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Brown in America

Why are South Asian kids so successful in spelling bees?

By: Santosh :+: Under: Brown in America
On: ⋅ June 19, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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As evidenced from this year’s performance at the National Spelling Bee, the domination of Indian-origin kids was overwhelming:

Desi family structure essential to Spelling Bee success?
img: via BBC

Sameer Mishra won the contest, Sidharth Chand was second, Kavya Shivashankar was fourth, Jahnavi Iyer was eight and 8-year old Sriram Hathwar became the youngest contestant ever to reach the National Spelling Bee. BBC tries to break down the reasons behind this great South Asian takeover of the Spelling Bees. [BBC]

1. The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a prestigious event in the field of education, making it an automatic draw for desis.

The spelling contest is a big event in the US. Children study hard for months and have to get through regional contests to make the final.
…
“In this country being on the red carpet is like being a celebrity. She (Sameer Mishra’s mother) wanted Sameer to take us on that red carpet, just like the celebrities,” he (Sameer Mishra’s father) said, laughing.

2. It comes with a relatively handsome cash prize and opportunities for free rides at expensive colleges.

Sameer, who spelled his way to the coveted first prize - worth more than $40,000 - in this year’s National Spelling Bee.
……..
The Mishras moved to the United States from Delhi 15 years ago. Daughter Shruti’s success in a math contest won her scholarships at top universities. Krishna Mishra, who teaches microbiology at Ivy Tech Community College in Lafayette, Indiana, said his wife, Alka, encouraged Sameer to participate in the Spelling Bee because she felt he too could win a scholarship to ease the burden of his tuition.

3. South Asian kids get support from not only by their schools and the educational system but also from their immediate and in some case, perhaps, extended families.

Chicago-based Dr Balu Natarajan, who won the Spelling Bee in 1985 and was a judge at this year’s contest, says there is one common thread among nearly all winners regardless of ethnic background - extensive involvement and support from family. “This is not a contest which many kids can win by preparing solely by themselves. I think that many South Asian families are willing and able to provide this level of support,” said Dr Natarajan. His (Sameer’s) parents helped him by finding word lists, looking up definitions and pronunciations and quizzing him on them. They even took days off work in order to help him prepare.
…….
Sameer Mishra credits his sister for being his “coach and inspiration” and his parents for providing emotional support.

This kind of family support is second nature in a large section of South Asian families anyway.

4. A deadly combination of a methodical approach, ……….

Over the past year Sameer practised “dictionary reduction”.
He split the third edition of Webster’s Dictionary into 26 books - one for each letter - and would spend his days learning the words.

……… learning by rote …………

The Spelling Bee provides contestants with a list of 45,000 words, which Sameer didn’t include in his books because, his father says proudly, “he knows them all“.

and multi-lingual capabilities.

He says he was struck by the fact that many of the participants were able to approach the words by asking if they contained specific root words from various other languages, suggesting that they were well-versed in etymology, not just rote spelling.

5. Success breeds more success.

Inspired by the success of South Asians in spelling contests, Rahul Walia, CEO of New Jersey-based Touchdown Media, set up the South Asian Spelling Bee.
…….
He sees such contests as being not just about learning big words but getting the opportunity to gain confidence and enhance people skills.
Dr Natarajan said the Spelling Bee gave him “a confidence that I could achieve things if I put my mind to it, but that failures would be needed before success“.

In spite of the successes of South Asians in the US in education-based fields, representation in other areas is hard to come by - sports, entertainment, etc. A large section of South Asians also feel that this kind of recognition in solely educational fields lends more credence to the larger image of South Asians as nerds. While I would love to see a desi kid win in other fields, the Heisman for instance, that kind of goal seems unreachable in the near future because of sheer numbers - there are 0 (zero) quarterbacks or any skill players for that matter in any of the top 25 college football teams in the nation. In the meanwhile, why not celebrate success whichever way it comes, it’s a positive thing after all. If you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em.

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