I’ve never really understood the fascination with Spelling Bees.

Defn: A spelling bee is a competition where contestants, usually children, are asked to spell English words. The concept is thought to have originated in the United States (doesn’t everything), and is usually perceived to be a solely English language practice. National Spelling Bee competitions for English are held in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand (O for Awesome), Canada, and Indonesia, among others.

In doing some research I found that Spelling bees are often criticized (couldn’t actually find out who by) because being able to spell a word correctly does not necessarily reflect a person’s level of intelligence (for example, it does not test a person’s ability to reason and argue a viewpoint) and because a great deal of pressure is often put upon those who take part (often children and young adults) to succeed.

Another funny thing I came across is that most the USA winners seem to come from Pakistan or India. Guess the $30,000 prize money buys a lot of chicken tikka masala.

Have a look at this clip from the 2008 USA National Spelling Bee.

Richardsuperfragilisticexpialidocious.

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