This Spells Trouble

Have you considered the inanities of English spelling lately? If not, check out these spelling poems.

An excerpt:

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, lough and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead: it's said like bed, not bead -
For goodness sake don't call it deed!

Much more where that came from. Got to love English, all those permutations are fascinating, however annoying.

Via This Is Broken, where the contributor asks, do they having spelling bees in other languages? Good question! Anyone know? I don't remember encountering spelling bees in Korea, for example.