National Spelling Bee brings out protesters

Of all the stupid things to get worked up about.

"I have always known it would not happen, but I worked for it anyway, because it should happen," he says.

what a moron. talk about wasting your life.

Lets lower the stardards of learning in this country to that of a chimpanzee, then everyone will get great grades in elimentary school, move on to college and earn their degree in moronics!

Well, maybe not yet!

The way things are going, why not combine all the foreign languages we are required to put up signs for. That way we could be a nation that has one language again. We can't expect the immigrants to learn english.

Forget spelling. We'll just use pictures. Why not function at the level of a three-year-old?

Yeah, really great idea. In the interest of getting a few thousand people to understand the written language, it turns the remaining several hundred million English speakers into functional illiterates. One reads by recognizing word and letter patterns, not by sounding out words. So, the average adult can read over a hundred words a minute by recognizing the "symbol" created by putting letters in a certain pattern. Change that, even for so-called logical reasons, and everyone's reading speed drops to near zero. It would be the equivalent of going to Germany or any of the Scandinavian countries, with their unfamiliar spellings, and trying to read road signs or menus... it can be done, but very slowly. And what is gained? Absolutely nothing.

It reminds me of the efforts a few years ago to change the traditional QWERTY typewriter keyboard. The idea was to make it "more logical"... but one types by knowing which finger is associated with which key, not by the logic of the keyboard. Granted, it's a weird setup, but it works. Imagine a 100 wpm typist using a new keyboard... reduced to hunting and pecking. What is gained? Absolutely nothing.

David wrote:

Yeah, really great idea. In the interest of getting a few thousand people to understand the written language, it turns the remaining several hundred million English speakers into functional illiterates. One reads by recognizing word and letter patterns, not by sounding out words. So, the average adult can read over a hundred words a minute by recognizing the "symbol" created by putting letters in a certain pattern. Change that, even for so-called logical reasons, and everyone's reading speed drops to near zero. It would be the equivalent of going to Germany or any of the Scandinavian countries, with their unfamiliar spellings, and trying to read road signs or menus... it can be done, but very slowly. And what is gained? Absolutely nothing.
It reminds me of the efforts a few years ago to change the traditional QWERTY typewriter keyboard. The idea was to make it "more logical"... but one types by knowing which finger is associated with which key, not by the logic of the keyboard. Granted, it's a weird setup, but it works. Imagine a 100 wpm typist using a new keyboard... reduced to hunting and pecking. What is gained? Absolutely nothing.

Good God, Y'all. Absolutely Nothin!

David wrote:

Yeah, really great idea. In the interest of getting a few thousand people to understand the written language, it turns the remaining several hundred million English speakers into functional illiterates. One reads by recognizing word and letter patterns, not by sounding out words. So, the average adult can read over a hundred words a minute by recognizing the "symbol" created by putting letters in a certain pattern. Change that, even for so-called logical reasons, and everyone's reading speed drops to near zero. It would be the equivalent of going to Germany or any of the Scandinavian countries, with their unfamiliar spellings, and trying to read road signs or menus... it can be done, but very slowly. And what is gained? Absolutely nothing.
It reminds me of the efforts a few years ago to change the traditional QWERTY typewriter keyboard. The idea was to make it "more logical"... but one types by knowing which finger is associated with which key, not by the logic of the keyboard. Granted, it's a weird setup, but it works. Imagine a 100 wpm typist using a new keyboard... reduced to hunting and pecking. What is gained? Absolutely nothing.

All troo...but the humin brain is gud at recoginizing paterns...

I bet you at least figured out the above sentence in under 5 seconds or so. As soon as we learn a new pattern, it's there, and we move...right back at the speeds prior to the shift.

Thanks Derek for giving us all the basic argument for pandering to the lowest common denominator.

Now if y’all will excuse me, I have to go text someone, something.

JJohn wrote:

Lets lower the stardards of learning in this country to that of a chimpanzee, then everyone will get great grades in elimentary school, move on to college and earn their degree in moronics!

JJohn......It is spelled ELEMENTARY

If anyone remeber the story of Babylon? Would know that God wanted people to learn from others.
So these people should stop trying to get one languageSo these people should stop trying to get everyone to one language and start just learning about the person

Eye thnk wee shood let the wookie win. Show them whut wimps wee ar. Slling is not as impotant as keeping the wookies hapee

When people use simplified spelling it will b placed in the dictionary and become official. The 'new' texting version is showing up everywhere leaving people like me unable to read the 'new' language. I am beginning to see it everywhere I go.

I wouldn't mind a new spelling for sword. It appears to need the 'w' pronounced and I believe they do in England put when I did it that way my sister protested that it was incorrect because "we don't do it that way here." So why spell it "that way" here? And then there are all those double letter words that are hard to spell. At the same time I pronounce 'wash' as 'warsh' and I wouldn't want to see it spelled that way, I'd rather correct my pronunciation of the word.

Let's change a few words at a time until they are official by using a new spelling and ignoring the people who want to spell it the 'old' way.

Da Snoop Dog Sez Okay

I'm a New Zealander who has twice protested outside the Scripps finals in DC.
Sum of u who hav commented say upgrading spelling is dumming down.
I would ask: was adopting Arabic numerals in prefrence to Roman numerals dumming down, or did it make maths avalable to the masses? Would u like to return to the tiperiter and snailmail? would u prefer the horse and carriage to the car? Would u prefer hieroglyfics or Chinese logograms, requiring much memorization, to logical alfabetical spelling?
If u agree that those changes wer advances, why do u not agree that updating the spelling tool would also be an advance, making life eesier and literacy avalable to mor than the 80% of us who now enjoy it?

Allan wrote:

I'm a New Zealander who has twice protested outside the Scripps finals in DC.
Sum of u who hav commented say upgrading spelling is dumming down.
I would ask: was adopting Arabic numerals in prefrence to Roman numerals dumming down, or did it make maths avalable to the masses? Would u like to return to the tiperiter and snailmail? would u prefer the horse and carriage to the car? Would u prefer hieroglyfics or Chinese logograms, requiring much memorization, to logical alfabetical spelling?
If u agree that those changes wer advances, why do u not agree that updating the spelling tool would also be an advance, making life eesier and literacy avalable to mor than the 80% of us who now enjoy it?

It saddens me greatly to learn that New Zealand is populated with lazy idiots. I guess no place is immune.

Someone needs to replay the part where the kid had to ask if the word he was just told to spell was 'numbnuts'

...ours is a mongrel language which started with a child's vocabulary of three hundred words, and now consists of two hundred and twenty-five thousand; the whole lot, with the exception of the original and legitimate three hundred, borrowed, stolen, smouched from every unwatched language under the sun, the spelling of each individual word of the lot locating the source of the theft and preserving the memory of the revered crime.
- Mark Twain's Autobiography

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

Red Ryder wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

Thank You!