8 October 2009 - 5:47R. Kelly “suffers from illiteracy.”

R. Kelly has revealed to the press that he “suffers from illiteracy.”

Here is his quote: “When I was trying to make it out here, I already knew, and I was stubborn about it,” he says. “I don’t even read really and I’m not afraid to say that. My cousins and brothers used to tease me ‘you can’t even read right. How you think you’re going to come up?’ The only reason I graduated from grammar school is because I had a great jump shot. I went to high school and [my teacher] told me ‘you will one of the greatest writers of all time.’ I believed. You [have to] believe it. You can’t believe [anything] if you’re hating. You can’t achieve [anything] if you’re hating.”

I bet, given R. Kelly’s schedule, there really isn’t time to practice reading. It’s probably way harder to learn how to read as an adult than as a kid. I guess he probably has people in his life who can read stuff for him, but still.

What I don’t understand, and maybe someone can explain, is what the difference is between suffering from illiteracy and being illiterate. Like, if you suffer from illiteracy, does that mean that learning to read is exceptionally hard?