Huh. A strange question has come to me that in a certain light looks like it’s at the heart of language, maybe colonialism, propaganda and accessibility.
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@mhoye
No. At about the upper end of the age range as for the spelling bees, there was and still is a recitation competition:
"""a competition in expressive reading of prose or poetry, aimed at developing speaking skills, artistry, and promoting literature.
Participants recite works from memory, and a panel of judges evaluates grammar, intonation, tempo, and emotionality. Popular examples include "Living Classics," "Poetics," and themed competitions for anniversaries"""@gemelen interesting - can I ask where this is?
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Huh. A strange question has come to me that in a certain light looks like it’s at the heart of language, maybe colonialism, propaganda and accessibility.
Fediverse, my question is this: setting aside English-first cultures, does your country or culture of origin have spelling bees?
@mhoye not even in Britain, no. As far as I know it's uniquely an American thing
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Huh. A strange question has come to me that in a certain light looks like it’s at the heart of language, maybe colonialism, propaganda and accessibility.
Fediverse, my question is this: setting aside English-first cultures, does your country or culture of origin have spelling bees?
@mhoye another related question I've encountered: "does your language even have a word for spelling distinct from writing?"
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Huh. A strange question has come to me that in a certain light looks like it’s at the heart of language, maybe colonialism, propaganda and accessibility.
Fediverse, my question is this: setting aside English-first cultures, does your country or culture of origin have spelling bees?
@mhoye just listened to a podcast that said it was a pretty distinctly American thing, and particularly related to the English language being so full of words stolen from colonized peoples.
https://yourewrongabout.buzzsprout.com/1112270/episodes/19010491-the-great-american-spelling-bee-with-gabe-henry -
@mhoye another related question I've encountered: "does your language even have a word for spelling distinct from writing?"
@technomancy @mhoye Hmm, in German there's "Rechtschreibung", pretty much literally "correct-writing". The act of spelling (eg a word letter by letter) is "buchstabieren" / "letter-ing".
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@gemelen interesting - can I ask where this is?
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Huh. A strange question has come to me that in a certain light looks like it’s at the heart of language, maybe colonialism, propaganda and accessibility.
Fediverse, my question is this: setting aside English-first cultures, does your country or culture of origin have spelling bees?
@mhoye In Denmark, at least when I went to school, we did spend a lot of time on conventional spelling. The mismatch between our alphabet (at least the way it is taught) and the sound inventory of our language is I'd say roughly on par with English, so spelling is hard. But it's not turned into a competition, it'd be culturally inappropriate to pitch kids against each other like that. We aren't graded until they're 12-13 either.
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Huh. A strange question has come to me that in a certain light looks like it’s at the heart of language, maybe colonialism, propaganda and accessibility.
Fediverse, my question is this: setting aside English-first cultures, does your country or culture of origin have spelling bees?
@mhoye in .ar it’s not a thing. Pretty sure the same apply to other Spanish speaking countries.
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@mhoye in .ar it’s not a thing. Pretty sure the same apply to other Spanish speaking countries.
@luis thank you - this is the Spanish consensus, it looks like. This is just not a thing in Spanish-speaking countries at all.
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@felurx @mhoye
It was established in the ussr in the 30s as far as I know, and exists till today in russia, belarus and in countries with ties to russia (like I found a similar thing on a smaller scale organized by russian embassy in Venezuela).
It always had and continue to have a strong propagandistic background in a manner "our culture is powerful and rich, so we are bringing it everywhere".
In my own memories, a few of my classmates in the 90s were selected to compete at a city and a regional level.
