Sameer Mishra, from West Lafayette, Ind., carries his trophy after winning the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Friday.
Posted on 05/31/2008 3:32:56 PM PDT by Graybeard58
WASHINGTON -- As it turned out, Sameer Mishra provided more than just comic relief at the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee. He ended up winning the title.
The 13-year-old from West Lafayette, Ind., who often had the audience laughing with his one-line commentaries, was all business when he aced ''guerdon'' -- a word that appropriately means ''something that one has earned or gained'' -- to win the 81st version of the bee Friday night.
''I don't know about comedy lines, but my parents have been telling me since the beginning that I should always stay calm, cool and collected,'' said Sameer, who likes playing the violin and video games, and hopes one day to be a neurosurgeon.
Sameer, appearing in the bee for the fourth time and a top 20 finisher the last two years, clenched both fists and put his hands to his face after spelling the winning word. He won a tense duel over first-time participant Sidharth Chand, 12, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., who finally stumbled on ''prosopopoeia,'' a word describing a type of figure of speech.
For placing first, Sameer will receive $35,000 in cash plus more than $5,000 in other prizes.
Sameer Mishra, from West Lafayette, Ind., carries his trophy after winning the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Friday.
A tense duel between Sameer and Sidharth. I guess Becky and Thomas didn’t have time to prepare.
Q: What do Democrats claim when they don’t win the spelling bee?
A: It’s Bush’s folt!
Congrats to all the contestants! The hubby and I watched and it was simply amazing to see these talented young people and their proud families.
It was a show that demonstrated how diversity in the United States can truly work.
God Bless America and especially the young talent that will lead our Country into the future.
PS: Gotta spell check my post!
More likely that Becky's and Thomas's parents went to American public schools in the nineties and had it drilled into their heads (the only thing that was drilled into their heads) that spelling and grammar don't matter. Sameer's and Sidharth's folks know better.
One day, Becky and Thomas will be working for Sameer and Sidharth and the parents of Becky and Thomas will think it's so unfare.
LOL
ROFL!!
Or maybe I should be crying.
” Sameer, who likes playing the violin and video games, and hopes one day to be a neurosurgeon. “
12 years old and he already knows he wants to be a neurosurgeon . When I was 12 I hadn’t a clue what a neurosurgeon was ! LOL !
My hat is off to this lad ! Congrats !
I would’ve thought that GUERDON would form from GUER for fighting and DON for man, so it would be a Fighting Man. or at least a fighting speller.
Since there seemed to be no mention of the public or private school this young man goes to I am going to jump the gun and guess he is homeschooled.
I would have guessed the same thing. But........
School: West Lafayette Junior/Senior High School
Hometown: West Lafayette, Indiana
Sameer loves to read and is part of his school's book club. He enjoys playing computer and video games, as well as board games. Sameer has played the violin for four years in his school orchestra. He also likes to ride his bike and hang out with his friends. His favorite subjects are science and math. Sameer is a competitive student; he participates in contests such as Spell Bowl, Academic Super Bowl and Indiana State School Music Association. Sameer aspires to a career as a neurosurgeon. His sister Shruti, a three-year competitor in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, is his spelling coach. This is Sameer’s fourth year in the competition, having previously tied for 98th, 14th and 16th places (2005, 2006, 2007).
He is "homeschooled" ( if one stops to think about it) .
This boy and his parents are doing **tons** of "afterschooling"
All academically successful children have similiar home environments. Some call it homeschooling. Others call it "afterschooling".
Seems like these contests end all too often in the French language.
If I am not mistaken, I think the rules this year state that the contestants must be enrolled in a school that is registered with Scripps. (Thus leaving out most homeschoolers.)
Regards,
Perhaps that demonstrates how little influence French has on modern day English. They usually select obscure words for the Bee. Does this mean that words with a French derivation are now obscure and forgotten?
Is that because the homeschoolers were embarrassing the government school kids?
I would bet it does. Note that it took a Greek word to take out the earlier contestant. Maybe it was Latinized Greek.
That’s ridiculous. NO one uses that word!
Unless they're playing Scrabble.
The Spelling Bees are racist. No (insert privileged ethnic minority here) ever wins the spelling bee. The tests must be biased. They favor Whites.
There must be race-norming on spelling bees. If you’re White, you get Test A - extremely hard.
If you’re (insert privileged ethnic minority here) you get Test B - example of words on Test B “bling ho (insert n-word here) (insert derisive term for women here) (insert obscene term associated with incest here)”
That’ll make it fair.
(bitter sarcasm)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.