NJ Spelling Bee 2007!

(เกี่ยวกับภาษาอังกฤษ ก็เขียนเป็นอังกฤษนะครับ)

Yesterday, yes, but it still left me exhausted today. I'm talking about NJ Spelling Bee 2007, held by Nation Group (Thailand), with sponsorship and cooperation from Ministry of Education, Sripatum University, and etc.

This is the final competition to seek the winner from the 100 qualified competitors from 4 (cultural) regions of Thailand. The winner of this event got the cup by HRH Princess Sirindhorn, and a free trip to Melbourne, Australia.


ROUND 1 : MULTIPLE MINDBENDER (59/100 qualified)
The first round was a plain Multiple Mindbender. No, it's not just a name. It's really a mind bender when you spell all words right but not sure if it's "Inseparable" or "Inseperable" (the first one is correct). The passing score was 46 out of 50, which is outrageous for the outsiders, that might can't figure out what it means when you have to guess an easy word because you only revise harder ones.


ROUND 2 : SUDDEN DEATH (10/59 qualified)
Plain and simple. You spell the words into a paper, and show it up. Anybody who makes even a little mistake is shot down. The stress is so great that the room felt extremely cold like when I was back in Japan or up the Doi Inthanon (lit.: Mt.Inthanon). After 9 people (including me) were qualified, there were 2 people that went wrong and was still left in the game. One of them was a junior from my own school, which produced another wave of stress on me after the two "dueled" 7 or 8 words before it came to a conclusion that she passed. Whew, did I care too much about my friends?

Death-spilling word : "Persuasion" (thanks Bethesda Soft! Your in-game "PERSUASION" helped me out!)


ROUND 3 : COOL 'CATS' (5/10 qualified)
I ask Colors, you write Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Cyan, Magenta... OK, 30 seconds' up. In this round, you will be asked to write as many words as possible from a "category word" given by the staffs. The fun came out when **** (name reserved for privacy) wrote the '3-letter, a-word' in the Body section. If you still can't figure what word it is, it has the same meaning as "butt".

Finally, it came out that there are 2 people in the 5th rank (again!), and the reserved category, "kitchen", had to be pulled out.


FINALE : LAST MINUTE (1/5 as winner, 4/5 as runner-ups)
The simplest cla.. (whoops, electrical shock in my hands .. I think I will explain about this later) .... The simplest classic Spelling Bee. You spell out the words from the list, orally provided.

Others' Strategy: Try all, if you can't, then skip.
My strategy: Skip the words IMMEDIATELY if unsure. Spell only short words.
The Winner's strategy: Spell all words as extreme speed!

And as the smoke clears, I became the first runner-up, winning a trip to Singapore along with the other 4 runner-ups. My adviser won a trip to Hong Kong.


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Conclusion, and a note to all who wish to improve their English skills: Use it! Somehow, find a way to utilize it in real life! Don't be afraid to use English in your daily activities. Try watching English soundtrack movies with English subtitles (also a nice way to avoid low-quality Thai "hell sub"s). Having friends in other countries is also a nice way to boost your skills! Try playing games in English version, select European, American, or Australian servers to see as many English-speaking players as possible.

I myself started out when I was very young, I had trouble with games in English, and all my parents did was to teach me how to properly use dictionaries and encyclopedias. In the present days, I don't even need to look up for words' meanings as I can guess all of them from context.

I'm proud of myself, as this is from my own internal skills - not added nor preserved in any manner.

My next stops : Professional English, Basic Japanese, and a way to chant reversed SQL as spells (see "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", you will know what I mean).


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Sponsors : NJ, Nation Group, Ministry of Education, MTV, etc! (too many to be listed!)
Special Thanks : Aj.Anothai, Aj.Dusita, Aj.Orawan P. (correct names? If not, tell me to fix!) (there's also Orawan K. teaching Biology in my school), my parents, my friends (especially: "Missy Matsui", "WindyTale", "Quanrian", "Broderick Contofalsky"... wait! That's ME! ... and more!), Kasetsart University, Cambridge, Longman, Macmillan, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Tokyo Tech High (do I really have to mention this? =__="), Bethesda Softworks (made me scroll through lines of words in their games), whoever that developed the learning-games back in 1995, my own Biological Redundant Array of Independent Neural-cell (B.R.A.I.N.) and ALL THE ETC!!