Dear Spanish Speakers: English Will Betray You

I have a secret… Spelling doesn’t come naturally to native English speakers.

In fact, I divide the world into two camps: those who can spell and those who struggle. There are people who can confidently write “definitely”… and then there are the rest of us — the ones who Google it every time or wait for the spell checker to jump in and save the day.

I don’t love admitting this, especially since I’m not only an English teacher but the director of an English academy. Still, truth be told — I’m firmly in the latter camp. Now that I’ve confessed my spelling sins, let me explain.

Lambert, a DarKha student, practicing his English writing! Photo by Darcie Khanukayev

In the United States, formal schooling begins at age five. Of course, we learn the alphabet — along with the sounds of each letter and common letter groups. For example, our curious little minds would practice saying the letter “A” with five different sounds… one of which was silent. We’d nod our heads in rhythm to the alphabet song, trying to keep track. Same with all the vowels (most of them have at least five sounds!), and then on to consonants and combos like sh, ch, and tion.

By age six, we started weekly spelling tests. Every Monday, we’d receive a list of 20 words, and the grand finale would come on Friday — a dictation from the teacher. Now, I loved to write, jump, twirl, read, explore, ponder, and make mud pies. But spelling? Spelling was just plain ridiculous. Pure memorized nonsense.

Take this example: eight, the number, and ate, the past-tense verb. They’re spelled completely differently but pronounced exactly the same! My mom would say, “Sound it out.” What?! I’d scream (in my head). I may have been six, but I wasn’t stupid. When you “sound them out,” neither one sounds like “eit.”

So, my weekends were spent writing out eight twenty times, and ate twenty more — which left less time to build the secret fort where my friends and I were crafting an entire language for our Dragon Kingdom. I was getting more and more frustrated with this spelling imposition.

Then came Spanish class. And suddenly… the rules made sense. Letters made one sound, not five. Words were written exactly the way they were said. No hidden letters, no silent k, no sneaky gh pretending to be an f. ¡Milagro! The spelling felt like a friendly handshake: clear, consistent, trustworthy.

So here’s what Spanish speakers need to understand: English can’t be trusted — not like your familiar, rule-following Spanish. It will betray you. And yes, you might go through a resentment phase, just like I did. But at least now, in this modern world, you have spell checkers. I sure didn’t.