We've imported one word from Malay -- but it has two correct spellings, and is always combined with the English verb "to run."
Foreigners often conclude that English is an easy language to learn, since we have NO rules of grammar! (actually, we have them, but they're in1visible. The hardest word for a non-native speaker to master is -- the.
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My Costa Rican friends have trouble saying and hearing the differences among the words: beard, beer, and bear.
By the way, I am leaving for Costa Rica for six months. My husband and I will be attending language school and living with a Costa Rican family. So...I won’t be around to get on the nerves of the government school defenders.
English has more shadings on words than most languages. The differences between run, trot, jog, dash, scamper, hurtle, lope, and hustle are subtle - until you want exactly the right one to convey your meaning.
The spelling of the words is what gives us a clue to their source and therefore, meaning. It allows vocabulary to be something other than rote memorization. As it is, if you learn two hundred greek and latin root words, you’ll be able to understand most complicated words.
I’m a software engineer. I look at things with both an engineering perspective - is this useful, how could it be more useful - and an artist’s - is this beautiful, could it be more gracious. My hobby is writing and as such I pay attention to the utility of my medium, the English language. It seems to me that writing in Spanish would be like painting with three colors which you are not allowed to blend. Writing in English is like painting with a million shades. If it means kids take a while to learn proper spelling, fine, but giving up our rich heritage for ease of spelling just isn’t worth it.