Why can't people spell any more?

Question

I understand that many of the people here are from foreign countries, but the spelling is terrible! Are our schools failing us ?

Answer 1

Just my opinion, but here it is.... too many folks rely onspell-check, and a big per centage of our country is no longer reading. Think about it...when was the last time you had to wait for the train from "back east" to arrive with a cargo of bolts of cloth, designs from Europe, and newspapers? A majority of folks avoid books and printed materials as if they would catch their hands on fire touching them. Ever read "Farenheit 451"? Most folks tune into the tv, cable, satellite, digital, or web to get updates on the news, and even worse, to watch a movie of a book that was written. So where did the words go that we need to spell? To the television. To the satellite. To the cable. To this here ol' web. However, even here, when folks try to communicate, they shorten everything with letters that are supposed to mean the same, only quicker. LOL Right.
So the actual usage of language has been tainted by our own wheels of progress. It is hardly a wonder we have such poor spellers. I have actually volunteered in schools with my kids, so no, it is not what I saw to be the fault of our school systems. It is our society as a whole. Microwave mentality tells you to hurry it up, quicker, faster, shorter. Lousy way to write, right?

Answer 2

I think that the people from foreign countries do not know how to spell English well, even if, they can speak it. Some can't speak it either, or speak it well. However, for us established Canadians or Americans, there are teenagers that drop out of school, and so they don't care about spelling of words or anything else. I believe people should put more of an effort in their spelling, take a night school class, to improve, or freshen up your skills, read books, read newspapers, magazines, consult dictionaries, and thesaurus' to make corrections in your spelling.

Answer 3

I agree that people just seem not to read anymore, and once you're out of school that's the only way to keep yourself accustomed to good spelling.

Speakers of phonetically spelt languages find it actually easier to memorize English spelling than native speakers, because they have a system where every letter or combination of letters always represent the same sound.

As for schools, I don't know, but I saw with my own eyes that a primary school teacher did not correct spelling mistakes in second year essays because she maintained that "it would hamper the children's creativity" to do so.
Of course I don't know how widespread this is and whether it is sanctioned by the authorities, but it seemed to explain a lot to me.

Answer 4

No one is forced to use net-speak and chat-speak that's just ridiculous. It's a choice they make.

I think that the schools are failing. There are too many kids and not enough well educated teachers. (Please don't get your knickers in a knot if you are a teacher and are good at it, just look around at other teachers and other schools.) Have a look at what your government spend most (or even close to enough) money on. Is it schools? No. My theory is that if they keep their citizens under educated they can keep them down and keep the power. A form of suppression. Well educated people will question more and be able to put their words down in an understandable way and gain support.

Answer 5

languages change over time for many many reasons. Old used to have an e on it. heck "ye olde shopee" all have extra e's, and its usually with some old time store or weird parts of english countries. english several hundred years ago was much different. many of our words like knife, knight, pronounced the k before it, so there wasn't any confusion when someone said good knight or good night. people got lazy and just didn't bother saying the first letter.

thanks to the internet and cell phones where people need to speed things up, and they can do so without screwing up the way the word sounds, too much. but in the long run several hundred years from now much of our words will probably change.

Answer 6

Not really the schools' fault. Kids spend most of their time in front of a television, so they think in pictures instead of words. It isn't enough to just "study" spelling in school -- you have to read a lot to absorb correct spelling and grammar and have it become second nature. Nowadays hardly anyone (kids or adults) reads anymore (except for maybe TV Guide and gossip magazines).

Answer 7

ye i agre our speling is so losy wht do we do i dun wna b laughd @ no more

Seriously though, I blame it on the proliferation of email and instant messaging, the latter shouldering most of the burden. In instant messaging, you CAN afford to make mistakes in typing, as the other party will be able to understand what you're trying to get across anyway. Instant messaging also spawned the use of short forms such as lol for laugh out loud. This results in a laziness and lack of attention to detail with regards to typing, and is possible to carry over to other aspects of communication ie writing.

Answer 8

Because, one doesn't have to. See the link below. Kids these days, are not bright enough to spell the "old fahioned" way. So, someone with a bright idea came up with another way of spelling so it won't be so difficult for the younger generation to spell.It is related to when we had to do math in our heads, and on paper. They are not required to do math like that anymore. All that is needed is a calculator, or computer.It boils down to laziness and the unwillingness of teaching and learning.

Answer 9

Are our schools failing us ? ...
Yes.
I went to a pretty good set of schools, and just happen to be a bad speller. I always try to check what I have written before sending it out to be read (writer:) ) but I still make mistakes. I know what your saying though. It's really getting weird out there. Even yahoo uses bad English. When you use spell check, and it's finished it's task, it says "Done". It should say, "Finished".
Food gets done, people finish.
Ah, I'm American therefore pre determined as stupid, so maybe a lot of people here know that too, and just stop making effort.

Answer 10

because people are getting lazy with all the technology that is out there to help us like computers-they just do it for us straight away we don't even have to try to spell right as long as we get close it fixes it. same with text messages etc. It depends on the person and wether they can bothered to use proper spelling or not