As a native Kannada speaker, I agree. With most Indian languages, spelling bees are a laughable concept. They generally have about 35 alphabets, each associated with a specific sound and organized by type of sound. So there's no ambiguity with spelling, and pretty much any verbal sounds can be expressed in written form.

Roald Dahl wrote a short story, 'The Sound Machine' that's on very similar lines. Looks like it can be found in its entirety here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1949/09/17/the-sound-mach...

Oh wow. I've been trying to find that story for decades but couldn't remember title or author. I read it as a teenager and it left an impression. Thank you for posting!