Friday, June 03, 2005

Bees and the birds again...

It is that time of the year again. And this year, Anurag Kashyap, an Indian American won it for the fifth time in seven years (and not for the first time, as my otherwise favorite newspaper quotes from UNI sources). And ESPN goes ga-ga over the exploits of Indian Americans! The article is itself written by an Indian American, but nevertheless it is ESPN, for gods sake!

This year, ESPN came out swinging. Their coverage of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee this year included, among other things - the First Annual Spelling Bee Fantasy Draft and a guide to picking the Spelling Bee winner. And do check out their Sportoon! It is both fitting and hilararious, particularly Larry Brown spelling "DISTRACTION"!!

Btw, what's ESPN doing treating this Spelling Bee like its the NBA! It's a group of kids spelling words for heavens sake. But it is tough, esspecially if u are a pre-teen. A lot of the words seem alien even for someone who has gone through the grind of the GRE and the TOEFL, not to mention the CAT.

Btw, CNN had a interactive spelling test comprising of words that decided the winner in the last ten years (look in the Related section in this page for the interactive test). I am proud that I got 9 out of 10 the first time i took it yesterday. And 2 of those words, I remembered cos I had watched the finals of the competition this past two years. But I missed one that I should have remembered, considering that it's on the word list for letter A and I knew the meaning! Thalaila adichinden.

10 comments:

Chez said...

anTi,

I find it really a mockery of sorts reading abt these, spelling bee competitions, thirukural recitation and stuff like that. These kids just spell these words without understanding anything. What do they gain just from the memorising power without any analytical power.

They'll just be able to 'report' and reproduce any ideas instead of analysing the concepts as they grow up... so much so for 'making' them intelligent.

Krish said...

When I heard "FLOCCI­NAUCINI­HILIPIL­IFICATION" for the first time long back, I thought it was the coolest thing to roll off my lips. Now, I realize what a waste of time these things are when all you have to do is look it up in good ol' google :-)

anantha said...

Anand: Actually i think there is more to this than just manapaadam! I THINK they do learn word roots and origins. Illana its practically impossible.

anantha said...

lol Thennavan!

Anonymous said...

Anantha...watch "Spellbound" documentary to see how these kids prepare for the contest...I loved it.

Arvind Narayanan

anantha said...

Arvind: Have been meaning to watch it da.... I have been hearing about since last yr...one of these days...

Sudipta Chatterjee said...

Hey! I got 8 right too! BTW, we always will want to take consolation by telling us that we are better than the Americans at least in spelling if not anything else. :)

anantha said...

Sudipta: Hmmm, i guess thats true :D.. Welcome on here :)

Anonymous said...

Anti,

Congrats dude !

Sorry for the Zillionth time :-) Lots of things happening here too. WIll get in touch with you soon.

-Prabhu

Sanket said...

Hi aNTi,
My first comment here. ;)
Note that my blog URL is changed. It is now - http://sanketpatil.blogspot.com
Earlier there was an underscore in it that was causing problems.