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Yes. Speakers of Russian, for example, find the concept of a "spelling bee" to be completely nonsensical--if you hear a word and can't spell it, you must just b

Yes. Speakers of Russian, for example, find the concept of a "spelling bee" to be completely nonsensical--if you hear a word and can't spell it, you must just be completely illiterate, and vice-versa. I have heard this is the case for Spanish as well, but I don't have personal experience in that case.

pmoleri 6y ago
In Spanish: word -> sound (is straightforward). sound -> word (not so straightforward). So, spelling does make sense, but it's not much of a thing like in English. We have some rules to aid the process, but at the end of the day, you need to have read a lot to know how truly write a word. That being said, I find kind of weird the cue process described in the article. I think that in Spanish we always learn by identifying letters with sounds as there's a 1 to 1 relationship in that direction. I.e. every written word has only one possible pronunciation.
- MandieD 6y ago
  My mom was a middle school Spanish teacher, and her favorite trick was to promise her Spanish I classes that they’d be able to read (but not understand!) just about anything within the first week or two. And indeed, they could - eighth grade Spanish I students had to have had an A in English the previous year, so they were all decent English readers. I’ve found that German is mostly phonetic like that, but not quite as consistent as Spanish is.
ZoomZoomZoom 6y ago
This is not correct. A large part of Russian language curriculum in schools consists of dictations[1], as Russian is not strictly phonic (mostly it's unstressed vowel shifts, such as 'о'>'а'). It's nowhere close to English though. Spanish spelling is a breeze, much simpler than Russian. Unrelated factoid: in my experience, average Russian has more chances to reproduce believable Spanish pronunciation than English. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictation_(exercise) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictation_(exercise)
- gliese1337 6y ago
  I know that. I went through it while learning Russian. Nevertheless, the spelling system is close enough that, in my experience, that is in fact the point of view held by the majority of native Russian speakers--if you hear a word and don't know how to spell it, or see a word and don't know how to pronounce it, you need to go back to school. It's not something worth holding national competition about, or an ability worth being proud of, and Russians I have known are consistently baffled by the concept of an English "spelling bee".

pmoleri 6y ago

In Spanish: word -> sound (is straightforward). sound -> word (not so straightforward). So, spelling does make sense, but it's not much of a thing like in English. We have some rules to aid the process, but at the end of the day, you need to have read a lot to know how truly write a word. That being said, I find kind of weird the cue process described in the article. I think that in Spanish we always learn by identifying letters with sounds as there's a 1 to 1 relationship in that direction. I.e. every written word has only one possible pronunciation.

MandieD 6y ago
My mom was a middle school Spanish teacher, and her favorite trick was to promise her Spanish I classes that they’d be able to read (but not understand!) just about anything within the first week or two. And indeed, they could - eighth grade Spanish I students had to have had an A in English the previous year, so they were all decent English readers. I’ve found that German is mostly phonetic like that, but not quite as consistent as Spanish is.

ZoomZoomZoom 6y ago

This is not correct. A large part of Russian language curriculum in schools consists of dictations[1], as Russian is not strictly phonic (mostly it's unstressed vowel shifts, such as 'о'>'а'). It's nowhere close to English though. Spanish spelling is a breeze, much simpler than Russian. Unrelated factoid: in my experience, average Russian has more chances to reproduce believable Spanish pronunciation than English. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictation_(exercise) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictation_(exercise)

gliese1337 6y ago
I know that. I went through it while learning Russian. Nevertheless, the spelling system is close enough that, in my experience, that is in fact the point of view held by the majority of native Russian speakers--if you hear a word and don't know how to spell it, or see a word and don't know how to pronounce it, you need to go back to school. It's not something worth holding national competition about, or an ability worth being proud of, and Russians I have known are consistently baffled by the concept of an English "spelling bee".