I have problems with gauge, occasion and diarrhoea. Actually, writing diarrhoea for this article was actually harder than it seems because the spellchecker kept wanting to change it to the American spelling. It was quite a battle between me and the spell checker. But I prevailed in the end!
As a proofreader, translator, English teacher and former journalist, I can say that people these days really cannot spell. They tend to rely on Google or a spellchecker to help them. I would say that is true for all languages. But really, when you think about it, if the spell checker helps you so much, why not use the energy you save by not having to remember how to spell words, for something else instead?
And if you want to improve your spelling – reading does the trick!