Hundreds of children compete in first semi-final of spelling bee competition in UAE

2014 UAE Spelling BEE Competition

Schoolchildren from across the country put their knowledge of the English language to the test at the Danube Spelling Bee Championship on Friday.

More than 300 children aged between 11 and 15 competed in the first semi-final of the competition at the Ductac Theatre, in Mall of the Emirates.

Thy had to complete a written and oral test to be in with a chance of reaching the final next month.

“I got a little nervous up on stage but I’m hopeful I did well enough to get through to the final,” said Anagha Nair, 12, from the Abu Dhabi Indian School.

Indian Aysha Aboobaker, 14, from the English School of Kalba, near Fujairah, was more confident about the written test.

“I think I got two of the three right but then I got one of the oral words wrong, so we’ll have to see if I made it through to the final,” she said.

Aysha said she prepared for the competition by practicing for about 90 minutes each night for two weeks before the event.

“The biggest problem for me was the pronunciation of the words because you have to be able to do that as well as spell the word correctly.”

Aditya Sharma, 14, from Delhi Private School in Sharjah, also struggled with the pronunciation but was hopeful his score on the written test would be enough for him to qualify for the final.

“I think I did pretty well on that but there may have been one or two mistakes,” he said.

“It’s the first time I’ve taken part in the event so it was a good experience for me to be up on the stage and have all those people looking back at me.”

There was a nervous wait for dozens of other children as they prepared to take to the stage for the oral test on Friday afternoon.

“The written stuff in the morning went as well as I thought it would, but the challenge words were tough and I wasn’t expecting them,” said 14-year-old Anirudh Pravin, who also attends Delhi Private School.

“I didn’t have too much of an issue with the dictation this morning but we’ll have to wait and see how I do in the oral test a bit later.”

Indian Anand Sriram, 12, from Our Own High School in Dubai, had been practising for two to three hours a day in the run-up to the event.

“I think I did well in the written test and now I’m getting a bit nervous before I go on stage for the second part,” he said.

“It’s easy to remember how to spell when there is no pressure, but hopefully I can do that with all the lights and everyone looking at me.

“The main reason I took part was to try to win a trip to Washington DC, which is the first prize.”

Renukha Singh, the managing director of Exquity Events, which organised the competition, said the standard had improved since the first contest in 2012.

“In previous years it was more of a case that the children learnt the words through rote memorisation,” she said.

“Now, however, we have taught them how to use the root of a word and language to get a better idea of how to spell.”

The preliminary rounds saw 2,200 children from across the country take part in competitions at their schools.

The best spellers – about 716 children from 35 schools – then took part in the semi-finals.

In the morning the children had a written test, in which they had to correctly spell 25 words they were given a few weeks ago, along with and three more challenging, surprise words.

The second semi-final takes place at the same venue on Saturday. The list of winners will be announced on Monday, and the top 60 youngsters will compete in the final at Jumeirah Beach Hotel on February 8.