have in creating an immediate impact?
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Victor Paulsen (1909ā€“1982), the designer of the Torskript alphabetā€”created specifically for writing modern Englishā€”was not particularly concerned with making an impact. He simply wanted to make his alphabet and its system of writing available to the public. He published a book about it titled Improved Orthography, as well as a workbook titled Torskript Grafik.
 
Over decades as a major reader all my life, I've occasionally thought about the horrible English phonetic versus spelling issues and leaning towards society working toward with an intelligent plan to reduce spelling nonsense by retiring groups of word spellings gradually in say 5 year phases; So for a few decades, the world would somewhat awkwardly support two ways to spell some written words. Starting with the worst examples would be a wise start.
 
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David777 said:
Over decades as a major reader all my life, I've occasionally thought about the horrible English phonetic versus spelling issues and leaning towards society working toward with an intelligent plan to reduce spelling nonsense by retiring groups of word spellings gradually in say 5 year phases; So for a few decades, the world would somewhat awkwardly support two ways to spell some written words. Starting with the worst examples would be a wise start.
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can you re=phrase that in russian please??
 
Twostep said:
Exactly what I said - try understanding a controller in small town somewhere USA.
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Yeah, I get it. They have a very strong southern accent and when they spew out instructions, we have to sometimes ask them to please repeat. We stay clear of larger airports, like KBHM in Birmingham.
 
Their is know reason to knot cast a spell on spelling. The main principal is to get the pronunciation write. The affect of pour spelling will only help them to meat theyā€™re doom. Know pretty flours four them.
 
l hate to think that the same people who want to improve the English language would try to do the same thing
with the human race.
 
Olivia said:
l hate to think that the same people who want to improve the English language would try to do the same thing with the human race.
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Who exactly are these people you're referring to who want to "improve the English language"? The only efforts Iā€™m familiar with aim to improve the spelling, so that the written language better reflects the spoken language, making it easier for children to learn to read.
 
I can sit at this screen, ruin my lifes flavor and believe its crap about the weather or I can go out there and live my life.
 
oslooskar said:
Who exactly are these people you're referring to who want to "improve the English language"? The only efforts Iā€™m familiar with aim to improve the spelling, so that the written language better reflects the spoken language, making it easier for children to learn to read.
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You didn;'t need an anawer after all.
 

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