Colette’s Venezuelan aunt is visiting, and she told me that they don’t have spelling bees in Spanish-speaking countries. Now that I think of it, this is obvious, but it had never occured to me before.
(Photo by cakeyvoice)
11:42 am, December 21, 2006 -- 14 comments
Wait, I don’t follow. Why is this obvious?
(Is it because they’d call them “deletreo abeja”?)
Would it hurt you to know that we don’t have spelling bees in may English-speaking countries? I’ve never heard of one taking place in Australia.
I must be dumber than usual today. Why is it obvious?
I actually had the original Speak & Spell with the individual buttons. The buttons were pretty fragile and got a little bent and stuck under the keyboard, but they never broke entirely.
The Speak & Math I got later had a flat membrane keyboard.
Rae, I’m sorry, but it has to be asked: Have Austrailians started speaking English, then?
Probably because, unlike in English, spelling bees in Spanish would be too easy. Spelling in Spanish is almost always pretty obvious; each letter only has one sound associated with one sound so there’s very little ambiguity.
Sean has it. While there is some ambiguity in Spanish spelling, there isn’t enough to make a spelling bee enough of a challenge to have the national contests we have in America.
There are Austrialian spelling bees, although I’m not sure they’re called that. Spellmasters has a web site with more information.
I should also point out that there are English spelling competitions in Venezuela.
Okay, here’s what I’m curious about now: How do you translate a movie that involves spelling bees into a phonetic language like Spanish without destroying the movie’s credibility?
Put Laurence Fishburne in a leading role. It wouldn’t exactly save the credibility, but I’m pretty sure most audiences are willing to sacrifice coherent plotlines for Cowboy Curtis.
Hey, it worked for the Matrix sequels.
The best thing about Speak and Spell was the prank phonecall possiblilities. I know that some people won’t remember the golden age of prank calls back in the early 80’s, but back then, with the right vocab pack, it was easy to put together some pretty good S&S prank calls:
Victim: “Hello”
S&S: “L O”
Victim: “Who is this?”
S&S: “V R Z police”
Victim: “Who is this?”
S&S: “U R A sponge. Y R U A sponge”
Victim: “Wha?”
Hang up, laugh, pass the functional glass art, repeat…
Oh, yeah, I should mention that it did not improve my spelling one bit. Technology is often more fun to use for an unintended purpose I guess.
I grew up in England, and they didn’t have spelling bees there. Something about us being bred to make you americans look bad about speaking our language, i figure.
Seeing Charlie Brown practice for the Spelling Bee in a TV cartoon, in Finnish translation, was certainly surreal. Some of the things the poor translator came up with involved Finnish grammar rules instead. Mighty strange that American kids would be quizzed on them, though, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, in Poland:
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=qw1140534001545A141
Ahhh, the Speak and Spell. My dad worked for Texas Instruments, which gave him access to the Company Store, meaning that we had all kinds of TI electronics around with “FACTORY RECONDITIONED” stamped on them.
The day my brothers and I realized we could make the S&S ask the immortal question “Why are you a BM?” was a day that will live in infamy. Or highly immature giggles. Not sure which.
Also none in Russia.
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