[Dr, Jacques Bailly] ] Champion spellers, we are now in uncharted territory,
We're throwing the dictionary at you
and so far you are showing this dictionary who is boss,
[audience laughing, applauding]
We've now reached the start of round 20,
the round I informed you would be the final one of this competition,
When we get to the end of round 20,
we will take an extraordinary step of declaring as co-champions
those of you still remaining in the competition,
[audience gasping, cheering]
-[pronouncer] You are correct! -[audience cheering]
[pronouncer] You are correct!
You are correct,
-You are correct, -[audience cheering]
Correct,
You are correct,
[male host 1] It's complete,
You're all champions of the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee,
[audience cheering, applauding]
[male host 1] They will forever be remembered as the Elite 8,
the eight spellers that for three and a half hours
took the best parts the dictionary had to throw at them,
and this is the night that the kids won the Spelling Bee,
-[male host 2 laughing] -[audience laughing]
And there you have it,
a picture that will be on the front page of every newspaper and website,
[male] Spelling bees are a time-honored American tradition
and the Scripps National Spelling Bee
is the most prestigious contest in the country,
[female] South Asian-American kids
are dominating the Scripps National Spelling Bee,
I think people are curious about, like, do they have a secret?
Is there something that they’re genetically predisposed to knowing?
The most phenomenal assemblage of super spellers,
Meet the kids who exhausted the dictionary itself,
-The Octo-Champs, ladies and gentlemen! -[audience cheering, applauding]
What kind of a name is Erin?
[audience laughing]
Since 2008, a decade of dominance,
[Hari Kondabolu] We rival the Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys, Celtics, Lakers,
Indian-American kids in spelling, like, we’re in that,
[laughing loudly]
When we find something that works, we go all in,
[male] Something clearly is going on that needs to be better understood,
,,,international society of people with high IQs has two new members,
They're children!
Three-year-old Akash Vukoti and five-year-old Amritha Vukoti
have been accepted into the American MENSA,
Welcome to Little Big Shots!
You have never seen kids like the ones who are coming out here today,
[Steve Harvey] Cona-sewer,
-[audience laughing] -[wrong answer buzzer]
[laughing] No! Not "cona-sewer,"
-Okay, catch it up, -[audience laughing]
The kids getting the big buzz at the Spelling Bee,
A six-year-old making history
as the first first-grader ever in the competition,
Inviscate,
-Inviscate, -[female] That is correct,
[audience cheering, applauding]
Well, funny story, First, my uncle,,, One of my uncles,,,
was feeding me something like a type of rice thingy,
And then he showed a spoon, told me to spell "spoon,"
I said,,,
So the next day, the same uncle came to me and said to spell "spoon" again,
I spelled,,,
That was not normal for, you know, for a two,,, just two-years-old kid
to spell it back in the same sequence, in the same order of the alphabet,
That was the first time when we noticed that, oh, he,,,
He has something into the spellings,
That’s when my parents saw that first interest,
First interest,
Hmm,
-[Mom] Who are the Spelling Bee champion? -I am!
[Mom laughing]
I am the Spelling Bee champion,
-What's "L" for? -Lion!
-What’s "lion" spelling? -Lion? L-I-O-N, Lion!
[Krishna] I came from a rural village in India,
If I didn’t dream high, I wouldn’t be coming to America,
A kid who was born here in America should do a lot more,
[Krishna laughing]
The goal for Akash would be to be a good citizen,
So whatever he does, whatever he learns, it should benefit the community,
the country, the world,
Something like, you know, Microsoft, for example,
Or the Google, or the Facebook! Should be something like that,
that should change the lives of the people around the world,
We don’t know,,,, I mean, if it happens, we’ll be really blessed,
[chuckles]
One of the myths, I think, that people have about Indian-Americans
and their success is that it's somehow genetic or even ethnic,
So what happened in the United States?
The Indians who do well in Spelling Bees in America
are drawn from Indians who were very adventurous,
who decided to take advantage
of the relaxation of American immigration rules in 1965,
[Lyndon B, Johnson] This bill says simply that from this day forth,
those wishing to immigrate to America
shall be admitted on the basis of their skills
and their close relationships to those already here,
This is a simple test, and it is a fair test,
Those who can contribute most to this country,
to its growth, to its strength, to its spirit,
will be the first that are admitted to this land,
That stopped the relatively racist quotas on who could immigrate from where
in other parts of the world,
and it allowed for immigrants to come in
from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean,,,
Parts of the world that had been oftentimes cut off,
It wasn’t like every South Asian was allowed in,
They picked people who were the most educated,
who could add a very clear, like, monetary value,
and serve a clear purpose for America and its economy,
[Fareed Zakaria] And Indians take advantage of this,
but mostly, they are engineers, doctors,
One of the interesting things to notice is how many Indian doctors you’ll find
in very remote parts of America,
And you see them in rural Alabama or Mississippi or Louisiana,
and you ask yourself, "Why was there an Indian doctor in one of these places?"
'Cause no white person wanted to go to rural Alabama and be a doctor,
and those were the job openings that the Indians filled,
[Pawan Dhingra] Then in the '80s, and really mushrooming in the '90s
and since then, has been the growth of the IT industry,
There wasn’t conflict,
There wasn’t persecution or prosecution,
They weren’t fleeing, It was all really revolved around possibility,
So I don’t think it’s this magical Indian cultural superiority stuff
I hear all the time,
A portion of the story is culture,
but a large portion is how people got here,
In addition to, like, you know, India’s a colonized country,
English was around,
[Fareed] They come to the United States,
They get trained or they go to companies, They do well,
Now, they have children,
and they want to ensure that their children
take advantage of these extraordinary opportunities
that they see in America as immigrants,
[Dr, Balu Natarajan] My parents came for opportunity,
There was a lot of emphasis on language growing up inside the house,
and English was extremely stressed,
I think a lot of my interest in spelling
came because of that early exposure to English through my mom
and somewhat my dad,
It took a solid four years for me to get from start to finish
in my National Spelling Bee win pursuit,
and then eventually, in 1985, I was able to win,
Milieu,
[male] It was his third try at the National Spelling Bee,
Third time’s the charm!
For him this year, no bell will bing,
[Dr, Balu] I don’t think I recognized the magnitude of that
probably until decades later,
And when I realized
how relevant it was that the son of immigrants
had won the National Spelling Bee
was when I saw other immigrants, primarily Indian parents,
um, say that it was 1985
that put the National Spelling Bee on the map for Indians,
And so while I never pretended that it was a big deal
other people informed me that it was a big deal to them,
[ball bouncing]
[Shourav] Playing tennis and spelling are pretty similar
because it takes persistence,
because the first time you go to a match or a spelling bee, you might not win,
Because the more you practice, the better you get,
and then you can just get better and better,
And then eventually, you just,,,
Everything will fall into place and maybe you’ll win,
Well, I’ve been doing this for many years,
I started when I was in second grade, and every year I’ve constantly improved,
so, like, hopefully that this year will be the year,
[Usha] We are originally from India,
India has lots of languages, so I think that bilingual concept
helped them learn a lot of other languages too,
There is an expectation that he’ll do well and probably win,
Um, but also I think he’s kind of used to the pressure,
and also it’s not like a random guess,
He has proven himself that he could win the other competitions,
So that gives him the confidence,
I think he doesn’t feel that pressure so much,
[male] How good is he, really?
He's really good,
[stammers] Um,,,
I mean, when I was,,,
When I was still in eighth grade, I would say we were about equal,
but, like, since then, he’s kept on going,
I wanna say he is probably the best speller in the world,
-He's like Michael Jordan, -Obviously, Michael Jordan, Yeah,
Michael Jordan is just, like, consistently the best player in,
like, in the league when he was playing,
and I think Shourav is, like, consistently the best speller in the school,
and probably, like, in the state,
and, like, maybe, probably even the nation,
[birds chirping]
[girl] We found a word that Ashrita did not know!
[Ashrita] S-U-P-E-R-C,,,
,,,you have all day!
[girls chuckling]
[gasps]
-Oh! -Woo!
By the time she was two, two and a half, she was already good at solving puzzles,
and she was asking for more,
and she was able to recognize some of the letters,
And by the time she was three, she was able to read the smaller books,
the books with a few words in each sentence,
So we did not think of it as a talent,
We thought it was a normal thing
-that all kids do,,, -For all kids!
,,,and so we just continued filling her with more and more,
whatever she was comfortable with,
Basically, it started a really long time ago
when I was about five,
I was in an art competition,
'cause I was kind of into art at that time,
and in the next room they had a spelling bee,
Since I was really young, they just let me in randomly,
They didn’t really think I was gonna do any good or anything,
So they’re just like, “Yeah, sure, you can do it,”
I go there, I take the tests, and I come third
out of first-through-eighth graders,
And then my parents were just like,,,
"Something’s up," [chuckling]
[Swapna] My brother Bharat, he’s very focused
and he has set very high goals for himself,
So the same thing I observe in Ashrita,
Ashrita has a great influence on the younger kids
and also on the people way back in my hometown,
As Ashrita was getting through each year,
trying to get through Scripps, people came to know that,
"Okay, this is what is happening,"
During the competitions,
we make sure that we are calling her every day,
because it’s not very easy to spell on the stage
where millions of people are watching her,
Whatever may be the result, we always love her and encourage her,
-[woman singing Indian music over stereo] -[cymbal ringing]
[woman singing Indian music over stereo]
[Tejas] The first time I thought "I want to win the Scripps Bee"
was in fourth grade,
because I’d lost the county bee that year, placing second,
And then I contemplated my reasons for continuing
because I was obviously crushed,
and then that same year I watched the National Spelling Bee,
and I saw Arvind win,
And I really wanted to be in that spotlight
and I wanted to hoist that trophy over my head,
and so that’s where it started,
[Sri] I was so happy that there is a chance that exists
to entertain this kid in an area that he’s interested in,
At the same time, instill the habits
which will actually come and live with him for later in his life,
The benefit of hard work, the work ethic and all that stuff,
So I was really, really happy,
[Karthikeyan] When it comes to Tejas,
the inherent nature that, you know, that being curious
to a different subject, be it medicine, to dance, to,,,
You call it, the different ones, he’s curious,
His curiosity is what comes to my mind, which is very unique to him,
It really makes,,, makes us all proud,
And especially, I feel proud, and that’s where it gives an inspiration to my kid,
He looks upon to him as my brother,
and he takes a lot of inspiration from him,
So someone, like, you know, when you see someone on the TV,
especially the big platform like YouTube,
or be on a, like, you know, the ESPN,
My son, he loves to watch for hours and hours,
and naturally I see that the longer he watches those videos,
he’s getting more inspired by him,
,,,L, elegiacal,
[male pronouncer] Yes,
[audience cheering, applauding]
Scripps Howard is proud to introduce the 1988 National Spelling Bee champion
from the Sacramento Bee, Rageshree Bhag Ramachandran,
[applauding]
I think those who didn't have someone to look up to,,,
we can legitimately call trailblazers,
[Dr, Balu] As I recall, I think it was 1983,
We have a picture at home,
There are six of us,
All six of us accounted for the entire Indian contingent
in the 1983 National Spelling Bee,
That was it, Just six out of 137, I think,
[Srinivas] In the Scripps Spelling Bee in the early '90s,
I recall seeing a few Indian-American students,
certainly South Asian-American students,
It wasn’t something that felt, like, normal that there was a ton,
At the time, I think,
my eight or nine-year-old brother was the first time I realized
just potentially how big spelling bees were within this community,
He was eight years old!
And he was talking about it in these reverential terms
that made me believe that this was something that he was really motivated by,
It all changed in 1994, when ESPN first began broadcasting the Bee,
because all of a sudden,
not only could you read about it in your newspaper,
but you could just easily watch it on television,
[Srinivas] Definitely a much bigger buzz for us, It was really cool,
I mean, I was a huge basketball fan by that time,
You know, I was wearing, like, a Bulls cap at one of the picnics,
and they would ask me, like, "Who's your favorite players?"
I was like, “Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan,"
[Dr, Sanjay] I’m a sports guy, I like sports,
and I remember watching it on ESPN,
And I thought, "They’re showing a spelling bee on ESPN,"
I mean, Indian kids have arrived, finally, you know,
with regard to sports because, you know,
sports was not an area where they were excelling as much,
But spelling was on ESPN, so, hey, it’s pretty much the same thing, right?
I remember at that point, I thought to myself, "Something’s happening here,"
Before! First of all! First things first, next things next,
and without further ado, I’m going to go ahead,
And the definition is,,, [clicks tongue] Um, it’s a lung disease,
That’s why it’s…
"sis", "o-sis"ending,
Uh,, [tuts]
Which is caused by inhaling ash, sand, dust…
[tuts]
,,,etcetera,
Okay, the word is 45 letters, okay? So don’t be surprised on this,
Anyways, so,,,
[clearing throat]
Excuse me for the moment, [exhales]
Ready, set, spell!
Yeah, I think the word just filled up the entire screen,
[Shalini Shankar] Akash Vukoti, I think, burst onto the scene
as being this phenomenon,
He’s so young, and yet he’s so poised and so competent,
and so gifted at spelling in a way that kids who are six,
I’ve never seen a child spell,
It’s fun to get all the attention, I’m not really jealous of him,
I’m just glad that he has all that media attention,
He kind of keeps me in it too,
which doesn’t make me feel left out,
and if I’m not left out, that doesn’t really make me feel jealous, [chuckles]
So, last year, Akash was Cereno Spelling Bee champion,
,,,T-L-Y, circumspectly,
[host] We have a new champ!
How do I win the Scripps National Spelling Bee?
[exhales]
The way to win the Bee is simply…
[sighs]
90 percent hard work!
Ten percent…
other,
[Ganesh] So this is our database of words,
The dictionary has about 475,000 words,
and what we realized is we can condense that 475,000 words
into about 125,000 words by simply removing the extensions,
So, for example, if you know "sleep," "sleeping" is not required,
So if you know these base words,
you can construct any of the remaining words in the dictionary,
[Shourav] I know probably, like, 98 to 99 percent,
That's how much accuracy you need,
[Ganesh] We haven’t seen a word which came outside this dictionary
for the last four years,
If someone really masters this database,
there is a very high probability that they can win any competition,
including the Scripps Spelling Bee,
[Muthu] Tiercé,
T-I-E-R-C-E-E,
-The language of origin is French, -Yeah,
-[Muthu] So does that change your ending? -No,
-[Muthu] What did you say again? -T-I-E-R-C-E-E,
No, it’s T-I-E-R-C-E, with that accent on top,
My expectations for Tejas is, like, win the trophy
because he has put in a lot of hard work, It’s been six years' penance for him,
So he has been putting in a lot of hours, like, putting in a lot of energy into it,
He’s putting a lot of his emotions and feel into it,
[Tejas] You can’t be a champion just by putting an hour a day,
Whether it’s in sports or in spelling, you have to put in the effort,
And what you see time and time again is people who have,
more or less, devoted their whole lives to spelling
become Spelling Bee champions,
and I think that really is a testament to the benefits of hard work,
[Muthu] This is the gateway to get into Scripps National Spelling Bee,
I'm feeling excited and nervous at the same time,
Tejas has won this regional competition thrice,
Oh my gosh, I’m always a nervous wreck,
Always, always, I'm confident in his ability,
but spelling bees, it’s the luck of the draw,
One word can do it and hopefully he’ll have good words today and do well,
[host] Welcome to the 43rd Annual Richmond Times-Dispatch Regional Spelling Bee,
Thank you for joining us today, Judges, are we ready?
M-A-N,,,
T-E-A, "Mantea,"
-[bell rings] -[pronouncer] Mattock,
[bell rings]
[whispering] Yes, yes, Phew!
[male host] All right, this is the start of round 11,
[pronouncer] Campodeiform,
,,,I-U-F-O-R-M,
[bell rings]
Alma mater,
[quietly] Yes, yes,
[pronouncer] Okay, you'll now have to spell one additional word,
Florilegium,
Florilegium, Definition, please?
"A volume or collection of brief extracts or writings; an anthology,"
Florilegium, Are there any alternate pronunciations?
There are not,
Florilegium,
[pronouncer] Okay, we have our champion!
One more trip,
[audience applauding]
[male host] Wow, congratulations to all of our spellers,
They’re all champions,
[audience applauding]
[Tejas] I’m really happy that I managed to pull it off,
and I’m really excited that I get to go back
to the National Spelling Bee for my last year,
and I’m just ready to work really hard for it,
[Tejas] I don’t really enjoy attention that much,
Whenever people compliment me, I take the compliment,
and I thank them but within me, I kind of say, "I don’t deserve it,"
because I haven’t gotten the ultimate trophy yet,
Logorrhea, May I have a sentence, please?
[male pronouncer] "The patient’s logorrhea
was indicative of deep emotional problems,"
I had grown up in North Carolina,,,
and had moved to Florida,,,
and I’d never been in settings where I didn’t feel distinctly different,
For having my name, for looking the way I did,
rather unusual to be somebody who went home and did her homework
instead of hanging out after school,
Where I was really inspired
was seeing a list of the kids who were finalists in 1997,
and seeing at that point that it was a majority of Indian spellers,
And so, as an Indian student,
this felt like an arena
in which I could compete and be successful,
C-O-R-O-L-L-A-R-Y,
[Nupur] In the 1999 Scripps National Finals,
there were four kids of Indian origin,
And so, seeing so many Indian spellers at Scripps
gave me a sense of comfort and a sense of belonging,
and also it was the first time in my life that I didn’t feel
extremely different,
Logorrhea, L-O-G-O-R-R-H-E-A,
-[female pronouncer] That is correct, -[audience cheering, applauding]
[Pawan Dhingra] Once Nupur Lala won the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee,
and it was broadcast via the film Spellbound,
it really raised awareness to the entire community
about this being a niche in which Indian-American kids can excel,
Have you seen the movie Spellbound?
Oh my God, every,,,
Every time she has a major spelling bee or anything like that,
we have, yeah,
These are,,, I think we watch it, like, very often,
All the time,
[George] There’s three tips I have for other spellers,
One, trust in Jesus,
Trust and believe in Jesus,
Two, honoring your parents,
And three, hard work,
I love that, Like, he is so like, "I spell,
I’m dominant in it,
My parents, all about it,
Respect your parents, trust Jesus,"
He trusted Jesus all the way to first place, [laughing]
[female pronouncer] You have won the,,,
Success seemed attainable, it seemed achievable,
because you had watched other Indian-Americans do it,
And I think that often when you have something like that in a community
where people can imagine the success,
it’s tangible, it’s not abstract,
they go for it and they work hard for it,
And so the success has then bred success and led to even greater success,
[Ananya] E,,,
-Correct, -Indian-American students
have two other bees that are specifically designed for them
to foster the competition that they have amongst themselves
and to get better at spelling in front of a group,
and to collaborate with their peers on how to study,
and for the parents to get together and talk about what’s working
and what’s not working,
When I heard they were doing them, I was like, “Of course,”
This is how it’s done in the Indian-American community,
Let’s raise the stakes and let’s see what happens!
I think only when this minor league circuit
of the South Asian Spelling Bee
and the North South Foundation Spelling Bee,
which has been in effect for over 20 years, I believe,
that you really see these kids hone their craft
to a level that you didn’t otherwise see before that,
[Kevin Negandhi] A lot of the families approach these bees
as practice rounds, if you will, for the big Scripps Spelling Bee,
[female choreographer] Two, No feet, All right, Five, six,,,
So no feet, Five, six, seven, and one,,,
[male coach] Run in, Good, Around,
And here it comes, three more,
Results are important, but we have to ignore the results
and concentrate on the process,
Enjoy the process, the results will come on their own,
[Sirisha] I’m telling Ashrita whatever is the outcome,
we don’t have so many expectations or anything, It’s fine with us,
You just, like, do your best,
We want her to be relaxed, as relaxed as she can,
Ashrita, like, when she’s relaxed,
-she can spell very tough words, -She does better,
She does better,
[Shourav] So, basically what we do is my mom or dad makes a list of words,
and then I just go over them,
and they just keep quizzing me until I get all of them right,
[Usha] Mornay,
What’s the definition?
"A cheese-flavored cream sauce,"
M-O-R-N-A-Y,
[Usha] Yeah, good, Good job,
We mostly keep this as a secret, but,,,
[Ganesh] It’s only we are sharing this database because this is our last year,
and so far we have kept this as a family trade secret,
and that gives Shourav a competitive advantage,
the way he prepares,
So, yeah, we haven’t shared with anybody else so far,
As always, I’m kind of nervous because it’s my last year,
so there’s really no room for error,
But I’m also pretty confident that I’ll do pretty good,
so we’ll just see how it goes,
[male host] The biggest spelling event in Texas starts right now,
Welcome to the 2017 Houston Public Media Spelling Bee,
We’re here today with 56 finalists,
At the end of our Bee,
only two will be going to the Scripps National Spelling Bee
in Washington, D,C,,
where they’ll compete to find out who is our nation’s top speller,
[male pronouncer] The word is "capsule,"
Capsule, May I have the definition?
The word is "gloaming,"
That is correct,
[bell rings]
That is correct,
That's correct,
-[bell rings] -[male TV host] Wow, what a difficult Bee
we have been fighting so far,
If my count is right, we’re down to just four spellers,
The word is "gamapetalous,"
[boy] A-L,,,
,,,O-U-S, Gamapetalous
[bell rings]
That is correct,
That's correct,
That's correct, That's correct,
That's correct, Correct,
[male pronouncer] The word is "bardiglio,"
[bell rings]
[male pronouncer] The word is "zwitterion,"
I-O,,,
,,,N, "Switterion,"
[bell rings]
[male pronouncer] The word is "promyshlennik,"
Promyshlennik, Can I have the definition?
Can I have the language of origin?
Can I have the sentence?
Wait, can I start over?
-Can you repeat the word one more time? -Promyshlennik,
That is correct,
[audience applauding]
[male TV host] Nicely done, Shourav, don’t go anywhere,
He has spelled the word correctly in his round,
There’s nobody else in his round to compete against,
so he goes on to a championship word, If he gets this correct,
then he’s our champion, If not, the Bee continues,
Here we go,
The word is "rafraichissoir,"
-[audience applauding] -[hosts laughing]
[male pronouncer] I guess he was pretty proud of that spelling!
I just won the Houston Public Media Regional Spelling Bee
and I’m feeling pretty good about it, [chuckles]
I just knew it off the top of my head and I,,,
I’m just like, why not just get it over with right then and there,
so I just spelled it, like, in two seconds flat,
[chuckling]
We expected him to win, and he won in that sense, uh,,,
-It's a good turnout, -Yeah, it’s,,, It’s the expected outcome,
[Shourav] I’m just really happy and really proud, I guess,
just to be going back and representing Houston again,
I was talking with a past champion,
and of course I asked her the most obvious question,
“Why do you think so many Indians win the Bees?”
And she said, for her, one of the key reasons is that languages
is something that her family and herself just know so much about,
Her parents were fluent in five languages,
and while that’s a lot, being multilingual is commonplace,
And the familiarity of language,
the ability to communicate so fluently across multiple languages,
helps the kids in their minds grasp words,
grasp spelling, grasp languages, nuances, its etymologies,
and that helps them achieve in the Bee,
Uh-ah, e-i, u-oo, ru-roo, ei-ay, ai,
[Krishna] Akash can fluently read-write three languages,
Mother tongue, English, Mother’s mother tongue, Telugu,
And then Hindi, which is India’s national language,
-So he’s fluent in three languages, Yeah, -Yeah, he can read and write,
[Krishna] And he is really looking into learn other languages,
like, you know, German or Hebrew or Korean,
To be a winner, you probably need to master 60 to 100 thousand words,
You also need to understand patterns from different languages,
You need to study old Bees,
and one of the things we haven’t talked about
is you’ve got to be able to stand on stage and think on your feet
and present these words without getting distracted
or getting flustered, and think through what the word means,
and you’ve got a limited time clock to do this, It’s a huge amount of work,
Most of these students spend one to two hours a day, all week,
every week, and then more on the weekends,
and they do this for years leading up to the National Bee,
Some of these students start on this
as young as three and four years old in some of these families,
These kids have put more time into spelling by the time they’re 13
than most of us put into anything our entire lives,
[Pawan Dhingra] The popular misconception of these families
is that they are "tiger parents,"
who are drilling their kids, forcing them to study against their will,
How else can you explain why so many Indian children
are excelling in this one particular niche?
To be honest, when children are young,
parents do typically enroll their kids
in a spelling bee or some other academic competition,
the same way that parents enroll their children
into basketball or swimming without asking their kids' permission,
hoping that their kids will like it and get good at something,
But the kids don’t stick with it unless they like it,
and the parents don’t force their kids to become spellers
unless the kids find some internal drive for it,
[Dr, Balu] The Spelling Bee was something I wanted to do,
I didn’t get intense pressure from home to do it,
In fact, after losing out in 1984 in the National Spelling Bee,
my parents said, “Do you really want to do this again?”
I thought about it and I said, “Yes, I do want to pursue it again,”
[Dr, Sanjay] This is a metaphor for something else, a metaphor for success,
it’s a metaphor for "I have achieved something
and received recognition within my own community,"
and the motivations would be the same as anything else in life,
Mmm! Let’s begin round one of the Vukoti Spelling Bee, Let's go,
Number one,
[Kevin Negandhi] When you watch the Bee,
the first thing you think of is
it’s a family affair throughout the whole process,
[Akash] Accommodate,
A-C-C-O-M-M-O-D-A-T-E,
-Accommodate, -[Krishna] Good job,
When a parent devotes a lot of time
to coaching a student through a spelling competition,
the siblings are there,
They’re listening to it, learning it, picking it up,
and there’s usually some competition among the siblings,
Their parents have already figured out by the time you get to the second sibling
how to help that speller learn and practice
in a much more refined and efficient way,
When the older one won the district spelling bee, the younger one,
who’s three years younger than him,
wrote down every word correctly in the district bee
that everybody got, So, you know, he’s,,,
He’s in second grade, [laughing]
[birds chirping]
[Shourav] I got into it in second grade,
and that was when Shobha was in fourth grade,
so we had just really started that year 'cause, like,
that was the year that Shobha won her first school spelling bee,
so then my parents just started helping her from there,
[Ganesh] Initially, we thought he would be a good pronouncer,
because some of the words we were not able to pronounce the way Shobha wanted,
So we recruited him as a pronouncer to Shobha,
and then he realized that, "Oh, I can just not be the pronouncer,
I can be the best speller too and I can beat my sister too,"
So I think that’s how it started, and after that he took off,
[Shobha] We were really competitive with each other,
but it was kind of like a balance,
Like, we’d be really competitive at a bee
and we wouldn’t talk to each other, that kind of thing,
Or I would talk to him, but he wouldn’t talk to me,
And then, once we got home, it was fine though,
We’d sit in the game room and play video games and, like,,,
that kind of thing,
I don’t think there was a moment
where he, like, questioned why he was doing it,
He just knew he wanted to win, and so he, like,,, he just went for it,
and I really admire that about him,
I’ve been doing it for such a long time,
and it’s something that I really enjoy,
And to be the best at it, that would be, like, a really surreal experience,
[typing on keyboard]
[hits key]
Now, I’ll research more things about this,
[typing]
I just like going to Wikipedia and reading about stuff 'cause I like reading,
[clicks mouse]
I can connect it to spelling in a way, because hali-ya, blah-blah-blah,
which is a scientific name for a bald eagle,
It actually comes from the Greek, hali meaning "sea," aetos meaning "eagle,"
leuko meaning "white," and suphlos meaning "head,"
And they all squish it together,
So I just want to do further research into that,
If I see a new word, like in school, maybe,,,
Maybe one day, my teacher uses the word "finagle,"
I’m like, “What does finagle mean?” I look it up,
And maybe, in the word "finagle,’" I see the word "persifleur,’"
then maybe I’ll research that,
And then maybe in that entry, I find a different word,
And in that entry, I find a different word,
And I research all of them,
and then that’s how I expand my vocab,
Hmm,,,
Hmm, hmm,,,
[male] Akash, are you excited for tomorrow?
Yeah! I’m really excited!
But I’m also kind of nervous at the same time,
I want you to go through one more time all the etymology things, okay?
-Yep, -You got the necessary words in this list,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay, should we do it?
Long "iya" and a plural noun, spelled "ae,"
as in algae, larvae,,,
Wait, larvae?
Antennae,
So you know all these words' spellings, right?
-[Akash] Mm-hmm, -Yes or no?
-[Chandrakala] So can I go to next page? -Go ahead,
-Cirrhosis, You wrote-- -[Akash] Cirrhosis,
[Chandrakala] Mm-hmm,
-C-I,,, -[Chandrakala] Mm-hmm,
,,,R-R-H-O-S-I-S,
-Cirrhosis, -Good job!
If at all Akash continues his interest in the spellings
in the same way like what he has now,
we expect him to win the National Spelling Bee title,
like, in three to four years, by sixth grade,
If he can become the national champion,
he’ll be blessed and all of us would be blessed,
[female host] Contestants, if you will please rise,
We’re going to say the Pledge of Allegiance
before we get started,
[all] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
[male] We all set? Let’s roll,
Stucco,
[bell rings]
Is,,, Are there any other alternate pronunciations, please?
May I have the language of origin, please? May I have the definition, please?
May I have the sentence, please?
[male pronouncer] "Akash spent weeks
finishing a large collage of a Paris street scene,"
[Akash] C-O,,,
,,,T-O-R-I-A, Trattoria,
[bell rings]
[exaggerated deep voice] And then there were four, The final four,
This word has a homonym,
The word is "boarders,"
It is a noun,
and it’s "people who are provided with regular meals
or regular meals and lodging,"
May I have the alternate pronunciations, please?
[male] There are none,
May I have the language of origin, please?
[male] This word consists of two originally English parts,
Can you please repeat the word again?
[male] Boarders,
D-E,,,
R-S, "Borders,"
-[bell rings] -[mouths] Okay,
Good luck to all my fellow spellers, I hope I’ll come back next year,
[Amrita] He's still young and he has a lot of years,
so he might learn some new words,
I’ve heard of that word before,
but I’ve heard it many times when I was older,
'Cause when I was his age, I had no idea what that word is,
[Akash sobbing]
[Krishna] Akash, you're in second grade,
Yeah, you've got so many more chances to go,
-[Akash sobbing] -That's okay,
[Krishna] "The question over there was who would be going to Washington, D,C,,
representing our region, That was the only question over there,
You may or may not be the regional champion,
but you’re already the school champion,
and, you know, on the way to prepare for this Spelling Bee,
you improved your knowledge, That’s the purpose
of why the Scripps National Spelling Bee is there,
and we are on the way,
One day, you may get the National Spelling Bee trophy,"
So that’s what we said,
He understood it, You can see a smile on his face now,
[Krishna chuckling] That was only for, you know, a brief time,
and, you know, that’s very,,, quite natural for a kid,
If it isn't obvious yet, I love the Spelling Bee,
Or as I like to call it, the Indian Super Bowl,
[audience laughing]
Six winners in a row! Six in a row, son!
-That’s incredible! -[audience laughing, cheering]
So it gives me great pleasure to finally say,
“Hey, white people, learn the language,”
[audience laughing]
Writing that piece, I got to put together all the reasons I loved it,
Like, here was something that we were dominant in,,,
that had never been seen before,
And it's spelling!
But, of course,
the internet would not let me enjoy this completely,
One patriot tweeted,
“America has to step it up with our spelling game,
Last three remaining, all of Indian decent,”
First of all, these kids of Indian descent are also American,
-[man] Woo! -Secondly, you spelled "descent" wrong!
[audience laughing]
The kid who won that year was Arvind Mahankali, who was from Queens,
It was a big deal to me,
both as a Queens resident and as an Indian-American,
These kids are amazing, and they know it!
I mean, look how cool Arvind is winning the title,
[audience cheering]
That is so G! That is so G!
[audience laughing, applauding]
Little homie didn’t even care that he won!
He looks like he’s still waiting for the next word!
[audience laughing]
And I’m like, "Why can’t we celebrate that?
Why can’t we celebrate the fact
that this kid did something and he did it in such a cool way?"
He reached the mountain top of that particular sport,
So, yeah, I wanted to celebrate that,
Luckily, I got to do that in a very ridiculous way,
[Pawan Dhingra] For those of us who are not in the Bees, what we see online,
the racist or xenophobic comments critiquing Indians who win,
it's very disparaging and it’s very disheartening,
And we worry about the families and, of course, about the kids themselves,
[Shalini Shankar] When you have an activity that's so explicitly branded
as a quintessentially American contest,
the idea of who gets to be named as an American
and who is considered a legitimate champion in that arena
is really coded still by whiteness,
and there’s a real emphasis on America
ultimately remaining a white country,
I dread the day when "somebody else" wins the Spelling Bee,
because it'll make me sad,
the kind of commentary that comes out of that,
And it’s the kind of commentary about taking something back that…
It is endemic to so much of our national debate right now
in such a misguided way,
For years, our representation was dictated by other people,
We were forced to play convenience store owners
or we were forced to play cab drivers,
Like, there was a limited range of representation,
Like, film and TV, you know, especially when you’re such a small minority,
affect how the whole country or the whole world views you,
And these kids, like, they earn their way on television by succeeding,
Only in New York City could a child of Indian immigrants,
who speaks Spanish and Telugu,
compete for a trophy
named for a British-American newspaper publisher,
and win the competition for spelling a Yiddish word,
I’ve actually been kvelling all day,
Do you know how to spell "kvelling"?
-Yeah, I figured, -[all laughing]
,,,A-N-E-E-R, Sloganeer,
That's correct, We have a champion!
[audience applauding]
,,,O-U-S,
Fatuous,
[audience applauding]
[male producer] Correct!
,,,K-A,
Zubrowka,
There you go!
[Tejas] This is my lucky purple rock,
His fifth grade teacher, Mrs, Gribben, she has given him that rock,
[Tejas] We keep it in here just to keep it really safe
because when I’m spelling, I don’t feel as confident
when I’m not carrying this rock,
So I always ensure that it’s safe and sound,
They’re treated like diamonds at my household where,,,
Especially during Bee season,
I know I might not really show it, but I’m just like…
I can’t describe it in words, I’m that excited!
A few years ago, when I was in first grade,
all I did was win my school and I participated in the regionals,
Now, I’m actually going to the Scripps, I mean, that feeling is just great for me,
We have been waiting for this for the past two years,
Now it finally came true,
Oh, we heard so many exciting things about the Bee Week,
Ah, we’re really excited to go and be there!
Like, you know, my kid is going to be there on the ESPN,
so I can’t just like, yeah…
My goal? I’m studying really hard to be at least in the top 50,
but I’m not expecting to do better than that because I,,,
I just really want to be in the top 50,
That’s all I want to do this year,
[Usha] Scripps National Spelling Bee is in ten days,
so Shourav is almost done with the reviewing,
Now, these ten days,
he will go through the dictionary words one more time,
It’s kind of surreal, I guess,
because, like, I’ve been doing it for so long, it’s just like,,,
You've only,,, I only have ten more days and then I’m done with it, so…
It’s just kind of, like, just do all you can because,,,
Well, in ten days, you’ll be done with it,
so you don’t have to worry about it anymore,
I just have, like, a few words here and there that I don’t know,
so I think I’m pretty confident that whatever happens
then I’ll just be happy with it,
So these are diacritical marks, and that’s how, like,
the pronouncers at Bees read the words off the list that they have,
That’s how I also read the words for the database,
I just see the diacriticals and I can read it like a second language,
and then I type it,
Usually, if it’s a word that I’m, like, 100 percent confident about,
I can, like,,, While I’m typing it, I can just look at the next word,
so that’s how I can go so fast,
After, like, years of doing it, it just kind of becomes second nature,
So, I’m about to just type and see how many words I can type in a minute
if I just go as fast as I can, so…
-So, three, two, one, -[stopwatch beeps]
Yeah, so that’s…
[stopwatch beeps]
I just finished the one minute and I did 45 words in that minute,
Saying it out loud takes, like, probably five to ten seconds,
Typing a word takes, like, two seconds,,, two to three seconds,
So it’s just,,, It just goes faster for the same effect,
so I think typing is, like, the better way,
We have, like, a root word document, and I study 100 root words
and I take a two-minute break, and then I study another 100,
take a two-minute break,
But I’m just trying to study as much as I can without cramming,
She has studied well, She has worked hard for the whole year,
All she can do is do her best and I’m sure she’ll do her best,
[Tejas] My plan is just to study for confidence,
so I can go on stage thinking,
"Okay, I’ve studied all the words I can,
Now, it’s just up to the word I get and up to my stage performance,"
It’s not exactly religious, but we follow a scripture
called Bhagavad Gita, where it says,
"Do your duty, There are so many things out of your control,
and don’t focus on the results,"
And that’s something we have always been telling Tejas,
not just for Spelling Bee, for his life,
I mean, for his studies, for his academics, for his job,
and I think he’ll be looking forward to find his new adventure
and move on to his new interests,
[Shourav] I’m pretty relaxed, I’d have to say,
but there’s always, like, a bit of nerves involved,
But I think I’ve been here, like, four times before, five including now,
so I think I’m pretty familiar with everything,
So I think I’m just relaxed and just ready to go,
[Usha] I think Shourav has a winning chance of about 90 percent,
We are going with the hope that he will be the champion,
but if there is any one or two percent chance
of not getting the championship,
that is fine because it is another year,
[people chattering]
[people chattering excitedly]
[female host] We are now ready to begin round two
of the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee
presented by Kindle,
Speller number one, Naomi Zarin, you may approach the microphone,
-[Dr, Jacques Bailly] Hi, Naomi, -Hi,
[Dr, Jacques Bailly] Your word is "politeia,"
Can I have the definition?
Your word is "embezzlement,"
Can I have the language of origin?
[bell rings]
-[bell rings] -Ah!
Lambdacism?
[Dr, Jacques Bailly] Lamdacism,
Lambdacism,
[bell rings]
Savoyard, or savo-yard,
or savoy-ar,
or savoy-yard,
Could you please repeat the word?
[Dr, Jacques Bailly] Filipendulous,
[female host] Correct,
[cheering loudly]
[female host] That's correct,
[female host] Correct,
[bell ringing]
-Correct, -[Dr, Jacques Bailly] Repudiate,
-Could you please sing it in a song? -[Dr, Bailly laughing]
You don't want to hear that, [chuckles]
[female host] Correct,
[cheering]
Look, Dr, Bailly, you really need to come through for me right now, okay?
-Correct, -[audience applauding]
[female host] That concludes round three and the preliminaries
of the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee presented by Kindle,
[audience applauding]
[male host] Here are your 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee finalists,
From Huntsville, Alabama, speller 36, Erin Howard,
From North Andover, Massachusetts, speller number 214, Ashrita Gandhahari,
[cheering]
[male host] From St, Johns, Florida, speller number 167, Sreeniketh Vogoti,
A face you’ve seen before from Glen Allen, Virginia, number 143, Tejas Muthusamy,
From Bainbridge, New York, speller number nine, Melodie Loya,
From Spring, Texas, number 254, Shourav Dasari,
I know they’re excited
at Fugman Elementary in Fresno, California,
for speller number 264, Ananya Vinay,
[applauding]
[male host] And our final finalist for 2017,
from Edmond, Oklahoma, number 235, Rohan Rajeev,
[audience applauding]
[male host] Once again, everyone, all of these young spellers
are our 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee finalists,
Congratulations, you guys, Great job!
That standing ovation is for you,
[people chattering]
[people chattering quietly]
[Kevin Negandhi] The one thing you notice about Thursday morning
is the level of difficulty,
completely different from what we witnessed on Wednesday,
-[Dr, Jacques Bailly] Hi, Melodie, -[timidly] Hi,
[Dr, Bailly] Should we do this?
No,
[all laughing]
Purlieu, or per-lew,
[female host] Correct,
Are there any alternate pronunciations?
[bell rings]
[Dr, Jacques Bailly] Chryselephantine,
[Tejas] T-I,,,
-[female host] That is correct, -[audience applauding]
-[female] Correct, -Thank you,
-Hi, -[Dr, Bailly] Hi, Ashrita,
-[Dr, Bailly] Elidible, -Elidible?
[Dr, Bailly] Elidible,
Could I have the definition?
"Capable of being passed over or suppressed,"
[Ashrita] Could I have the language of origin?
It’s made up of originally Latin parts,
-Elidible? -[Dr, Bailly] Elidible,
Elidible,
[Dr, Jacques Bailly] Elidible,
I-L-L-I-D-A-B-L-E,
"Illidable,"
[bell rings]
-Elidible is spelled E-L-I-D-I-B-L-E, -Thank you,
[audience applauding]
[Ashrita] Okay, so I misspelled a word up there,
I feel like I really overcomplicated it,
I didn’t really get really sad over it 'cause I have, like, four more years,
I did really good, I did my best, and I don’t really mind, so,,,
We are extremely proud of my daughter’s achievements,
She made it so far, We are definitely going to come back next year,
[Bharat] For the first-timer, for a fourth-grader, tying for 40th spot
is more than what we expected her to do this year,
so she did an awesome job,
[Kevin Negandhi] The competition is not so much
about this kid on stage versus this kid,
It’s this kid versus a dictionary of a half a million words,
At that point, I wanna go up there and give them a high five and be like,
"Yeah, you kicked butt here to get here,"
People worry about competition,
They don’t wanna keep score in anything intellectual in the U,S,
Oh, we keep score in sports but nothing intellectual,
Here, we can keep score intellectually
and realize that it doesn’t put down somebody
just because one person wins,
It’s a celebration of learning,
[girl] Artiad,
[female host] That is correct,
R-U-C-E-T-T-E,
[bell rings]
-Warison, -Warison, Can I have the spelling, please?
[audience laughing]
-You almost got me, -[all laughing]
I don’t know if I can ask this,
but does this contain the French word boudin meaning sausage?
-[Dr, Bailly] Yes, -Okay,
[female host] Correct,
Corriedale, Kari-dale,
[girl] May I please have the definition?
"A member of a breed of rather large, usually hornless sheep
developed in New Zealand from several different breeds,"
[sighs]
C-O,,,
R-E-Y,,,
D-A-L-E,
Coreydale?
-[bell rings] -[girl] Aw,
[Dr, Jacques Bailly] Corriedale is spelled C-O-R-R-I-E-D-A-L-E,
[audience applauding]
[Dr, Jacques Bailly] Virement,
[female host] Correct,
[female] That's correct,
[female] Correct,
-[gasps] Yes! -[audience laughing]
-That is correct, -Yes!
-Correct, -Thank you,
[female] Correct, Correct,
Correct, Correct, Correct,
-Correct, -Thank you,
[female host] That concludes round seven,
Spellers, you're going to be on ESPN tonight,
Congratulations, spellers,
[Shourav] I’m really excited since it’s something
that I’ve been working hard for for a long time,
I just finally get to be a part of the night finals on ESPN,
I’m gonna brag to my friends,
I’m gonna be on ESPN, I don’t need to be an athlete or anything,
What I loved about Shourav is that there was,,,
there was flavor to the whole thing,
And there’s nothing wrong with having that type of flavor,
I mean, when you’re wearing the lucky Nike hoodie
that’s carried you through this whole thing,
He’s on stage and halfway through the word,
he starts to have that little smile, like he knew,
He knew it was a big event and he was confident!
It also separated him from other people because each time up, you’re like,
"All right, where’s the guy? Where’s the guy in the hoodie?
Where is Shourav?”
And I think that was a cool element to have in the program,
[Tejas] It worked well,
I definitely got words that I knew or was able to derive,
In each round, there’s probably one or two words
that I didn’t recognize at first that other people got,
and so I would consider myself pretty lucky,
I’m just going to look over a couple of words
just to get my mind in the zone and,,,
Relax, maybe meditate a little bit,
I’m not sure if I’ll have time for that, but definitely relax
and soak in the experience because I know next year
I’m not going to be able to have it, no matter what happens,
And then we get to the final 15
and you can’t ignore what we’re looking at:
thirteen Indian-Americans,
[Kevin Negandhi] We now begin round eight, the prime time finals,
and to start things off,
the 1980 Bee champion Dr, Jacques Bailly is our pronouncer,
his 15th year in this role, Let’s start the spelling,
[Dr, Jacques Bailly] Xanthochroism,
Xanthochroism, Language of origin?
This word is made up of parts that went from Greek to Latin,
plus an English combining form,
Does this contain the Greek root xantho
-meaning yellow? -Yes,
Does this contain the Greek root chro
-meaning color? -Yes,
That is correct,
[applauding loudly]
-[countdown beeps] -I’ll try my best,
-[gasping] -[host inhales, groans]
[bell rings]
-That is correct, -[applauding loudly]
Correct,
That is correct,
[audience applauding, cheering]
[bell rings]
[audience groaning]
-[bell rings] -Oh, dang it,
[Dr, Jacques Bailly] Savate is spelled S-A-V-A-T-E,
[audience groaning]
-That is correct, -[girl] Okay,
[audience applauding]
That is correct,
[audience cheering, applauding]
[female] That is correct,
[female host] Correct,
[loud applause, cheering]
That is correct,
Saussurite,
Could you repeat the word, please?
Saussurite,
Saussurite, Definition, please?
"A mineral consisting of a tough, compact substance
that is white, greenish or grayish,
and is produced in part at least by alteration of feldspar,"
-Could you repeat the word again? -[Dr, Bailly] Saussurite,
So there are no alternate pronunciations?
[Dr, Bailly] Just the one, Saussurite,
Saussurite,
-[countdown beeps] -Saussurite,
S-A-U-C,,,
E-R-I-T-E, "Saucerite,"
-[bell rings] -[audience groaning]
[Dr, Bailly] Saussurite is spelled S-A-U-S-S-U-R-I-T-E,
Thank you,
[audience applauding, cheering]
[quietly] Did you know it?
[speaking Tamil] I don't know, I thought it was like cup and saucer,
[speaking Tamil] You did very well,
[in English] I'm very proud of you, Whatever happened, I'm very proud of you,
[pronouncer and contestant speaking indistinctly]
You'll always be my champion, [speaks Tamil]
[Dr, Bailly] Mogollon,
-[audience gasping] -Correct,
[audience applauding, cheering]
[loud applause]
[Kevin Negandhi] Then you’re watching Shourav
and you see this extreme confidence on the stage,
At that point, you feel like he has all the makings,
and the one thing that stood out was how quickly he got that one word,
within five seconds,
but everybody in the room felt like, "That’s the guy,"
Ubaid,
Can I have the definition?
"Of or relating to an early Bronze Age culture
in Mesopotamia prior to 3000 BCE,"
Can you repeat the word again?
Ubaid, Ub-ayd,
Can I have the language of origin?
[Dr, Bailly] It’s from an Iraqi geographical name,
Can you use it in a sentence?
Can you repeat the pronunciations again?
[Dr, Bailly] Ubaid, Ub-ayd,
[countdown beeps]
That is correct,
[audience applauding, cheering loudly]
[Dr, Bailly] Spiegeleisen,
That is correct,
[audience applauding, cheering]
That is correct,
[audience applauding, cheering]
Correct,
[audience applauding, cheering]
-That is correct, -[audience applauding]
[Dr, Bailly] Struldbrug,
Str,,, Can you repeat the word again?
[Dr, Bailly] Struldbrug,
Can I have the definition?
"One of a class of imaginary persons who can never die,
but who are declared dead in law at the age of 80
and live on wretchedly at state expense,"
Are there any alternate pronunciations?
There’s struldbrug and strul-brug,
Can I have the language of origin?
[Dr, Bailly] It’s from an English literary name, Struldbrug, Strul-brug,
Can you repeat the word again?
[Dr, Bailly] Struldbrug,
Or strul-brug,
Struldbrug,
[countdown beeps]
S-T-R-O-L-D,,,
B-R-U-G, "Stroldbrug,"
-[bell rings] -[audience groaning]
[Dr, Bailly] Struldbrug is spelled S-T-R-U-L-D-B-R-U-G,
[audience applauding, cheering]
[Kevin Negandhi] It comes down to two, two students that were unflappable,
Ananya on one side, the sixth grader,
And then Rohan, the 14-year-old, who’s never been here before,
First time on this stage in this setting,
And you couldn’t tell!
They were both locked in,
[female host] That is correct,
[audience applauding, cheering]
That is correct,
[audience applauding]
That is correct,
That's correct,
That is correct,
[sighs]
-[bell rings] -[audience groaning]
[Dr, Bailly] Marram is spelled M-A-R-R-A-M,
[audience applauding, cheering loudly]
[Dr, Bailly] Gifblaar, [clears throat]
Definition, please,
[Dr, Bailly] "Gifblaar is a perennial shrub of southern Africa
that is deadly poisonous to livestock,"
Language of origin?
[Dr, Bailly] Afrikaans,
Are there any alternate pronunciations?
[Dr, Bailly] Just the one,
That is correct,
[audience applauding, cheering]
[Dr, Bailly] Ananya, if you spell this next word correctly,
we will declare you the 2017 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion,
Marocain,
[Ananya] Marocain,
May I have the definition, please?
[Dr, Bailly] "A dress fabric that is made with a warp of silk or rayon
and a filling of other yarns,
and is similar to but heavier than canton crepe,"
Part of speech?
-[Dr, Bailly] Noun, -[Ananya] Language of origin?
[Dr, Bailly] It’s from a French word from an African geographical name,
Are there any alternate pronunciations?
[Dr, Bailly] There are not,
Can you please repeat the word?
[Dr, Bailly] Marocain,
-That is correct, -Congratulations, Ananya!
-[audience cheering] -[Dr, Bailly] You are the champion!
[audience applauding, cheering loudly]
[male 1] Ananya,
this is yours,
Congratulations, you're the 2017 champion of the Scripps National Spelling Bee,
[audience applauding, cheering loudly]
The trend of Indian-American success in the Bee is long-running,
and I think it’s going to continue in that direction
for the unforeseeable future,
[male 2] Congratulations, Karthik,
You are the 2018 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion!
[male] The most phenomenal assemblage of super-spellers
in the history of this storied competition,
It’s never gonna be all Indian,
We have plenty of other students who are competing,
but they are highly successful, they are having fun with it,
and they are winning, I don’t see it changing anytime soon,
The only way Indian-American kids are losing the Spelling Bee
is if they switch to Spanish next year,
And then it’s still, like, 50/50,
I think that this is in part a reflection of this particular time in our history,
and some of the values that have been instilled, I think,
by Indian immigrants on their kids,
The relentless and, I think, you know, for the most part, constructive focus
on education for these kids,
and the fact that spelling in particular ended up fulfilling all these aspirations
of these parents for their kids,
[Indian music playing]
[crowd cheering loudly]
[Dr, Sanjay Gupta] As generations go on,
you may see less of a focus on things like Spelling Bees
and hopefully more of a focus on other areas as well,
Things that may not necessarily be purely academic,
but other areas where kids are interested in and want to excel,
So I think you’ll see a sort of more broadening out
of particularly Indian-American kids’ interests,
[Hari Kondabolu] The Spelling Bee playing every year on television,
I think it certainly inspires lots of South Asian kids, Indian-American kids
to take up spelling as a thing,
But it’s also getting a bunch of other kids into it too
that aren’t South Asian,
Tiger Woods, most of his heroes in golf would’ve been white, right?
Like, for the most part? Like, considering what the sport is?
Yet that inspired him to achieve,
so who’s to say that there isn’t some, like, kid in the middle of America,
who’s, like, brown or black or Latino,
isn’t a huge Arvind Mahankali-head,
That’s, like, the dude he looked up to when he was a kid,
and now wants to win,
[Fareed] But the truth is, I think, what these kids show more than anything else
is American assimilation at work,
Here are kids who really come from a very different world and culture
in their historical and cultural origins,
and they are taking part in the most American tradition,
doing well at it, playing by the rules,
If that’s not American assimilation at work, I don’t know what is,
[Kevin Negandhi] We are part of this DNA, this melting pot, uh, cliché,
And it’s not a cliché, we are part of it,
And to have ownership of one thing,
in the sense of that we can dominate something, it’s pretty cool,
considering there’s just one percent of the population of Indian-Americans,
So to me, when I say that, I say that as a joke, like,
"Yes! We own this!"
Because it’s a small thing,
but it means so much to so many people in our community,
[Dr, Gupta] It just was the perfect storm, And I think Spelling Bees,
I mean, that became the Olympics for so many Indians,
Humuhumunukunukuapua'a,
I just need to say it slowly,
[Krishna] You got it,
Humu humu, you just say "humu humu," and then you say "nuku nuku,"
and then you say "apua ah," and then you finish the whole thing,
[Krishna] Say it,