I speak spanish and one of the first cultural shocks I had was when I as a kid saw an episode of some sitcom (can’t remember) and there where talks of a “spelling bee” a contest to see who could spell correctly, that was so alien to at the time because in spanish there are just a few words that are tricky, because they have some silent H or a P at the beginning but then I started to learn english and it all made sense.
In finnish it’s the same and I’ve even had the same experience! We write almost completely phonetically so something like “spelling bee” is an insane thought. English writing system is basically abstract at this point and you just need to learn to pronounce each individual word lmao
Just the fact that we can have a whole contest around the idea, and that there’s still room for words contestants haven’t seen before, illustrates just how insane English is.
I speak spanish and one of the first cultural shocks I had was when I as a kid saw an episode of some sitcom (can’t remember) and there where talks of a “spelling bee” a contest to see who could spell correctly, that was so alien to at the time because in spanish there are just a few words that are tricky, because they have some silent H or a P at the beginning but then I started to learn english and it all made sense.
In finnish it’s the same and I’ve even had the same experience! We write almost completely phonetically so something like “spelling bee” is an insane thought. English writing system is basically abstract at this point and you just need to learn to pronounce each individual word lmao
Just the fact that we can have a whole contest around the idea, and that there’s still room for words contestants haven’t seen before, illustrates just how insane English is.
English isn’t really a language. It’s at least three languages in a trench coat.
“English: if you can spell our words we’ll literally give you a fucking trophy and a scholarship”