Kavya Shivashankar wins 2009 Spelling Bee

Just saw it on tv :)

Source: AP

Kavya Shivashankar was amazing. Nailed every word without any trouble at all. This was amazingly her 4th time in the final round finishing 10th, 8th and 4th in previous years. Her final word was Laodicean.

My favorite Kyle Mou finished 4th bombing out on "schizaffin" spelling it "schizophine". He was very quick but I don't think took enough time to figure out the words. Either he knew it or he didn't and it finally caught up to him.

The fan favorite was Kennyi Aouad, he finished tied for 5th going out on the word "palatschinken". He had no idea what the word for a type of German pancake was and tried to put in german rules but came out with "pallachinkin"

All in all great entertainment and once again I feel alot dumber today. Until next year!


Youtube Link

Spelling Bee Final Preview

Source: Spelling Bee

One of my favorite events, and one that make me feel dumber and dumber every year is the National Spelling Bee. I watched the semifinals earlier today and there are 11 kids left.

They are:

19. Ramya Auroprem
65. Serena Laine-Lobsinger
88. Kyle Mou
89. Aishwarya Pastapur
103. Kennyi Aouad
110. Kavya Shivashankar
139. Sidharth Chand
158. Tussah Heera
170. Neetu Chandak
201. Anamika Veeramani
276. Tim Ruiter

So breakdown is 7 girls and 4 boys left.

1 chinese kid
1 black kid
2 white kids
and
7 indian kids (I think)

I'm picking the Chinese kid. He's wearing lucky number 88! GO MOU!!!
I'll be watching tonight. 8pm Eastern on ABC.

All Canadians have been eliminated. BOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Here's a clip from last year's winner :)


Youtube Link

Casting a spell: Chinese-Canadian boy takes first

Source: Xinhua

After more than 5,000 children competed to be China's best junior speller, it came down to one word.

The winner, 12-year-old Jacky Qiao from Beijing, took his time on Saturday spelling "heliolatry."

The championship word, meaning sun worship, was worth 5,000 yuan (731 U.S. dollars) and an all-expenses-paid trip to the United States for the finals of the world's biggest English-language junior spelling bee.

This is the first time China has sent a contestant to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, an educational icon for eight decades.

Qiao is a Chinese-Canadian seventh grader from Beijing International Singaporean School.

He will be the first student to represent China in the big bee.

Saturday's China final held in the Shanghai Center was run by the Community Center Shanghai and was the culmination of two rounds of competitions over four weeks, involving 16 schools in Shanghai and Beijing.

Seems a bit unfair doesn't it? A Canadian kid that goes to an international school, entering a contest to whup the Chinese kids? This kid won't even get out of the first round in Washington. He might not even get out of the first round in Canada!

Spelling Girls

THE BUZZ IS GIRLS CAN SPELL

With the final four all Asian American girls, spelling looks to be the next big field for Asian American students to strive in, much like classical music and golf have been in the past.

Golf? Really?
I'm not sure if having this many good spellers is a good thing or a bad thing in the overall scheme of things.

All I know is I can't fuking spell.