Do you judge others if they can't spell?

[Zoesmama]

For some, spelling is easy; they learn fast, assimilate words quickly, spell well. While for others, they find spelling hard; learn other topics well but English spelling remains incredibly tricky.

Which camp do you fall in to?

If you are one of the lucky ones who can spell well and 'just learned it', then well done. English spelling isn't easy. There are lots of irregularities and strange rules to learn.

If you are someone who found it difficult to learn to spell at school, then you are not alone. Close to one third of children leave school with a shakey grasp on spelling. This really can and does affect confidence and employment opportunities and leads to problems down the line when you have children and you need to home school them through a pandemic!

I'd love to know your thoughts on spelling.
How difficult did you find phonics lessons in lockdown?
Did you struggle to explain why some words have the 'i before e except after c' rule and some don't (there are 15 exceptions to that particular rule).

If you can spell well, do you judge others for not spelling well?

Even if someone did not have a great education, there are enough technical tools and helpers around to make it careles
Spellcheckers don't work always work ie DS spelt "whole" as "howl" spellchecker didnt pick it up because "howl" is a word

I’m dyslexic and poor spelling frustrates me so much at work. People think I don’t check my work when I do I just can’t bloody see the spelling mistakes especially if what I have done isn’t flagged up as wrong by a spell checking software.

The worst is when someone just hands a piece of work back and says check the spelling. I have to go through every word which could be suspect compare it to google.

I am a really good speller but I still check occasional spellings. I judge only on things like flyers, forms, sign writing etc. I followed a van home one day that was a window company - 'we also do facias'! (Fascias). Mind you I also judge the sign writer, because if I was a sign writer/printer I would refuse to do a job for someone if they didn't let me correct the incorrect spelling. And don't get me started on grocer's apostrophe's I wouldn't judge on SM though, because you don't know people's circumstances, and I make mistakes because of my crap typing and fat fingers...

I'm good at spelling, always have been. My children and grandchildren are too. I've always read a lot and enjoy doing crosswords (cryptic nowadays), which may or may not have helped. The only rule I learnt was, 'i before e.......'.

Did you struggle to explain why some words have the 'i before e except after c' rule and some don't (there are 15 exceptions to that particular rule).

OP I would love to hear a definitive 15.

I learned it as "I before e except after c, but only when the sound is "ee"" and I've found that pretty reliable. Without the "ee" sound qualifier I agree it's pants but a lot of the commonly quoted "exceptions" are things like deify and reign which are pronounced differently.

To go back to your original question, yes I do judge a bit, but less so as I get older and I realise how lucky I was in my own teachers. As a manager reviewing documents it is frustrating to have to correct these sorts of errors repeatedly though.

I can’t spell. Nor can my brothers. And nor can 1 of my sons. We’ve 4 degrees, a masters and a phd between us. And My mum was an English teacher. No amount of writing out misspellings helped.

I’ve also always had issues reading out load- I speed read and have always read a lot very quickly...I can’t slow down enough to the pace I talk.
As I’ve got older I realise that it is a visual thing for me- I learn and remember facts/data/info by placement..and I read by recognising shapes of words as a whole.
My poor spelling is down to not being able to visualise the individual letters in a word- I can see in my minds eye the overall shape of the word ...however, I struggle with words where there are strings of vowels or similar size/shape letters together...can’t see the detail! Words like beautiful or decision are my undoing...
Thank goodness spellcheckers came in when I was in my late twenties. Dictionaries were useless for me: decision...ok look through all the di,s, then de’s, then is that an s or c next....😂😂😂😂

Anyone else have that problem?

Loud not load😂

@DartfordWarbler did you try a spelling dictionary? My friend who's dyslexic swore by hers.

To a certain degree I do write people off of their grammar is abysmal (as in people on social media). It just gives me a certain impression of them and makes me think a bit differently about them. Wouldn’t care if anyone I know personally did this though.

DS is dyslexic. I can remember him coming out of year 2 (I think) with his spellings and almost crying with frustration.

I still remember him saying "why do they only test how to spell them. Why don't they test who knows the most words??" A fair point I think.

Also end of term spellings which is a test of words from the whole term. DS came out after having practised so much beforehand. One of the words on the test was "because" which he knew the little saying and had practiced. Ohh good I said. And he spelt it then perfectly. Well done!! He looks at me sadly "that's not how I spelt it on the test"

It did make me realise that the way children are taught and tested will not always suit every strength so you learn and move on. DS just graduated from a Russell Group Uni and had done very well In these times of spell check etc I think it will matter less and less.

So no judging from me. Grammar on the other hand...

Murmurur: too old for that! Dyslexia wasn’t recognised widely in my day either! My son did try one out late at secondary school and it helped a bit...just still found it tedious looking up words all the time and loosing train of thought🙄
Since then 2 of us have had dyslexia tests and passed easily- so we call it the “warbler family spelling” gene!

One of the words on the test was "because" which he knew the little saying and had practiced. Ohh good I said. And he spelt it then perfectly. Well done!! He looks at me sadly "that's not how I spelt it on the test"

DS knew the Big Elephants Cant Always Use Small Exits, except he though Always began with an O!

@bruffin

One of the words on the test was "because" which he knew the little saying and had practiced. Ohh good I said. And he spelt it then perfectly. Well done!! He looks at me sadly "that's not how I spelt it on the test"

DS knew the Big Elephants Cant Always Use Small Exits, except he though Always began with an O!

this has made me laugh so much because that's exactly the sort of thing that DS would have done!!!!

@mumsiedarlingrevolta
You have got to laugh.
In year 6 he did a project on games consoles throughout the ages, he did an amazing job and teacher asked me if it was all his own work. I said yes, she said i thought so because of the spelling. He spelt Officially , Aaawfisherly
DS went to uni but didnt graduate, but got himself a good job in Big Pharma, who gave him a chance despite not having a degree.

When life gives you MELONS you’re dyslexic!

@bruffin well done to your DS!! And agree- you have to laugh!!!

Teachers should be able to spell, certainly. I would be taken aback to find spelling mistakes in school newsletters too.

No, I don't judge people who can't spell or have poor grammar. I might judge them on what they are saying though!

Teachers aren’t allowed to correct spellings. So are words like their there and they’re need to be taught

I work as a volunteer LSA in a primary school and we categorically do correct spellings. We underline the word and put "sp" in the margin. But there is a fine line between letting a child's creative mind spew out a narrative and correcting the spelling which could kill the love of writing a story. The correction comes after the story is written.

Lots of children don't know the root of a word and so can not make the next logical jump. We teach spellings but it isn't something that is really drilled into them. Some children continually mis-spell the same word over and over even with a correction every time but this is not dealt with.

In the school day we do not have time to emphasise spelling as much as we should do. Obviously children are tested on this not only in year 6 SATs but also History GCSE for example. I think some words are often spelled wrong such as definitely ie definately which really pisses me off and a favourite on MN recently is ect, instead of the correct etc.

Depends on context. I judge people I went to school with because it was a grammar school so I think they really should be able to. I sometimes judge cvs and applications depending on the level of education. I think its easy to spot a typo rather than a spelling mistake. If spelling is consistently bad I assume dyslexia. But I don't think poorly of a person with bad spelling. I just think this person is decent enough but cant spell.

Yes. Can't bear bad grammar and spelling. Grammar is worse

Re. alternative spelling systems - wasn't there an experiment with this in the 1960s? It's before my time but I remember reading an article about people's experiences. People who were naturally good at spelling were fine but it was disastrous for those who struggled.

If you watch the video I posted that explains definitely vs definately.

I think people write ect rather than etc because they think it's ec cetera. However even if you know it's et cetera, there isn't really much logically that makes it abbreciate to ET Cetera, rather than Et CeTera.

I am a good speller, have never really had a problem with it.

I do understand that it isn't that easy for everyone but I admit to judging people on their bad spelling. Mainly because it doesn't take much to check it, especially if it is on a sign or menu!

Anyone else a bit nervous of typing their response in case they get a word wrong ?

I'm not a good speller. However I think, when writing anything official - a CV, filling in an application form, writing a notice for public display, then if you don't mock it up first / draft it out and get it checked, then yes, I would judge you for that. It is telling me that you aren't self aware about things you find difficult and willing to ask for help when it is important. It's sort of like coming to a job interview in ripped jeans, a dirty top, unwashed hair and dirty fingernails.... Yes, I know what you wear doesn't impact upon how you do the job, BUT, to me it says the job isn't important enough to you to make a bit of effort.

I see a lot of paperwork, through work, submitted with wavy red lines underneath words - all you have to do is right click on the word. You don't have to be good at spelling, the spellchecker has done the work for you, so yes, I judge those folk.

It depends on the context. I would expect anything vaguely official to have been checked and edited. But I can see how eg social media posts it’s less important, so long as you can understand what the person is saying. And typos happen to all of us!

I'd agree with this ^