When you hear the word Rechtschreibungsreform, what comes to mind? Love it? Hate it? Couldn’t care less? Have you admitted defeat and adopted the spelling dass or do you rebelliously jot down an ß at the end of the word for old time’s sake?

Well, you may have read that the French have recently instituted a spelling reform of their own. You might think that sounds pretty smart considering how difficult French words are to spell (at least I thought so in college). The changes will mainly affect the use of the circumflex and reduce the number of words that are spelled with a hyphen.

But speaking of languages whose learners are forced to slog their way through orthographic anarchy, what about English? Well, as a native speaker all I can say is thank goodness for spellcheck. Whether you choose the American or British spellings (center v/s center, curb v/s kerb) as long as you use those spelling consistently, you’re good to go. After all, most English speakers are pretty horrible spellers themselves (see spellcheck). If you know the differences between they’re, their and their and your, you’re, you’re honestly doing better than most native speakers.

Check out this article from National Public Radio for more on this topic, including some spelling changes in English (especially American English) that have caught on and older spellings that have endured:

http://www.npr.org/2016/02/24/467218639/new-changes-to-french-beg-the-question-why-are-english-spellings-so-weird