Ok, this is going to show just how lame I am. Friday night, instead of going out and having fun I sat home and watched the National Spelling Bee. Since English is my second language, I have always struggled with spelling. Last night the winner of the bee won by spelling "guerdon"- something that one has earned or gained.
It was actually really exciting watching all the kids go up against each other and be taken down one by one. Some of them cried. You can't ask for more drama. I am glad I took the time to watch this.
I learned something. I always wondered how kids were able to compete when english is such a retarded language ("ph" should NOT make an 'F" sound!). When the kids are asked a question they can ask its definition and for it to be used in a sentence (this I knew), but they can also ask about different pronunciations and the entomology. If you encounter a word that you don't know, you can make a really good guess about it's spelling from the history of the word. For example, english words that come from french words might have that silent "e" at the end. I guess language does make sense.
P.S. I played along with the kids trying to spell the words and only got about 20% of them right, and that's being generous because sometimes I accidentally cheated by looking up at the TV screen.
