Has anyone turned off autocorrect on their phone?

Using autocorrect makes typing much easier on phones. Not only you can write words you don't know the spellings of correctly, but it also compensates for mis-hits on the tiny keyboard.

But one day I had to write something using a pen and paper and I realised that I had forgotten how to spell common words. For example I had no idea if it was "absense" or "absence".

Then I turned off autocorrect on my phone so that I can relearn how to spell words. I have gotten a lot better since then.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?