 |
SCREEN CAPTURE / CNN
After correctly spelling 'koinonia,' confetti rained down upon winner Karthik Nemmani. |
THIS POST'S HEADLINE is pretty similar to the headline used last year to announce the winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and the contest before that, and the year before that, and ...
Indian/American kids continue to dominate the spelling bee as they have for the past several years. Winner Karthik Nemmani continued a longtime trend by becoming the 14th champion or co-champion of South Asian descent the bee has had in 11 consecutive years.
Fourteen-year old Karthik from McKinney, Texas won Thursday night by correctly spelling "koinonia" — "the Christian fellowship or body of believers," according to contest sponsor Merriam-Webster.
When asked at what point he knew he could spell the winning word, the soft-speakingTexas teenager said to laughter: "When I heard it."
Karthik outlasted 12-year-old Naysa Modi, a seventh-grader from Frisco, Texas who tripped over the word "bewusstseinslage" — "a state of consciousness or a feeling devoid of sensory components."
Naysa actually beat Karthik in their county's spelling bee determining who would be sent to the national bee. Karthik was allowed to compete in the nationals under the contest's new rule that accepted previous finalists.
Of her fellow Texan, "She's a really, really good speller. She deserved the trophy as much as I did," Karthik said. "I got lucky."
 |
| By the time the Scripps National Spelling Bee was whittled down to the final six, it was clear that the winner would be an Indian/American. |
Spelling bees have become a fixture in the Indian/American community. The contests are organized by community organizations and by businesses wanting to reach them. By the time they compete in the Scripps contest, they are well-seasoned veterans of the spelling circuit.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is the community's Super Bowl. "We rival the Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, Indian/American kids and spelling ... we're in that," says comedian Hari Kondabolu in Breaking the Bee, a film examining the Indian/American dominance.
"The only way Indian/American kids are losing the spelling bee ... is if they switch to Spanish. And then it's still like 50-50."
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is the community's Super Bowl. "We rival the Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, Indian/American kids and spelling ... we're in that," says comedian Hari Kondabolu in Breaking the Bee, a film examining the Indian/American dominance.
"The only way Indian/American kids are losing the spelling bee ... is if they switch to Spanish. And then it's still like 50-50."
RELATED: Spelling Bee ends in a tieOf the 16 finalists competing Thursday (May 31) in Oxon Hill, Maryland, 11 were Indian/Americans. besides Karthik and Naysa Among the 16 were Aisha Randhawa of Corona, Calif.; Anisha Rao of Dublin, Calif.; Singh of Louisville, Ky.; Jashun Paluru of West Lafayette, Ind.; Navneeth Murali of Edison, N.J.; Padhy of Cherry Hill, N.J.; Sravanth Malla of Haverstraw, N.Y.; Rohan Raja of Irving, Texas; and Abhijay Kodali of Flower Mound, Texas.
The winner of the bee receives $40,000 and a trophy from the Scripps Bee, a $2,500 savings bond (and a complete reference library) from Merriam-Webster, trips to New York and Hollywood as part of a media tour, and a pizza party for their school.
The national spelling bee, writes The Hindustan Times, "gives the immigrant community a platform to unabashedly flaunt their Americanness."
______________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment