A way with words

A perusal of the words which came up at the 2008 Scripps Spelling Bee made me marvel at the ability of the young spellers to remember the most unfamiliar and difficult words and reproduce them with such accuracy, betokening an easy familiarity with terminology hard to pronounce, much less remember.

Words such as opificer, cryptarithm and secernment were the order of the day and the youngsters were supposed to know the correct sequence of letters in each. A formidable challenge in the English language. Although this would be daunting even for adults, these were tackled as if they were child's play. Which they were in a way.

I suppose what caught my attention was the fact that in this day and age there are children who are interested enough in language to master lengthy word lists, some running into 30,000 items. This is the age of computer geeks and freaks, of sms-ing and e-mailing, reducing language to its bare bones to facilitate the speed of communication.

In my day and age, some millennia ago, learning spellings of words was the done thing, and time was spent in going over lists of these until one was word perfect. It was understood that the more spelling mistakes one made in one's test paper, the fewer marks one could expect. And then there was the inevitable grilling from parents who considered such lapses on a par with behaviour unbecoming of their offspring. So, the lists were taken out and one had to pore over them until one was reciting the words in one's sleep.

Imagine my surprise (and shock) years later when a friend came down to India from the US on holiday with her 12-year-old son and showed me his English essay which she handed to me with parental pride gleaming in her eyes. As I read through the piece, my eye caught every spelling mistake but these didn't seem to have registered with the boy's teacher.

In what would be considered a modern approach to boost the child's self-esteem, all the comments were positive, praising him for his vivid imagination and sense of adventure but completely ignoring the mis-spelt words. There were no red marks which I was used to, underlining the errors, and no deduction of marks for these omissions.

Dismay

Concealing my dismay at this oversight, I commended the boy on his imagination taking wing but wisely refrained from mentioning to the proud parent my concern over what seemed to be the possibility of dyslexia.

The lack of this skill can also be a source of good-humoured amusement, such as the sign painted near a doorway proclaiming "No barking", to deter intrepid motorists from parking at this spot and preventing access to the building. Being a dog lover, I stood there for a while, waiting to catch a glimpse of a canine or two just to make my day. But then I saw a car approaching and just as it was about to park at that very spot, a man emerged from the building and shooed the driver away, with much pointing to the sign. That's when I realised my mistake.

One comes across many such instances in my home country where the boldly painted sign is the handiwork of an artist untutored in the English language. So, you read about the availability of "tea and snakes", which is not hard to come to terms with as soon as you put two and two together and come to the conclusion that the cup that cheers certainly wouldn't be accompanied by something reptilian.

On occasion, parents have been known to spell out words to ensure that young ears do not catch the gist of what they are saying. Of course, the words here are simple, such as the name of the person under fire or discussion so that word doesn't inadvertently get back to the source of such heated debate. Children are not known for their discretion. They tell it like it is. So, one has to be careful what is said within range of their hearing.

They are natural word processors.