Some people believe that: Nowadays, misspellings seem to be more common than before. Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Van Tinh, former General Secretary of the Vietnam Linguistics Association, author of many books on languages, said: “There are no statistics to confirm that. But because the space for expressing writing today is wider than before, not just limited to handwriting, I feel like the phenomenon of misspelling is a lot, whether there is more or not, we have to do statistics.”
Associate Professor-Dr. Pham Van Tinh
At the “output” or at the social network?
Some people blame school education for causing misspelling to become a “syndrome”. An official of a research institute in Hanoi complained: “Where I work, there is a fellow who graduated from Law University and just finished his master’s degree, but he can’t write Vietnamese sentences. The output quality is really scary.” A female doctorate working at the Institute of Literature told a family story: “My child basically doesn’t make spelling mistakes. The error is only in the areas he doesn’t understand, for example “fire incense” or “bamboo shoots grow after the rain”… “. The reporter was curious: “Is it because their parents work in literary studies to correct them that their son rarely makes spelling mistakes?” She smiled and replied: “She adjusts herself.” Personal awareness is important.”
But the sense of correct spelling is sometimes shaken by social networks. Someone lamented: “There are so many people who spell incorrectly on social networks. Looking at it for a while, now my spelling is not as accurate as before. During the development of social networks, people often write: “Thuy” instead of “Stop”; “Lem” replaces “Lam”; “Rui” instead of “Then”… There are people who deliberately misspell words by turning “gi” into “d” like Ho Ngoc Ha. A poet humorously commented: “Checking” spelling on social networks is as strenuous as counting sand in the desert. He once “caught” a sentence online, imitating a popular song: “If you still like each other, you still misspelled it, but if I write it correctly, you should watch out.”
Some spelling errors of Vietnamese “stars”.
According to Associate Professor-Dr. Pham Van Tinh, misspellings often come from two causes: Accidental or intentional: “Accidental mistakes are a habitual phenomenon. Especially in cases where semantics and spelling do not go together. According to phonetic principles, spelling must go with pronunciation. Read as you write. But not always. For example, not many people curl their tongues when reading “clear”, “clean”, etc. Or “fluttering”, for example, Hanoi people do not curl their tongues, only in some areas. If we just follow phonetic principles in these cases, it will be written incorrectly.” Former General Secretary of the Vietnam Linguistics Association also agreed with the opinion that the development of social networks has caused more misspellings: “They deliberately misspell words to joke or attract attention.” According to him, this is difficult to avoid in a time when people participate in the virtual world: “Nowadays, people not only write wrong spelling to make a difference, but the way they speak is also different. They want to be strange to make an impression.” But according to Associate Professor – Dr. Pham Van Tinh, intentionally writing incorrect spelling in a group is okay, but making it public so that everyone can read it is offensive and affects the community.
Are young writers less prone to misspellings?
A poet who works as an editor for a literary publication shares stories about his career: “Many writers make spelling mistakes. As an editor, reading a manuscript and seeing many spelling errors often makes you angry and doesn’t want to use it anymore, no matter who the writer is. With literature, spelling is as important as knowledge. Each word has its own meaning, so if you write it wrong, you can be seen as someone who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word. There is a writer who used to be the prose editor of a newspaper specializing in literature and had the worst spelling mistakes.” After many years of editing work, he realized: “Spelling errors are often seen in writers from previous grades. Young people today make fewer spelling mistakes but make more grammatical mistakes.
One writer admitted: Don’t judge the phenomenon of misspelling too harshly. From his perspective: “Normal people who lisp or spell incorrectly can ignore it, there’s no need to make small matters into big things.” Some places are even regional cultures.” But according to Associate Professor-Dr. Pham Van Tinh, awareness of correct spelling is necessary: ”Spelling errors are a phenomenon that is both linguistic and cultural. There are many cases of incorrect spelling that people still understand but find it offensive, feel that the writer lacks the necessary language skills, and thereby lose sympathy with the text. For example, a good poem has a spelling mistake, mixing “Tr” with “Ch”, “R” with “D”, affecting the quality of the conveyed text. The researcher added: “Spelling is the linguistic expression of a people, not to mention the nation. Writing incorrectly will result in the assessment of the quality of your ethnic language as having problems.” The reporter asked: “Some public figures misspelled words. What do you think they should do to appease the fans?” Associate Professor Dr. Pham Van Tinh said: “In my opinion, you should seek advice when you make a spelling mistake and are discovered. This is nothing to be ashamed of. Who holds hands until night, who holds hands until morning? Among characters with spelling mistakes, celebrities must pay attention first because they cause a crowd effect.”
Nong Hong Dieu
