Song "Learning"

 Today's little venture into how my mind works takes us to the little games we play to remember how to spell things. Or at least I do.  Let it be known that I have always been an excellent speller.  I was the one who always won classroom spelling bees.  (Yeah...I was THAT kid.)  Generally, I could see a word and remember it.  As I matured, I began to see common threads in spellings, through root words, etc., and that also helped.  Now, as I have hit old age, I sometimes can't even think of a word I'm trying to say, much less be able to spell it.  Often, I will look at a word I've spelled correctly all my life and suddenly decide it doesn't look right.  I can't begin to tell you how many common words I've had to look up just in the last few years.  I'm still a formidable speller.  

Just last week, I had occasion to correct the spelling of "license" to a former student of mine in a Facebook post.  I try not to be a Spelling Nazi, unless someone has misspelled a word while feigning superiority in an online meme or in a personal main post.  The young man (now pushing 40) was one of the latter posters.  He was showing off something he was proud of  and used the word "lisensce".  It seems that everyone knows the actual spelling has a "c" and an "s" in it--both pronounced with the "s" sound, but where do they go in the word?  When I was young, I tripped over it, too...until I noticed that "lice" were the first four letters.  The spelling of "license" is as pesky as head lice are in real life, so I remembered it that way.  Never had a problem since.  (And now, neither will David, or so he said.  I just hope I didn't embarrass him.)

I have heard it said dozens of times that the way to remember spellings and lists is to make a song out of them.  This does work.  In fact, many songs have already been done for us.  I heard the character of Sheldon on the TV show Big Bang Theory sing the Table of the Elements in one of the show's episodes.  In elementary school, we were expected to memorize the US Presidents in order, and the US states and their capitals.  Somewhere on the Internet, I'm quite sure songs of these lists already exist.  

How many American kids learned the alphabet by singing the ABC song?  (And, along with that, how many American adults have to run the song through their heads before being able to put things in alphabetical order?)   Here's a link to the song I'm talking about, although I'm quite sure the reference is not needed:         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75p-N9YKqNo

Know how I learned to spell "encyclopedia"?  Jiminy Cricket from the old Disney Mickey Mouse Club shows on TV.  Jiminy was featured in many little vignettes about how to find the answers to questions by looking in the encyclopedia--which, at that time, was a set of books.  (Now, of course, we have Google!)  I can still sing Jiminy Cricket's little encyclopedia jingle in my brain every time I go to spell the word--which isn't often these days.  Here is Jiminy:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy2jWJtO3lE

Oh!  And how many Bible scripture passages do I know simply from singing the choral pieces of Handel's The Messiah over the course of my life??  I can't cite chapter and verse, but I sure know the text of so many.  "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, etc."  "The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, etc."  "Come unto Him, all ye that labor, and He shall give you rest, etc."   "And His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, etc."  I could go on and on...

Just last month, my sister and bro-in-law came to visit for a weekend.  At dinner on Sunday, we were passing the food and filling our plates when I simply said, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow".  My BIL followed with, "Praise Him all creatures here below".  I said, "Praise Him above ye heavenly host".  And he finished with "Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost".  How did we know that little ditty without communicating with each other?  A song!  The Doxology.

One more little comment about spelling.  I figured out many years ago that German words that are full of "ie" or "ei" combinations can be spelled if the pronunciation is correct.  Ein (one) is pronounced "ine".  The second letter in the "ei" or "ie" combination is sounded.  Happens over and over again.  Albert Einstein's name is pronounced "INE stine".  Everybody knows that, right?  Leonard Bernstein has been incorrectly called "BERN-steen" for years by people who don't get it.  Likewise with Oscar Hammerstein.  If you just know this little trick, and people are pronouncing the words correctly, you too can spell German words.  The hot dog you just ate is spelled "wiener".  Get it?

No need to evict me.  I'll let myself out.