Boy, I got a spell on you, though slightly broken

BAGUIO, Philippines – When I first heard that a mall was planning a live spelling contest, I felt exhilarated about it.

“Exhilarated” was the word that killed the chances of one of my high school classmates when we faced each other in high school.

I will not divulge the word that defeated me because it was embarrassing. I meant “embarrassment” was one of the words on my list, but spelling it in front of a crowd was an entirely different challenge – another killer word

Since then, to compensate for my loss, I began reading Roget’s Thesaurus.

Back when I had ESPN, I would wait until late May to watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The contest was started in 1925 and became an ESPN favorite since they started showing them on live TV.

It would be a week of words, similar to March Week, Shark Week on Discovery, and Audition Week in America’s Got Talent. But then only literary nerds are interested.

It was a surprise at first to see so many native Americans in the contest. Remember they were state champions before they appeared on TV.

And boy, were they so prepared with their bright attires and cutesy way to say “May I know the origin of the word “koinonia,” please?”

Sometimes, I would root for the non-IA who would survive the Indian Defence carnage like when Zaila Avant-garde won in 2021 for spelling rightly “murraya” to become the first African American to win the contest.

But then we should acknowledge that the native families in America were indeed exceptional in this endeavor of learning these unspellable words.

And so, I found myself at SM Baguio on a Friday afternoon to witness the first wave of spelling bee contests in the country.

There were 14 elimination contests in the SM malls on September 27 then 14 on October 4 and 11 on October 11.

The M.C. kept on repeating the prizes to the winner including cash, a scholarship to the National University, hamburger certificates, and a new Mac, among others.

Despite the late announcement, about 100 registered at SM Baguio from the city and the neighboring town of Tuba. By 2:30 PM, only around 60 showed up.

They would first be grouped in tens, and they would continue writing the correct words until only six remained.

Remember that this took place in the atrium, where hundreds were either intently watching or annoyed by the whole event.

The cut-off age was 11 years old while that of Scripps was 14 years old before August 31.

A friend came with her daughter only to be told that she missed the cut-off by a day.

There is a pronouncer and a verifier. There should have been three verifiers but two did not arrive.

The first word was “conscience” and four of the 10 contestants spelled it wrong although two spelled it “conscious.” A boy went home weeping.

The other words in the written elimination rounds were “occasion,” “scientist,” “amateur,” “champagne,” “privilege,” “separate,” “chaos,” and “plumber.”

There were supposed to be 40 left but I think there were only 24 survivors for the second round, which was another writing portion. As in the first, the contestants had only 20 seconds to write the word on the magic board and raise them when they finished.

The next set of words were “buffet,” “psychology,” “acres,” “dinosaur,” “judgment,” and “license.”

I have a beef with “judgment” and “privilege” because “judgement” and “priviledge” are still valid.

Some raised a howl among the parents and teachers and the organizers should carefully choose words that have no alternative spellings.

Also, by now, some of you would say the spelled words are common. Well, they are 11-years-old (and younger) and in duress. I mean, no one in a batch correctly spelled “acres.”

So there were six in the final and they were made to speak in front of the stage.

The words that left only two were “hierarchy,” “pneumonia,” “resuscitate,” “questionnaire,” “mortgage,” and “choreograph.”

Franco Umali or Balay Sofia spelled “pneumonia” correctly while Hannah Estacio of Loakan Elementary School clinched “choreograph.”

Unlike Scripps, participants were not allowed to ask about the country of origin of the words; they could only ask, “Can you use the word in a sentence?” and “What type of word is it?” This restriction may be because the words are common enough that knowing their etymology is unnecessary.

I was expecting a contest similar to “Bee Season” or “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” but this went fast and furious.

Umali misspelled “mnemonic” as he started with “p” so he tried to spell “pneumatic.”

The killer word at SM Baguio was “pseudonym,” which Hannah spelled correctly, earning her the title of SM Baguio’s representative and a prize of P10,000.

The winning word in the Scripps Spelling Bee this year was “abseil” which means “rappel.” Before that was “psammophile” and the deceptive “moorhen.” “Murraya,” by the way, is the taxonomic genus for the curry tree, among others.

All the words were “hard,” but then they were for 14-year-olds, although there were 11-year-old winners.

All 40 winners will face each other in November. I just hope the contest won’t be jeopardized if the same set of words is used at the other malls.

Although I have mixed feelings, I am still glad that major sponsors have started this endeavor. I hope it becomes viral and that schoolchildren start caring about spelling. Then maybe they will also become interested in comprehension, and things will be fluorescent for us. – Rappler.com