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2007 US National Spelling Bee

M

mlw1235

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Anyone watching?

I love how all of their top picks have been all eliminated in the first round. The producers are probably not too happy. You don't want all those viewers to turn it off!!
 
We're pulling for the little guy who said, "I'd rather spell 'bedbug'". He has a future as a standup, if he gets eliminated, early on. 🙂
 
I am cheering for the girl from Madison.

These kids are absolutely amazing. Knowing just enough of all these languages in order to know how to spell. I find it absolutely fascinating.

Also, anyone see a pattern that most of these kids are musicians as well?
 
news link:
Just moments after winning the 80th annual Scripps Spelling bee, eighth grader Evan O'Dorney of Danville found himself on live TV explaining to ESPN anchor Stuart Scott why he actually much prefers doing math and playing piano concertos to spelling.

"Spelling is just a bunch of memorization," the 13-year-old boy said.​
He said he likes how numbers and notes fit together (my kind of guy!) and he couldn't be coaxed into saying he likes spelling.

There's really more to spellling than just memorizing list of words, because the kids learn root words are how they are combined, but of course they are memorizing that information too. O'Dorney has a black belt in taekwondo, so we'd better not cross him!

This is the second year in a row that a Canadian was runner-up.
 
The way it sounded to me, I think the moderator and Evan O'Dorney both mispronounced a word. O'Dorney's second to last word was the Japanese yosenabe (a kind of seafood soup). They both pronounced it yoh-seh-nah-bay, when it should have been yoh-seh-nah-beh. Can anyone confirm that? In any case, that didn't stop him from spelling it correctly.

His winning word was serrefine, a forceps for clamping blood vessels.

Nate Gartke, the Canadian runner-up, misspelled coryza, which refers to catarrhal inflammation of the nasal mucous membrane, as we all know. 🙄
 
Doctor Q said:
"Spelling is just a bunch of memorization," the 13-year-old boy said.[/indent]He said he likes how numbers and notes fit together (my kind of guy!) and he couldn't be coaxed into saying he likes spelling.
Click to expand...

When he said he didn't really enjoy spelling as much as math or music, my brother and I were laughing hysterically. This kid just won 20,000? in scholarship money for being the best kid-speller in the nation, but he likes math and music more!

The guy interviewing him was really trying to get him to say that he liked spelling too. He asked the winner more than a few questions that could give such an answer and that kid really wouldn't budge.

Mad props to him. I couldn't do it.
 
Does anyone know if this was the first time one of the "big four" U.S. television networks had broadcast the Spelling Bee, in prime time? I know it's been televised for several years now, but it seems like it was always on C-SPAN or some other cable channel.

Regardless, it's great to see this level of coverage for this competition. Oh, and remember folks, it's spelled "mackerel", not "mackeral".
 
Lyle said:
Does anyone know if this was the first time one of the "big four" U.S. television networks had broadcast the Spelling Bee, in prime time? I know it's been televised for several years now, but it seems like it was always on C-SPAN or some other cable channel.

Regardless, it's great to see this level of coverage for this competition. Oh, and remember folks, it's spelled "mackerel", not "mackeral".
Click to expand...

It seems like it was on ABC as well last year, but don't quote me on that.

I remember watching it on ESPN for many years, so a move over to ABC doesn't surprise me. (Same parent company)


Edit:
Wikipedia says......

The 79th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, D.C., on May 31 and June 1, 2006... For the first time in the Bee's history, ABC broadcast the Championship Rounds on prime-time TV. ESPN, which had televised the final rounds of the bee in their entirety since 1994 (CNN televised the final rounds from 1991-93), aired the Preliminary Championship Rounds. ESPN SportsCenter anchor Chris McKendry hosted the ESPN broadcast and ABC Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts hosted the ABC broadcast, with former finalist Paul Loeffler serving as the analyst for both broadcasts, and Chris Connelly filling the sideline reporter role. Both ESPN and ABC broadcasted the event in high-definition.
Click to expand...
 
I watched it for a few reasons.

1- It was on one of the HD channels. 🙂
2- I was in the other room doing work and watching from a distance
3- I'll admit it, it's addicting.

I really thought it would come out to the math genius kid (that won) and the girl from Wisconsin (I think it was Wisconsin, the one that had a little bit of a lisp).

I'll tell you one thing though, the kid that won is a friggin genius.
 
Doctor Q said:
This is the second year in a row that a Canadian was runner-up.[/COLOR]
Click to expand...

I still think that's pretty good --- a Canadian almost winning the US National Spelling Bee. I think someone should spend less time spelling words, and more time on reading the rules. 😉
 
Yes, I watched this last night as I did my homework. It was surprisingly addicting! I started watching in the 6th round and then until the end.

I got the Polish word oberek (I think that was the word) correct that some kid got out on.

Those silent D's at the end of French words got a good amount of kids out too.
 
Runner-up Gartke looked a bit like Bill Gates!

He also looked like he was shocked and upset about losing, even though being #2 among all those kids is an amazing achievement in itself.

Meanwhile, winner O'Dorney was unemotional about it all.

These kids weren't bursting out with tears as the winners and losers in beauty pageants often do. But maybe their parents were.
 
I saw it while we were at lunch yesterday on ESPN. It was a crowded restaurant and the TV was pretty quiet, which made me wonder, would turning on subtitles defeat the purpose, or make it more fun as whatever is in charge of subtitles had to figure out how to spell these odd words.

I guess I'll have to try it next year...
 
Just playing devils advocate, but how much does that show cost to put on and what are they doing to address the US literacy rate?
 
MagicUK said:
Just playing devils advocate, but how much does that show cost to put on and what are they doing to address the US literacy rate?
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The publicity from having the National Spelling Bee on network TV and from movies like "Akeelah and the Bee" is helping in a small way, because it encourages kids to learn more about words and languages (not just English) and to participate in local spelling bees.

Reading, not memorizing, is the real key to learning practical words and building a good vocabulary, and I hope that message gets through too.
 
Doctor Q said:
The publicity from having the National Spelling Bee on network TV and from movies like "Akeelah and the Bee" is helping in a small way, because it encourages kids to learn more about words and languages (not just English) and to participate in local spelling bees.

Reading, not memorizing, is the real key to learning practical words and building a good vocabulary, and I hope that message gets through too.
Click to expand...

I second that.

The couple words I did know yesterday, I had learned from reading and having to look them up.

The one that sticks out is cilice which I had to look up whilst reading The Da Vinci Code.
 
It's good that you take the trouble to do that, mlw1235. Many people just ignore words they don't know.

I have an old dictionary (originally my mom's) that I sometimes have to use when I find unknown words in old books. The words aren't always in modern dictionaries because the language has changed.
 
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