English speakers know that their language is odd. So do people saddled with learning it non-natively. The oddity that we all perceive most readily is its spelling, which is indeed a nightmare. In countries where English isn’t spoken, there is no such thing as a ‘spelling bee’ competition. For a normal language, spelling at least pretends a basic correspondence to the way people pronounce the words. But English is not normal.
~ John McWhorter from, English is not normal
slip:4uaeea30.
It had never occurred to me to wonder if spelling competitions existed in any other languages.
ɕ