Why can't Americans spell?

Some of it is that we're lazy but a lot of it is that it just doesn't matter if everything is spelled just right. As long as it's spelled correctly for work and school I don't think it matters during our down time.

Public education. Also it's perpetuated by popular culture, what with urban slang giving us a new bastardization almost every day. Keep in mind though this is an international community so English isn't many members' first language. I don't mind if it looks like they tried, but sometimes it's too obvious. Force

Americans can spell!! Maybe some can't, but that doesn't mean all of us can't spell...... some probably don't pay attention.

Speaking only for myself, I'm just sloppy. I hate it that we can't go back and edit comments on here. I'm constantly having to edit comments on my blog. Of course, the solution to that would be to proof read before I post the comment. Hmmmmm....

well maybe they can't spell but they can sure blow the crap out of other countries. see they have talent too.

Oh, I have to agree with you. I just started this tonight, and already its driving me crazy. I am an editor at heart. This stuff is painful. PROOFREAD!

I think alot of people are being lazy and then on the other hand alot of people are not very well educated. It's a little of both but it's not just americans.

Its not only americans that cant spell.

I'm American and I can most certainly spell. I can also differentiate between the fact that some people from a certain country not spelling correctly, whether by lack of education, typographical errors, or "web shorthand". What I find rude, however, is the fact that people continually lump everyone from a country into a particulary category. Not "all" Americans are poor spellers, nor do "all" Americans like to blow up other countries, as another poster suggested. This is no more fair than an American saying that all people from Arab nations are terrorists, would it?

I'm a teacher, and we still work and work at teaching our students to spell. Some of them really struggle. However, some people are too lazy to make the effort, and others use computer speak because it's kind of a shorthand and saves them time. I find it harder to read I'm afraid.

I don't think it's a problem exclusive to Americans. Though I do think the American education system is flawed. :)

I think a lot of it has to do with laziness and simply not really caring how they are coming across to others(it's also not just an American problem either). I've seen this issue crop up time and again on other discussion sites, message boards, blog sites, etc. And very often, the excuse given is "it's only the internet, I don't care what anyone else thinks/I don't care how I come across/I am too lazy to bother or care" or some similar variant. It seems a lot of people, primarily younger people, don't really feel that spelling and/or grammar matters much. They don't really seem to mind that they sound completely uneducated and ignorant. They don't seem to care that these things really do matter, and if they do not get a grasp on their (il)literacy, it's going to come back and bite them one day. It's sad. Language is a powerful communication tool. Making mistakes here and there is one thing, but going out of their way, as many do, to sound like they barely passed the third grade, is tragic.

Oh pardon me for my language. Im not from America and English is from England. So in order for Americans to learn and spell, they should go back to their native country..peace!

I think it's both, but really it's about laziness. People just don't think it matters. I'm a moderator on a popular forum, and I truly believe that using correct grammar and pronunciation is a sign of respect and consideration for the people you're interacting with.

Wow, you're pretty angry about this Meljep. I can feel the anger radiating from your post. You are exactly the kind of person that should start a grassroots effort to bring back the traditional values of spelling and writing. Perhaps we "Americans" are lazy. But a real go-getter such as yourself, you know, someone that isn't lazy. I'm sure you will get up and do something about this matter instead of just complaining about it. I look forward to hearing about how your efforts are going. Thanks!

I don't think it's really Americans who can't spell. It's those supposedly tech support people who ended up with the jobs that got outsourced outside the USA so that companies can pay salaries that are only a fraction of the cost of having real Americans working at tech support. (Uh - can I speak to someone who speaks English please??? Grrrrrr!) I doubt that you mean the way people spell things in other English-speaking countries like England, Austrailia, & New Zealand. I have also heard that even within the US, some things are spelled differently in different areas. Typos are understandable, & quite often make for a bundle of laughs. I'm probably the most guilty of making those classic ones that make people laugh. I can go on with specific typos that would probably make people laugh their socks off. Probably another annoyance is reading a paragraph in which the post contains no punctuation or starting a new sentence with a capital letter in the first word of the sentence if you read it the way it is it will not make sense as it is hard to understand further more if you literally read it out loud & even if you took a deep breath before reading you would be completely out of breath & blue in the face by the time you got to the end of the paragraph but you still would have trouble understanding what the guy was typing about

Your question talks about Americans. How do you know Americans cannot spell. Have you done a big enough study and then compared those results with other countries. Maybe it is just your perception from what you have observed.

This bugs me, too. I think it might be a mixture of both laziness and the quality of our education system. I sit in chats and wonder how I didn't do all that well in English. Ok, so my sentence structure and punctuation usually sucks, but at least I can spell! And it's usually better than most people I see in chat. Bah. Oh well...

why not have a spell check for the responses

I write how I talk and might put yup in instead of yes or ya instead of you just faster that way and trhe ones that know me knows how I talk and get on with it . alot of times i am in here and doing IM's too and in Ims we use computor lingo, like ty ,yw, lol, hagd,