Over 25 schools take part in Bogor spelling bee<\/p>\n
Gerald Donovan, Contributor, Bogor<\/p>\n
At 06:30 a.m. There were still two hours before Sekolah Bogor
\nRaya's inaugural interschool spelling bee, but Nadia Firdaus, 12,
\nwas already preparing herself for the day's event.<\/p>\n
\"P-e-r-c-e-p-t-i-b-l-e\" she spelt under her breath while
\nuncovering the word in the dictionary to check her accuracy.<\/p>\n
Even at this early hour, the lobby of the school was a hub of
\nactivity with contestants already starting to arrive and sponsors
\nand stallholders setting up in the large open air canteen area.<\/p>\n
Banners were still being erected and display cabinets
\nassembled.<\/p>\n
Giggling with excitement, a group of girls from a national
\nplus school in Bandung got out of their bus and came to the
\nregistration desk. Despite being the furthest competitors away
\nfrom Bogor, they were the first arrivals; \"we got up at 4:00 am
\nthis morning,\" explained one. \"We had breakfast in the bus.\"<\/p>\n
\"This is the first time we have run this competition,\"
\nexplained bee coordinator Nurlaila Rachman, as she examined the
\njudges' table to make sure it was ready.<\/p>\n
\"We have tried to plan for every eventuality, but you never
\nknow what is going to happen. If there is a power cut, we are in
\nreal trouble. Our generator is missing-in-action.\"<\/p>\n
With a total of around 300 spellers competing from over 25
\ndifferent schools around the country, she had good reason to
\nworry. Parents and teachers were taking the event very seriously
\nand the stakes were high.<\/p>\n
The winners at each grade level were to receive a Rp 500,000
\ntop prize, and the runners up a new bank account containing Rp
\n250,000 from Panin Bank. Some spellers' parents had been drilling
\ntheir children for months in preparation for this day.<\/p>\n
In the first round students were given a written test of 30
\nwords in the classrooms, while downstairs, guests enjoyed some
\npiano and guitar music.<\/p>\n
Half way through the qualification round, two parties of
\nspellers from Jakarta showed up, very late. There had been
\nchronic traffic and the toll road at Cibubur had turned into a
\nfour lane car-park.<\/p>\n
After some negotiation, they were allowed to join in and sit
\nthe written qualification test separately. The atmosphere in the
\nclassrooms was tense, with participants straining to listen
\ncarefully to every word while racking their brains for spellings.<\/p>\n
\"It's the double letter words that will help us eliminate
\nspellers,\" laughed coordinator Miavarani, and she was proved
\nright as many in the qualification round misspelled words such as
\n\"affinity\", \"classically\" and \"disappear\".<\/p>\n
At the end of the first round, the written tests were marked
\nand the top five scorers at each level went on to the final
\nround. Students poured downstairs from the classrooms, some
\nbounding with confidence, some shaking their heads in frustration
\nand a few near tears. The 45 finalists -- five from each of the
\nnine grade levels -- were announced along with the rules of the
\ncompetition and some firm words of warning to parents.<\/p>\n
\"Please don't call out anything or mouth letters,\" said
\nMiavarani. She wanted a clean contest on behalf of both the
\nparents and participants.<\/p>\n
The first-graders were the first on stage. Little Raymond
\nVictorio eyed the microphone suspiciously as he stepped up to
\nspell his first word. Clutching his hands together as the reader
\nMark Havard read the word \"try\".<\/p>\n
\"Could you repeat the world, please?\" he asked nervously.<\/p>\n
Judges Douglas Horley of Sekolah IPEKA, Pak Wahyu of LIA and
\nCarl Turland of the British Institute listened carefully to each
\nstudent as the participants spelt out the words. Not only did
\nthey have to listen for the correct spelling but for the correct
\npronunciation of each letter. No Indonesian letter pronunciations
\nwere allowed in the competition.<\/p>\n
It was the word \"scariest\" that caught out Pradya Nindhita.
\n\"Machinery\" got Nadia Wahika and \"Frenchman\" stumped two
\nfinalists.<\/p>\n
The third-graders found their words a piece of cake, flying
\nthrough the final round. The last two spellers matched each other
\nword-for-word and had almost come to the end of the 50-word list
\nfor grade 3, at which point the round would have been declared a
\ndraw and the prize shared.<\/p>\n
The organizers were exchanging worried glances with each other
\nwhen finally Zerlinda Rachel misspelled \"immigrant\". Adiva
\nNindito stepped up and successfully corrected her mistake. He was
\nable to spell the next word \"airplane\" correctly to be crowned
\nthe grade 3 champion.<\/p>\n
The competition went smoothly and without any major hitches
\nall the way up to the ninth-graders. Many had not been able to
\nmake it at this level because of the national examinations, but
\nthose who did make it put in a strong effort and the final round
\nwas won with the word \"speakerphone\".<\/p>\n
The students were all winners as they trooped off stage with
\nprizes in hand; ready to spell the end of their day with a well
\ndeserved \"r-e-s-t.\" -- The writer works for Sekolah Bogor Raya<\/p>",
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