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US Spelling Bee: Indian-Origin Boy Wins After Spelling This 11-Letter Word

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Indian kids have been dominating the the championships winning continuously for the last 11 years.

Ananya Vinay, a 12-year-old 6th-grader from Fresno, California, correctly spelled "marocain" in the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday night to win the trophy and $40,000 cash prize.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/sixth-grad...ling-bee-correctly-spelling/story?id=47782950

http://spellingbee.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/2017-continuing-finalists.pdf


There are 15 spellers continuing in the finals. 13 of the 15 finalists are Indian kids.

2017 Summary: Spellers Continuing in Finals / June 1, 2017 / 6/01/2017 2:48 PM
27. Rohan Sachdev PAGE of Wake County, Raleigh, North Carolina
36. Erin Howard Adventure Travel, Birmingham, Alabama
75. Mira Dedhia Commonwealth Edison, Chicago, Illinois
114. Shrinidhi Gopal East Bay Times, Walnut Creek, California
143. Tejas Muthusamy Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Virginia
167. Sreeniketh Vogoti The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, Florida
187. Saketh Sundar Howard County Library, Columbia, Maryland
191. Alice Liu St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Missouri
200. Raksheet Kota Houston Public Media, Houston, Texas
210. Naysa Modi The News-Star, Monroe, Louisiana
235. Rohan Rajeev The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
254. Shourav Dasari Houston Public Media, Houston, Texas
259. Alex Iyer San Antonio Express-News, San Antonio, Texas
264. Ananya Vinay The Fresno Bee, Fresno, California
278. Shruthika Padhy Rosa International Middle School, Cherry Hill, New Jersey
 

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nerd alert. One of the more pointless achievements
 
:facepalm: Indian parents
Bet they start tutoring their children specifically for this exam from young age.
Last bar Sharma ji ka beta first aya tha.Is bar hamari beti ayegi.
 
TM Riddle said:
:facepalm: Indian parents
Bet they start tutoring their children specifically for this exam from young age.
Last bar Sharma ji ka beta first aya tha.Is bar hamari beti ayegi.
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Think of it like religion when the parent forces such irrelevant things upon the child ,why not spelling bee where at age of 12 her college fund gets a massive boost.
 
JaDed said:
For her nope,because she gets 40 k,tuition fee help for college.
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most likely the person is smart anyways and will dominate academics regardless. As a result they can do much more to make themselves a diverse and well rounded candidate which will not only get scholarships but also make them a very attractive prospect for any top school.

All the months on months which it takes to prepare for this pointless competition could have been used more productively in better endeavors. And some social skills development
 
Slog said:
most likely the person is smart anyways and will dominate academics regardless. As a result they can do much more to make themselves a diverse and well rounded candidate which will not only get scholarships but also make them a very attractive prospect for any top school.

All the months on months which it takes to prepare for this pointless competition could have been used more productively in better endeavors. And some social skills development
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She is 12 mate,I don't remember taking anything seriously at that age,she has the time for other things now,incase you mean music ,her parents will defn know the things required to make a great college application and probably make them take other classes as well.

The kids of this generation have a much higher capacity to take up a lot more,don't know if they will get burned out,but have personally seen how active these kids are,even in countries like India.
 
The spelling bee champ's bro was wearing Warrior Tee,wonder if he even cares lol,but one heck of a way to rub it in. [MENTION=137148]Rayyman[/MENTION]
 
My favorite Indian winner so far has been Vanya Shivashankar. The girl also went on to win American TV show "Child genius".. and I wish more and more spelling kids could focus on an all-round development like her.
 
Amazing list, we are great at rote learning. I hope Robert de Niro makes a movie about this.
 
JaDed said:
The spelling bee champ's bro was wearing Warrior Tee,wonder if he even cares lol,but one heck of a way to rub it in. [MENTION=137148]Rayyman[/MENTION]
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The champ is from Fresno which is 2 hours away from Warrior's hometown.
 
JaDed said:
The spelling bee champ's bro was wearing Warrior Tee,wonder if he even cares lol,but one heck of a way to rub it in. [MENTION=137148]Rayyman[/MENTION]
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Bro these Spelling Bee kids are absolute softies.
:misbah2
Don't expect them to even know who Stephen Curry is.
 
JaDed said:
The brother not the winner dude! Think ESPN has a lot to do with it.
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Remember, ESPN is owned by Disney which is a big part in the Illuminati. All of this materialism and what not is part of their "New World Order."
#IlluminatiConfirmed
 
Most are South Indian kids. Only Southee parents give extreme importance to learning and education.
 
"WASP America" is dying, that's why they voted Trump out of frustration. Already Chinese are filling the PhD programs, which means, as many have said, that in the years to come, the faculties, already being dominated by a foreign Middle Eastern group you all know of, will then be dominated by another group from Asia. Look at the winners of the last International Mathematical Olympiad, Americans :

Math_Olympiad_Team_2016.jpg


^all Chinese and Indians, minus one "White", and considering his facial features, who's probably one of those foreigners from the Levant/West Asia (J-w).
 
and it's not only science. The International Chopin Piano Competition is the most prestigious in the category, and among the 2015 top 5 winners, two were Americans... their names ? Kate Liu and Eric Lu (a Canadian was named Tony Yike Yang). India and China will control the US soon, like the J-ws nowadays and since too long.
 
Not sure why there is so much negativity. The kid, all of 12 years old just won $40,000. That in itself is worth the time and effort she put into it. It's a reward for the work she put in.

Not sure how many here can say they earned or won $40k when they were 12. I can tell you that I did not, not even close.
 
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USofA said:
Not sure why there is so much negativity. The kid, all of 12 years old just won $40,000. That in itself is worth the time and effort she put into it. It's a reward for the work she put in.

Not sure how many here can say they earned or won $40k when they were 12. I can tell I did not, not even close.
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We can call it negativity, but it actually raises valid points. Let's keep money aside, now tell me, should 12 year old kids be looking this miserable? I am sorry to say, but majority of the Indian winners had zero personality or confidence. I would rather have my kids sell samosas than look like that.
 
Zak_Fan said:
We can call it negativity, but it actually raises valid points. Let's keep money aside, now tell me, should 12 year old kids be looking this miserable? I am sorry to say, but majority of the Indian winners had zero personality or confidence. I would rather have my kids sell samosas than look like that.
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How do you know this kid is miserable? A photo is just a snap at a given millisecond. That does not necessarily make the kid's life miserable.
 
USofA said:
How do you know this kid is miserable? A photo is just a snap at a given millisecond. That does not necessarily make the kid's life miserable.
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I have little cousins in USA, so I have been following this competition for ages. I judged the winners not from their photographs, but countless interviews. Kavya, Vanya and Gokul were the only Indian winners who actually looked like happy kids. Rest had a lot lacking in personality department, something that is quite sad for a 12 year old.
 
I wont say it is the greatest thing in the world.

But spelling bee is not just about rote learning....nobody can remember every spelling. There is logic to it....origin of the word and all.

And also, it instill a sense of competition and hardwork in the kids...which is needed IMO growing up. Individuality is all fine...but not many kids know what they want to do in their lives by this point...so going along with the group and being the best at it is fine...as long as you dont loose that individuality and do something you like later on when you are sure what you want to do in life.
 
Specialisttailender said:
Why would they need to know who Stephen Curry is ? Even a drug dealer knows who Stephen Curry.
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I feel bad for these kids. They are really book-smart, but not street-smart at all. It's not their fault for the most part, it's the Indian parents.
 
Rayyman said:
I feel bad for these kids. They are really book-smart, but not street-smart at all. It's not their fault for the most part, it's the Indian parents.
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Do you feel bad for children forced by their parents into playing footie and various other sports but not making into national or club level teams?
 
JaDed said:
Do you feel bad for children forced by their parents into playing footie and various other sports but not making into national or club level teams?
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Of course, there has to be a balance. Too extreme either way and the kids won't be equipped to handle some of the challenges that come their way in the future. I am talking about leniency and discipline.
 
Rayyman said:
Of course, there has to be a balance. Too extreme either way and the kids won't be equipped to handle some of the challenges that come their way in the future. I am talking about leniency and discipline.
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Maybe you should speak to Christiano ,Sharapova or others who start 🚆 at age 6 to become supreme athelets
 
IgnitedMind said:
I wont say it is the greatest thing in the world.

But spelling bee is not just about rote learning....nobody can remember every spelling. There is logic to it....origin of the word and all.

And also, it instill a sense of competition and hardwork in the kids...which is needed IMO growing up. Individuality is all fine...but not many kids know what they want to do in their lives by this point...so going along with the group and being the best at it is fine...as long as you dont loose that individuality and do something you like later on when you are sure what you want to do in life.
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Exactly..the struggling indian community in usa needs it for some self respect and confidence instilled in them. As they are not good at music, arts, sports and fashion..so this is one domain where they can make a name for themselves and be counted. So more power to such spelling competitions and no need to listen to others, especially pakistanis, who can never beat us at spelling competitions.
 
enkidu_ said:
"WASP America" is dying, that's why they voted Trump out of frustration. Already Chinese are filling the PhD programs, which means, as many have said, that in the years to come, the faculties, already being dominated by a foreign Middle Eastern group you all know of, will then be dominated by another group from Asia. Look at the winners of the last International Mathematical Olympiad, Americans :

Math_Olympiad_Team_2016.jpg


^all Chinese and Indians, minus one "White", and considering his facial features, who's probably one of those foreigners from the Levant/West Asia (J-w).
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That white guy in the middle is an eye sore. What does he think he is ? Taking over our only competitive sport we are able to compete :trump
 
IgnitedMind said:
I wont say it is the greatest thing in the world.

But spelling bee is not just about rote learning....nobody can remember every spelling. There is logic to it....origin of the word and all.

And also, it instill a sense of competition and hardwork in the kids...which is needed IMO growing up. Individuality is all fine...but not many kids know what they want to do in their lives by this point...so going along with the group and being the best at it is fine...as long as you dont loose that individuality and do something you like later on when you are sure what you want to do in life.
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Welcome back bro. Haven't seen you for a long time.:)
 
JaDed said:
Maybe you should speak to Christiano ,Sharapova or others who start 🚆 at age 6 to become supreme athelets
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Yea, true. At the end of the day, it's their decision. If they want to be nerds, so be it. If they want to be jocks, let them.
 
Rayyman said:
I feel bad for these kids. They are really book-smart, but not street-smart at all. It's not their fault for the most part, it's the Indian parents.
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Street smart is surviving vicious streets full of drug dealers?

Indian kids mostly grow up in suburbs. Most of them never experience what a ghetto life is. They do not have to be street smart to survive the mean streets of Compton.
 
troodon said:
Street smart is surviving vicious streets full of drug dealers?

Indian kids mostly grow up in suburbs. Most of them never experience what a ghetto life is. They do not have to be street smart to survive the mean streets of Compton.
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Has nothing to do with drugs.

Street-smart means somebody who has common sense, experience, and knows what's going on in and outside their world. Somebody who is socially adept, independent, and knows how to deal with certain situations.

I can guarantee you that 80+% of these kids live inside of a box and they have no clue what is going on outside of it.
 
Zak_Fan said:
We can call it negativity, but it actually raises valid points. Let's keep money aside, now tell me, should 12 year old kids be looking this miserable? I am sorry to say, but majority of the Indian winners had zero personality or confidence. I would rather have my kids sell samosas than look like that.
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I am impressed that you took a logical view here rather than the 'Chest thump' because 'India won something'
 
troodon said:
Street smart is surviving vicious streets full of drug dealers?

Indian kids mostly grow up in suburbs. Most of them never experience what a ghetto life is. They do not have to be street smart to survive the mean streets of Compton.
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That's fine till they are the high school nerds

But in college they have to fend for themselves where they end up being social outcasts due to stunted social development

Honestly in my college I found the Indian kids from Mumbai and Delhi more impressive overall than the Indian Americans with crazy grades etc
 
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Slog said:
That's fine till they are the high school nerds

But in college they have to fend for themselves where they end up being social outcasts due to stunted social development

Honestly in my college I found the Indian kids from Mumbai and Delhi more impressive overall than the Indian Americans with crazy grades etc
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what's wrong with being a social outcast? frankly speaking human beings are nowhere near as interesting as an exotic walk on banach spaces.
 
anikrc1 said:
what's wrong with being a social outcast? frankly speaking human beings are nowhere near as interesting as an exotic walk on banach spaces.
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Because humans are social animals not solitary; But if you want go live by yourself in a mountain, by all means, go do it. If you don't need us, we don't need you.
 
Rayyman said:
Because humans are social animals not solitary; But if you want go live by yourself in a mountain, by all means, go do it. If you don't need us, we don't need you.
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we live in the age of science .and given that most of the advancements in these fields have been done by the socially outcast nerds, i wonder how much importance should be given to your statement. by the way don't generalize my statement as every nerd will make a contribution to society.merely i want to mean that the socially outcast nerd have a much higher probability to contribute something to the society than most of the guys boasting of having great social skills
 
Should lookup the kids who won 10-15 years ago and see where they are now. That could give some insight on what kind of future this 12 year old has.
 
anikrc1 said:
we live in the age of science .and given that most of the advancements in these fields have been done by the socially outcast nerds, i wonder how much importance should be given to your statement. by the way don't generalize my statement as every nerd will make a contribution to society.merely i want to mean that the socially outcast nerd have a much higher probability to contribute something to the society than most of the guys boasting of having great social skills
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Bill Gates was a total nerd/outcast. So was Zukerberg.
 
USofA said:
Bill Gates was a total nerd/outcast. So was Zukerberg.
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Good point. Wish more was made of this story in the UK so everyone would be aware that so many potential billionaire Indians are knocking at the door.
 
Slog said:
That's fine till they are the high school nerds

But in college they have to fend for themselves where they end up being social outcasts due to stunted social development

Honestly in my college I found the Indian kids from Mumbai and Delhi more impressive overall than the Indian Americans with crazy grades etc
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I went to university in US and it is full of these so called nerds.

Most of the hipsters are in community colleges or already daddy's with baby mommas.

Being hip and having great social skills is no means to success.

Where I work, all my managers are nerds. Your typical short, fat, big belly guys wearing glasses.

Not one cool looking person in any of the places I worked and trust me I worked in many places.

Just because someone looks nerdy does not mean they do not have good social skills. They communicate very well and that is what is needed.
 
USofA said:
Should lookup the kids who won 10-15 years ago and see where they are now. That could give some insight on what kind of future this 12 year old has.
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All of the nerdy Indian kids I knew 15yrs ago are all in good universities.

Only one kid who was already old enough at that time is now working in SAP in Maryland. He also got married recently.

I would be interested to see how the so called hip and cool kids are doing.
 
USofA said:
Bill Gates was a total nerd/outcast. So was Zukerberg.
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i don't know whether you were being sarcastic or not. but my statement was referring towards true geniuses like dennis ritchie, terrence tao, ashoke sen,and not these overhyped businessmen
 
troodon said:
I went to university in US and it is full of these so called nerds.

Most of the hipsters are in community colleges or already daddy's with baby mommas.

Being hip and having great social skills is no means to success.

Where I work, all my managers are nerds. Your typical short, fat, big belly guys wearing glasses.

Not one cool looking person in any of the places I worked and trust me I worked in many places.

Just because someone looks nerdy does not mean they do not have good social skills. They communicate very well and that is what is needed.
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In my jobs in the US (energy & ibanking), almost all the top guys or upcoming talent were the ones with Social skills (we're in frats, or sports in college or generally outgoing and gregarious) rather than these nerds. So definitely my experience has been much different.

Often the guys with the definitely superior quant skills were not taken on due to awkward social behaviour.
 
Slog said:
In my jobs in the US (energy & ibanking), almost all the top guys or upcoming talent were the ones with Social skills (we're in frats, or sports in college or generally outgoing and gregarious) rather than these nerds. So definitely my experience has been much different.

Often the guys with the definitely superior quant skills were not taken on due to awkward social behaviour.
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Also. Financial success is not only metric to see if you 'made it'

Lot of people with money are still miserable. And esp in this case if you don't have a strong and fun social network and no varied interests what good is the money
 
Slog said:
Also. Financial success is not only metric to see if you 'made it'

Lot of people with money are still miserable. And esp in this case if you don't have a strong and fun social network and no varied interests what good is the money
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i agree with you that financial success is no the only metric.but there's a field called academics where the highest intellect of the human race work which is dominated by "nerds" of various races.and i can gurantee you that 90% of them are pretty happy even without earning a lot of money.
 
Wow, so one should not be smart, clever in their early teens because they will struggle in the streets in future. Great Pakistan logic again.....
 
Slog said:
I am impressed that you took a logical view here rather than the 'Chest thump' because 'India won something'
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I am impressed that you appreciate logic for once. Gives me hope for our future discussions.
 
Rayyman said:
Bro these Spelling Bee kids are absolute softies.
:misbah2
Don't expect them to even know who Stephen Curry is.
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Come on why can't he wear that warrior tee??...even those who don't know the abcd of basketball/NBA(including me) know what is Golden state warrior is and who is Steph Curry and Lebron James (All credits to riley curry).
 
Winning spelling bees seems to be a net negative for the Indian community to be honest. Just more opportunities for middle aged Indian american kids to be bullied and called nerds
 
Cover Drive Six said:
Seems most of the winners are AP/Telugu origin community, based on their sur names.

Which Indian State holds the maximum share in the Indian population of the USA?
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Kannadigas, Telugus, Tamilians , UP.

If you dig deeper it could(unfortunately) be caste related as well..
 
Florida teenager Dev Shah wins US Spelling Bee with 'psammophile'

A teenager from Florida has won the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee in the United States.

Dev Shah, a 14-year-old student from Largo, spelled "psammophile" correctly to win the 95th national bee and the $50,000 (£40,000) prize.

Charlotte Walsh, also 14, from Arlington, Virginia, was the runner-up, having incorrectly spelled "daviely" as "daevilick".

A psammophile is an organism that lives in sandy areas.

Eleven students made the finals after 11 million people entered spelling competitions, according to the organisers.

"It's surreal... my legs are still shaking," Dev said as he collected the trophy on stage, joined by his family. His mother said she was "very proud" of him.

He had previously entered the competition in 2019 and 2021, finishing tied 51st and tied 76th respectively.

On his way to the final he correctly spelled words such as bathypitotmeter, schistorrhachis and rommack. He also correctly answered a question, saying that a magician would be most likely to practice legerdemain.

Charlotte correctly spelled words such as akuammine, sorge and collembolous on her route to the final, which took place in National Harbor, Maryland.

The national spelling bee began in 1925.

...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65784595
 
Good for these kids. They end up winning a scholarship for this.

I
 
What exactly is practical utility of these Spelling Bee contest

I can understand math Olympiad or Intel Science fairs but this Spelling Bee sounds bit weird
 
Indian origin kids at Spelling bee are like Australia in World cups. The domination is unbelievable.
 
NishanKonar said:
What exactly is practical utility of these Spelling Bee contest

I can understand math Olympiad or Intel Science fairs but this Spelling Bee sounds bit weird
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College tuition, also it’s similar any trivia or other activities one learns to deal with pressure.
 
I think spelling is an important part of our education and kudos to this kid for acing Spelling Bee
 
MenInG said:
I think spelling is an important part of our education and kudos to this kid for acing Spelling Bee
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They also have to know the meaning, in earlier phases of challenge it does get asked at times.
 
JaDed said:
College tuition, also it’s similar any trivia or other activities one learns to deal with pressure.
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The prize money is not that much. I checked and its just $50k for the winner. Seems stingy since this airs on ESPN (or at least it used too).
 
Gharib Aadmi said:
The prize money is not that much. I checked and its just $50k for the winner. Seems stingy since this airs on ESPN (or at least it used too).
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That is true , not on espn anymore(ION now), but if you notice winners are mostly at top colleges, if i recall the first Indian to win went to Stanford at 16.

I think it’s a big thing on their achievements.
 
JaDed said:
College tuition, also it’s similar any trivia or other activities one learns to deal with pressure.
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Just saw one of these kids ( Pranav Anandh ) represented USA in Robotics Olympiads. That's pretty cool !
 
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