Spellcheck

When I was in school, spelling was not really up my alley. I did quite well in spelling, both for Malay and English, but really I had problems with some complicated and longish words.

I remember my first lesson on the importance of spelling correctly came when the headmaster of my school called me, along with three others, to his office. I was in standard four then, and I wondered why we were called there. It turned out that the headmaster was "interviewing" us to become participants for a Bahasa Malaysia Quiz. He asked me to spell the word "masyhur" - and I spelt it wrongly. I remembered him stressing on the need for me to focus more on my spelling. I got selected onto the team nonetheless, and out of more than 60 schools from the whole of Johor, ours came in second. Fortunately, no one asked me to spell "masyhur." So, all in all, not a bad performance for coming in as runner-up, I guess.

The second lesson that I received on the same matter came some 10 years later. This time I was in Glasgow, and I was secretary to a club. The president pointed out to me some spelling errors that I made in the minutes and wanted me to exercise extra care when it comes to spelling, especially people's names. He reminded me that some people are especially sensitive when it comes to how their names are spelt. I took his advice to heart, and from there onwards, I took great pains to make sure that I spell people's names correctly.

The third lesson I received was when I started working. I learnt that people are overly-sensitive with their datukship. As such, I make it a personal point to find out if a person is a federal Datuk, or a Dato' from states with sultans, or a Datuk from a state without sultans. And also details like whether one is a Dato' Seri or a Dato' Sri. These may seem trivial but believe me, they can stir up quite a storm if you get them wrong. Fortunately for me, I never got into such troubles.

Nonetheless, with all these invaluable lessons in the importance of spelling, plus the fact that my life revolves around writing and editing, it comes as no surprise that I have developed a sensitive eye for wrong spellings. Most times I would squirm at the sight of a word wrongly-spelt. This is so when I see mistakes in newspapers or books. Other times, I would just point the mistake out to people who could do something to correct the spelling.

Why all the fuss about spelling correctly? I guess this goes back to one's self. I have a long name as I stated in one of my previous entries. While I don't make a big deal if someone fails to spell my name correctly, I do take note of someone who does. It shows that this person takes the extra effort to ensure that my name is correctly-spelt. And for this, I owe this person my heartfelt appreciation. To me, a person who spells correctly is someone who is sensitive, has an eye for details, takes the trouble to check, careful and alert.

That is why I believe that spelling can indeed show a person's character. Well, at least now I know how "masyhur" is supposed to be spelt.