[bluGill]

English needs to reform out written language as well. It isn't as bad as Chinese, but there is a reason "only two languages commonly have writing competitions: Chinese and English." (I'm not sure who to attribute this to, it isn't mine though I probably got it wrong)

Spanish adults read at a 5th grade level, English adults read at a 6th grade level, Japanese adults read at a 9th grade level - this isn't a reflection of education it is a reflection on how difficult the written language is to learn.

As a bad speller with a passing knowledge of Spanish I'm jealous: when I hear a Spanish word I can spell it, with English I have no clue.

[rinze]

Note that even in Spanish there is room for confusion (source: I'm Spanish), as in some cases it's very simple to write homophones (like vaca / baca, both valid, not related at all.) My father, who always told me he had very bad orthography, always asked me if that word started with h, or if that other was written with b / v, or g / j.

[mbroncano]

That's certainly the exception and not the rule