. Social Innovation . Political and Economic . Life-style . Education Ideas . Literacy . Spelling . Writing Systems . OzIdeas Home

Look forward to next year's
International English Spelling Day

October 9, 2007  

 

 

UNILATERAL DECLARATION

OF INTERNATIONAL SPELLING DAY

• The Day that matches the Korean Hangul 'Great Letters' Day

• And when ENGLISH SPELLING IMPROVEMENT COMES IN  -

  A PUBLIC HOLIDAY all over the world!

for misspelled signs, spelling in national newspapers and books, and simplified spellings used in signs, trademarks, new words,childrenís writing, commercial advertising.

• FIND OUT about people who cannot read, reform in other languages, changes in English spelling
  Have a special study of Spelling at school - and University
  and practice some Spelling Reform yourself

.
INTERNATIONAL Competition for Spelling Day 2007

For the best collection of spelling jokes. Collect cartoons, limericks, quips, riddles, anecdotes, drawings, plays - and make up your own.

Prizes for individual collections: Booklets of Spelling Games andSpelling Cartoon memo booklets.
Prize for the best school collection: A take-home Teach Yourself toRead and Spell video and manual. The usual competition rules apply.
Contributions without prior copyright may be included in a Spelling Jokebook being compiled in aid of literacy innovations.

Send your contribution to Val Yule. Label your entry Spelling Jokes Competition

Closing date - September 9 2007.
Winners announced December 1 2007 

Why do Koreans celebrate their own National Spelling Day?

 

King Sejong the Great, the Fourth Monarch of the Yi Dynasty of the Chosen Kingdom in Korea hundreds of years ago ordered his scholars to find a simple method of writing down spoken Korean so that even the common people would be able to express their thoughts in writing.

They looked around overseas, but saw nothing they thought good enough, so they made up their own, promulgated in 1443 - a set of symbols consisting of 11 vowels and 17 consonants that are arranged in syllables which block into words. In 1933 this was standardised to tenvowels and 14 consonants, making it easier still. Today the Hangul alphabet is acclaimed as one of the world's great literacy achievements and themost remarkable phonetic alphabet ever produced.

When Korea was under Japanese occupation, using and maintaining the Hangul writing system instead of Japanese became a major tool of expression of Korean nationalism. When Korea wasliberated from Japan in 1945, Hangul Day was instituted as part of the celebrations,with a national holiday every year.
Today it is no longer a national holiday but it is still celebrated.

See the story of the Korean writing system, and how change was brought in

• Hangul Day is celebrated with a ceremony in which distinguished guests and scholars commemorate the Handle writing systemand hold a conference to ways of keeping it as useful as possible. Essay writing competitions are also organised throughout Korea.

How marvellous when the English writing system is also celebrated and made as useful as possible!

  How can schooling be made into real Discovery Learning?

Be well prepared before Spelling Day 2007

• See also Notes on the English spelling system
  Notes on improving English spelling
  Helping yourself to read and spell by cartoon lessons and see www.ozreadandspell.com.au
  The Sixteen Word Spelling Test
• Spelling Games

For further notes on spelling:

 1. Introduction
Introduction to spelling improvement. /spockham.htm. Text of a radio broadcast
Rationale. How assumptions and barriers against improving the writing system do not hold. Answering the common objections to spelling improvement. /sration.htm

2 Needs and abilities of users and learners: -

i. Needs and abilities of readers /sreadsp.htm
ii. Needs and abilities of writers to spell - /swritsp.htm
iii. Needs and abilities of learners - /slernsp.htm
iv. Needs and abilities of users of international English - /sintrnt.htm
v. Spelling reform for the Internet (an older page) http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/spinternet.htm


3. The nature and teaching of English spelling

See the online video, http://www.ozreadandspell.com.au
The underlying English spelling system that could be made more consistent - /spelsys.htm
Spelling patterns for the English vowels - /svowchart.htm
The Book of Spells & Misspells - a treasury of spelling for everyone
22 Lessons in reading and spelling - v01acover.htm
The 16 word spelling test for anyone who thinks they can spell - 16sp.htm
Spelling and classroom practices - sclassprac.htm

4 Improving English spelling

Spelling improvement. 2002. - /spelimp.html
Seven principles to repair English spelling, 2005 - /sp7princ.htm
Cutting out the surplus letters in words.Streamline - a first step in updating spelling. /ssurplu.htm
Quik gidelines for a next step, with sampl texts, and furthr notes /sfastrs.htm. FASTR Spelling
Cutting out surplus letters. /intspel.htm 2002
Further steps you can try yourself, with f, j, consistent word endings and vowel spellings. /intspel2.htm
Further experiments to spel sensibly - Pronunciation and gramr, and a final solusion? /intspel3.htm 2000
The future of English spelling. What can be done? /sfutspe.htm

 

5. Spelling as an entertainment

Spelling Games - starting with a Spelling ABC - different from a Spelling BEE
16-word Spelling Test of 16 common words that few experts can spell all correctly. /16sp.htm
International English Spelling Day, October 9 /spday.html
How people spelled when they spelled as they liked before the 18th century dictionaries /spfree17c.htm
Don Quixote spells in 'Spelling without traps'. - /spquixote.htm. To come
Twelve Short Short storys about the fùtùr. Can u imagin a mor ùser-frendly speling sistem? Look at every wurd to see if u think its speling is a trap for lerners.

• 

See also The Simplified Spelling Society at www.spellingsociety.org

Back to OzIdeas Home Page