[jfrunyon]

I don't think you understand the difference between "likely" and "guaranteed".

> There are cases in which non-natives might have better grasp of orthography compared to natives (which might be what GP is objecting to).

Certainly. Neither me, nor the "GP" to which you refer ever said anything to the contrary.

> I'd be surprised if the vast majority of non native English speakers would fail to spell "read"

Really? Depending on how you pronounce it, if they even spelled an English word, it would be "red" or "reed". Are you trolling? You do realize most people who aren't native speakers of English don't speak any English, right?