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Spelling Bee protestors complain that English is too difficult to learn
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| ziptnf |
| quote: | WASHINGTON – The nation's capital always draws its share of protesters, picketing for causes ranging from health care reform to immigration policy.
But spelling bee protesters? They're out here, too.
Four peaceful protesters, some dressed in full-length black and yellow bee costumes, represented the American Literacy Council and the London-based Spelling Society and stood outside the Grand Hyatt on Thursday, where the Scripps National Spelling Bee is being held. Their message was short: Simplify the way we spell words.
Roberta Mahoney, 81, a former Fairfax County, Va. elementary school principal, said the current language obstructs 40 percent of the population from learning how to read, write and spell.
"Our alphabet has 425-plus ways of putting words together in illogical ways," Mahoney said.
The protesting cohort distributed pins to willing passers-by with their logo, "Enuf is enuf. Enough is too much."
According to literature distributed by the group, it makes more sense for "fruit" to be spelled as "froot," "slow" should be "slo," and "heifer" — a word spelled correctly during the first oral round of the bee Thursday by Texas competitor Ramesh Ghanta — should be "hefer."
Meanwhile, inside the hotel's Independence Ballroom, 273 spellers celebrated the complexity of the language in all its glory, correctly spelling words like zaibatsu, vibrissae and biauriculate.
While the protesters could make headway with cell phone texters who routinely swap "u" for "you" and "gr8" for "great," their message may be a harder sell for the Scripps crowd.
Mahoney had trouble gaining traction with at least one bee attendee. New Mexico resident Matthew Evans, 15, a former speller whose sister is participating in the bee this year, reasoned with her that if English spellings were changed, spelling bees would cease to exist.
"If a dictionary lists 'enough' as 'enuf,' the spelling bee goes by the dictionary, therefore all the spelling words are easier to spell, so the spelling bee is gone," Evans said.
"Well," Mahoney replied, "they could pick their own dictionary." |
Just when I thought this country was progressing forward...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100603...ing_bee_protest |
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| Sunsnail |
| I was watching this all day today on espn. I spelled 2 words correctly out of like 30. those kids are unreal |
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| R.j. |
English too difficult to learn? No.
Difficult to master? Probably. |
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| lacksesepsotygh |
| we have several developing european countries present here, and their representatives can spell english just fine. adapt to it, rednecks. |
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| The17sss |
| quote: | Originally posted by ziptnf
Just when I thought this country was progressing forward...
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:stongue: :stongue: |
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| ziptnf |
| quote: | Originally posted by The17sss
:stongue: :stongue: |
Oh, gtfo, this thread isn't about Obama :mad: |
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| The17sss |
| quote: | Originally posted by ziptnf
Oh, gtfo, this thread isn't about Obama :mad: |
dude... this is the 2nd time in a row you went knee-jerk on me like that (other time was when i praised your classic rock choices). I was seriously laughing in agreement with you on the topic! Man... people are jumpy 'round here. |
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| yukii |
| quote: | | "Enuf is enuf. Enough is too much" |
lol.. seriously??!! this reminds me of that movie Idiocracy.
:stongue: poor Kev |
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| ziptnf |
| quote: | Originally posted by The17sss
dude... this is the 2nd time in a row you went knee-jerk on me like that (other time was when i praised your classic rock choices). I was seriously laughing in agreement with you on the topic! Man... people are jumpy 'round here. |
You're the jumpy one, I'm not mad 17! :p I was being sarcastic.
And the other one, I was completely confused as to who you were directing your comment toward :o |
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| bigjimslade002 |
| i cumpletly aggree withe these peeple |
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| woscar |
| This doesn't make sense to me. Does it to you? |
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| Halcyon+On+On |
| A decript old woman in a bee suit holds a sign outside of a Hyatt and suddenly this country is going to hell. The children! |
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