>>Regarding languages; about 4 months ago I started learning French. I love learning it but it is very complicated; the spelling of the words has very little to do with how you pronounce them. So I say, wouldn't the world be better off if everybody spoke English?!
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>Worse. In french, there's at least a set of rules for reading - there's no way you'd be in doubt how to read something. In writing, though, you may have two or three ways how to spell something (and I really have no clue how you choose among those), but then once you write it you can be sure the reader will produce the exact sounds you had in mind. At some point, the then young Academy of sciences (and arts?) came up with a simple and rather phonetic way of spelling, which was abandoned because it was too easy and then every simpleton could become literate, even women could. So they opted for the historic spelling, and stuck to it.
>(I don't speak french, got this from a daughter who does)
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>In english, however, there's no way to know in advance how any combination of characters will be pronounced - it differs from word to word, and any rule you try to set may have a huge percentage of exceptions. Th - three ways, as in the, as in think, as in thyme (which is same as simple t). Or take u - the simple short u (as in most other european languages) is rare - in words like butcher, put, pull, duplicity. Then it's also an uh - in but, sudden, under, rubble. Then it's also a yoo - in use, unique, assume. The ue combo can be oo (due, Sue, blue), yoo (argue) or silent (morgue, dialogue). You can work out the examples for gh, ch, ou, qu (kw or just k - compare query and antique) etc etc.
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>So french, while unnecessarily burdened with too much history in spelling, is at least regular. English, however, suffers from both too much history and several half-hearted attempts to regulate it.

There is maybe one in a million case when I don't know how to read a word in English. And I am not even a native speaker of English. I hope one day to come even 20% to such reading skill in French. I need time, patience, and will power :)