Is English the only language that has spelling bees?

English is notorious for it's lack of phonetic presence, which is due to the diverse origins of the language. England was originally the home of Celtic migrants from mainland Europe, so Celtic was the original language. We then fell under Roman occupation for about five and a half centuries and adopted a huge amount of the words from them. Next came the Angles and the Saxons, who settled here and introduced much of their language. With the Vikings appearing next on the scene we had Norwegian and Danish integration, followed later by the Norman conquest. None of these languages actually replaced the previous one, but instead they blended to develop a hybrid language. With words also being borrowed from many countries to supplement the vocabulary due to no equivalent word existing here at the time, we are left with a language that obeys too many rules to be phonetic. There may be several other languages that are not phonetic, but I cannot think of any at the moment.

Maybe. Just consider the roots of the language - A Germanic language, Anglicized, then mixed with French influence, and voila, the most flexible language in the world. Don't let it get to you; it's a plus. You might get upset with some spellings, but apply the flexibility to other areas of the language, and you have to admire it. I love how we make nouns out of verbs and vice versa. "My best friends intellect dwarfed mine.". Now, that's delicious. It's worth the horrendous spelling complications. Long live English!