Is English spelling really that difficult?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education...-children.html

No. She's an idiot.

[QUOTE=jimf;8687594]Is English spelling really that difficult?

I don't think so - Just my opinion ....I think these problems have now surfaced due to "text speak".

If u hve kids spellin like dis all the time, thy r going 2 strugle!

I can't STAND it when someone sends an email or writes you a note with abbreviated spelling......drives me up the wall and one of the reasons I will not purchase my kids Cell phones yet....Im so mean!

Just my tuppence worth.....

[QUOTE=NatsnSid;8687640] I have 2 kids growing up in Italy and have followed the way they were taught Italian. It really is all about phonetics and syllables and sounds and they never change and you are taught this and you can then read every word in Italian. It's true.

It made me understand why, at my school and of course other schools in England, we were given 10 spellings to learn every week......and we bloody learnt them and the difference between:

enough
borough
bough
borrow
tough
though
thorough
etc. etc.

Is English not so phonetic or syllabic? YES. Can it be learnt properly with proper spelling? YES.

If it's so bloody difficult why do so many people around the world speak English?

I don't see 'em queuing up to learn Finnish!

Agreed.

My Sister lives in Italy (about 30 minutes outside Ferrara) and I love the Italian language. Once you get the basics everything clicks.

I may not be able to hold a lengthy conversation but I can understand the conversation around me and reply in disjointed sentences/words. (I used to stun my fluent Sister when I'd say "basta" when she was talking about me! haha).

I hope the weather is lovely in Vicenza.

N

Not all of them speak it properly though but those that really study do a good job of it. In fact it's disgraceful to say that quite a few foreigners have a better grasp of the English language these days than many of those born and raised there.

Exactly - so if bloody foreigners can learn it, why can't the daft Brit kids? I thought kids were supposed to be getting smarter than the previous generation!

I spent a few years in Switzerland as a kid, and got quite fluent in French and German. But everyone around us could speak Italian, German, French and English.

I forgot my "foreign" languages when we moved back to the UK.

Having taught for 10 years the biggest indicator of how quickly kids read and write is how many books the parents read, and whether they read to their kids. Charles Dickens managed to learn to write pretty well, and he was brought up in a boot blacking factory (not sure if that corroborates what I just said or not!)!

That's what "they" keep telling us.

Thank you - it was 38°C at the weekend - very hot for the North - still hot but not as humid and sticky.

Anyway - I have more than the heat that is stopping me from going to bed tonight ...... I found a baby bat on my kitchen floor earlier and am still unsure what to do with it. There's a "helpful" thread in progress in 'The Lounge' part of the forum.

P.S: Sorry folks for deviating - but the little bat is pressing on my conscience.

If the bat was outside, I would say leave it - hopefully it's mum would find it. Since it's inside.... maybe take it to a bat rescue society (). They're getting quite rare.

Okay I may be missing the point here , but how can " the complexities of English spelling" be responsible for "increasing levels of illiteracy."

I don't believe the language has become more complex in recent years!

What has changed is the teaching methodology, it's no longer accepted to teach by rote. Sometimes that's the only way to learn to spell certain words.

Spelling was bound to suffer when marks are not deducted for incorrect spelling of words.

I don't want to deviate from this English spelling thread so whilst I do, I'm trying to make my spelling perfect.

The little bat was found on the kitchen floor - still is but in utility room now - and I'm not going anywhere at 1.13 am in the morning. I was on my way to bed when I found him/her but the lovely comments on the bat thread put paid to that.

In part I agree.

The complexities of English language have always been there but we were taught well weren't we? Even if it was by parrot method or goddamn learn your 10 spellings method. We did learn. And by golly we learnt the simple difference between there, their, and they're. The diffrerence bewteen accept and except. The way to write advice and advise.

English is simpler than other languages, there's no genders for words and you can completely mangle pronunciation and english speakers will still understand you.

The words given in the example on the article have similar sounds out of context but in a sentence they can sound different.

Oh and removing all the different spellings kills off a lot of Puns.