Mass movement, to review or to code, and other stuff

[corinthum]

Me:

> > On a completely unrelated and off-topic note, to all you Brits, do 
> you
> > learn to spell by sound rather than letter?  My sister works in a
> > popular destination for British tourists (well, tourists of all
> > nationality, really, but half of the UK seems to migrate there at
> > certain times of the year).  And she's noticed that when she asks
> > young kids to spell their names, they don't use letters, but 
> sounds. 
> > For example, my name would be k at -e-@l- at l-j@  rather than
> > keI-i:-el-el-waI.  Is this a widespread technique for learning to
> > spell over there?

Jen:

I think that's true in much of America too, learning to spell 
> phonetically first. My son who just finished Kinder was encouraged 
> to journal every day, writing words and sentences with 'creative 
> spelling' where they attempt to spell words based on how they sound 
> rather than worrying about spelling them correctly. Is that what 
> you're talking about, Kelly? 

No, I mean that they have alternate names for each letter, based on
how they sound.  My sister first noticed it because she often tries to
verify name spellings before writing them.  When she asked a young
British girl ("Is that spelled so-and-so"), the girl said no, and
proceeded to rattle off her own phonetic version.  The girl's mother
then told my sister that she had it right the first time.  My sister
has since noticed several children do this, and noticed that those who
do are British.  We decided that it makes sense, since it's easier to
associate /w@/ with the letter "w" than /dV b at l ju/, and then match
the proper name with the letter later.  

-Kelly