RHB NST Spell-It-Right '10: National Grand Finals Challenge

Faye Jong Sow Fei is no stranger to spelling competitions.

Yet, the 12-year-old prefect of SK St Mary, Sarawak, had not expected to go home as Malaysia's top speller in the primary category at the RHB New Straits Times National Spell-It-Right Challenge finals, last Saturday at MATIC, KL.

Faye could hardly contain her shock and tears of joy when she was announced the winner.

"I knew the competition was going to be tough but it was even more difficult than expected," she said.

In the final rounds, she spelled "abstentions", "protactinium", "paleontologist" and "bouillon" correctly.

Reading the dictionary and her favourite books, including the Harry Potter series, helped her win the title and RM10,000 cash prize.

"I try to spend an hour studying words in the dictionary every day," Faye said, adding that she learnt pronunciation using an electronic dictionary.

Age is no barrier to great spelling -- as was proven when first-former Kenneth Wu Min Jin, 13, of SMK King George V, Negri Sembilan, took the top spot in the secondary category of the RHB New Straits Times National Spell-It-Right (SIR) Challenge finals.

His contenders were 13 other state champions, whose ages ranged from 13 to 17.

For Kenneth, who won the national primary title last year, it was the ultimate reward for a year's worth of preparation.

"I went through the dictionary page by page every day over the past year," he said, adding that he would spend up to two hours a day looking up and writing down words.

He also took down as many words as possible from the other spelling competitions he attended. The Internet was also a useful tool in learning the pronunciation of the more difficult words.

Kenneth, who won the national title and RM15,000 cash money, spelled all 15 words right, including those in the final round. They were "proselytise", "denitrification", "stupefaction", "strychnine" and "bouillabaisse".

"The level of difficulty of words had definitely gone up this year. I noticed a number of foreign words and chemical elements," he said.


More story on Learning Curve this weekend. http://www.nst.com.my

Category:

Education

Tags:

• RHB
• NST
• Spell-It-Right
• '10:
• National
• Grand
• Finals
• Challenge

[SilverSpear97]

Lol that faye girl is my junior...