Young spellers had a chance to flaunt their vast vocabularies at a spelling bee competition in Winnipeg on Saturday.
The contest, presented by Spelling Bee of Canada alongside the non-profit Healthy Muslim Families, made it debut in Winnipeg last year.
More than a hundred youth participated this year in the primary, junior and intermediate categories of this year’s event, held in the University of Manitoba’s Engineering building.
“When we look at Winnipeg, yes there are great opportunities in terms of sports and physical activities. But when we look at the educational side, we feel that there is still a gap,” said Asra Waleed, the marketing manager for the event.
“Yes, it seems [like just] vocabulary or spelling, but if you look at it in the bigger picture, it’s overcoming the stage fright, public speaking, [and having] the confidence to just be there to participate.”
Hafsa Khan said she only started practising last week, so she was tempering her expectations going into the spelling bee.
“I thought the words would be easier because I did one last year,” she said. “When I got the words — it’s like, 400 words — I was like, oh my God.”
Tamiyah Mubeen, 13, on the other hand, said she had been training for over a month.
“I’m not that scared,” she said before the contest. “I’m going to try not looking at people’s heads or like eyes.”
Ahnaf Abudallah Sabeer, 13, was a bit more nervous.
“I [felt] like, ‘What if I’m the only one that gets one wrong?'” he said, bending down toward the mic as if he was still on stage.
“In the end, I rushed a bit,” he said, eventually confessing he likes math more than English.
Favour Folorunso, 8, from South Pointe School, ended up taking first prize in her category. One of her final championship words — which happens to be synonymous with “spell” — sums up what she felt right after.
“E-N-C-H-A-N-T-M-E-N-T.”
“I was nervous, I was embarrassed for some reason, and I was excited — all three of those at the same time,” she said, adding that she felt pretty happy about the win because her mom promised to get her an Xbox.
Olayinka Folorunso, Favour’s mother, was looking on from the crowd along with other members of the family. Folorunso said Favour had been thinking of going “all out” in this year’s competition after being eliminated last year.
“We exhausted all the words in the manual, then she of course went to the library from school, got a dictionary and she also went through the dictionary,” she said.
“It feels so good that she’s getting a bit of compensation for the work she’s putting [in].”
