Good for Prof. Hall! What's right is right, and what's incorrect, isn't. I would argue with him on two points, though: 1.) Yes, we can judge people based on how well or poorly they spell; but not everybody does; 2.) I don't think I can agree at this point with his statement, pronunciation can by definitions never be anything but phonetic : I thought phonetic meant that you base your pronunciation on the way a word looks--which means I would never pronounce my friend dgeigh's name as Jay, based on phonetics alone.