scenes from the murkworks: spelling is hard

[solarbird]

Me: “I’m having one of those “taip” moments* again. With is w-i-t-h, right?”

Anna: “w-i-d-t-h”

Me: “no, with, like avec“

Anna: “oh! w-i-t-h. yes.”

I’m pretty amused I had to go to French to explain what with was lol

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* I once forgot how to spell “tape” for like… hours. “Taip? tayp? Taipe? Goddammit”

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Comments

[conuly]

I once looked at the word "going" and said "No, that can't be right, there's no way that's a word" and was so uneasy about it that I managed to convince my sister as well!

[gwydion]

This happens to people all the time.

I will never forget though it was about four decades ago one of the brightest people in my grade getting chewed out royally by an English teacher because he raised his hand to ask how to "spell 'sure' as in I'm sure I'm right in the middle of essay writing). This being 1984 we were writing long hand, you see. She thought he was being a Dick. Every other kid in the room could tell he was sincere because it had happened to every one of us with some stupid little word or another, and we quietly empathized with him. after we all were discussing it waiting for another class and it was that thing where he wrote it, but it looked wrong and no matter how he tried spelling it it still looked wrong. We all nodded sadly and quietly hated her even more. (She was very rigid and boring and frequently unkind in a way that humiliated kids in front of everyone. he could be an asshole, but he was also funny and likeable. we could all tell sincere mode from asshole mode. it was weird to us she couldn't. Fun fact: this was the same guy I got in an extended physical fight over the Scarlet Letter with in the middle of class the next year.* They were no hard feelings. It was just like that in lit class sometimes).

*This is a different guy than the one I literally uppercut out of his desk in Junior Year Greek. That guy was a real asshole.

[sistawendy]

Time to call Oliver Sacks.