I don't think there are many languages with a large disconnect between spelling and reading. There are some exceptions in most languages, but nowhere near as ba

I don't think there are many languages with a large disconnect between spelling and reading. There are some exceptions in most languages, but nowhere near as bad, in my experience. The Romance languages for example have pretty clear spelling rules. It's not 1 letter : 1 sound, but usually 1 group of letters : 1 group of sounds, such as "ll" in Spanish or "ill" in French or "ch" in Italian&Romanian. There are usually exceptions around loanwords and old names, and sometimes different sounds that native speakers don't realize they pronounce differently (e.g. in Romanian a final 'i' in a word is usually a semi-vowel, while 'i' in the middle of a word is a full vowel, but most Romanians you ask would tell you that it's the same sound, even if they pronounce and hear it differently ).