Bad Spellers of the World Untie! I don’t get it.

When I first saw this printed on a t-shirt I was with a couple of my friends and they burst into laughter. I sat there and giggled a bit but that was just a front to hide my confusion. For a long time I didn’t get it. What can I say?

I am a bad speller.

I am the first one to admit it. Nel and Cory are the first people to tell others. They laugh at me all the time especially when I make errors in my emails. My vocal vocabulary far surpasses my written so I have developed a habit of spelling words fonetically, sorry that is phonetically.

Now both of my fellow bloggers enjoy helping me correct my spelling mistakes. Cory likes to put “it is spelled like ‘this’” for me, which is great. I never remember past that email but it is still great. But Nel uses what we can call negative reinforcement. All his spelling help is CAPITALIZED and followed by a “DUMBASS” or something along those lines. Now that does help it stick for an extra email or so but still it goes pretty quickly.

I don’t know why this is. I guess after spell check was developed my brain just dropped the part where it kept correctly spelled words. I know this is a horrible thing but it’s true. That little abc-checkmark-button just makes not worrying about it so easy. With the newer programs they automatically change some words so you don’t even know you have made a mistake. This just means you keep writing the word the same way over and over thinking you have spelt it correctly.

For a person like me spell check is a god send. But it doesn’t really help me learn. Yes, when I was in school, it reduced the amount of red that appeared on reports and such but I didn’t learn anything. Even though I try I still depend highly on those red lines to pop up and that little button.

But in a society where text messaging is becoming the norm, spelling (or grammar) doesn’t seem to matter that much. Whole sentences and emotions are written with a few letters. For example: ill b l8 2morrow k? c u qt. (Neither Cory or Nel would accept this in either an email or text) Because of this, spelling and grammar are going to become a lost art form. And even for a bad speller like myself I find that very sad.

I guess it is good that I have friends who would not let this happen. Even though they get the jist, sorry gist, of what I am saying they always make sure I know what I have done wrong. You learn from your mistakes right? Even if it only lasts for a short time.

Tra