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Why Are Indian Kids So Good At Spelling?
theodp writes "Slate's Ben Paynter looks into why Indian kids dominate the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and concludes it's because they have their own minor-league spelling bee circuit (having the discipline to spell 7,000 to 8,000 words a day probably helps too!). Indian-Americans make up about 1% of the US population, notes Paynter, but this year an estimated 11% of the competitors at Scripps will hail from regional contests run by the North South Foundation. The NSF competitions function as a kind of nerd Olympiad for Indian-Americans — there are separate divisions for math, science, vocabulary, geography, essay writing, and even public speaking — and a way to raise money for college scholarships for underprivileged students in India. BTW, Strollerderby has the scoop on Whatever Happened to the Spellbound Kids? (RIP, Ted Brigham)."
It's probably because parents in many other countries are way more interested in driving their kids or excel in social activities or in sports than in intellectual pursuits (or not driving them to excel in anything at all). If my parents and community had supported my academic interests as much as they supported my little league career, I'm sure I would have won a lot more spelling bees too. Much as I think Asians often push their kids *too* hard, it would be nice to be able to spell "necessary" consistently today without needing a spell checker.
Ah screw it, spell checkers have made spelling obsolete anyway. And I can still throw a pretty mean curve ball.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
What's wrong with sports? Sports teach leadership and teamwork, which are arguably just as important as being able to spell "necessary" without a spell checker. Some parents might need to find a better balance with regards to sports vs. the rest of the curriculum but that doesn't mean that sports don't have their place.
There's also the fact that 1/3 of this country is obese to argue in favor of expanded sports/PE instruction.....
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Not just parents, peer group. I'm sure plenty of /.ers are more than familiar with the general anti-intellectual sentiment found in many schools, especially among the 'cool kids' and young-ish age groups.
However hard one tries, it's difficult to remain motivated when having a wide vocabulary or advanced mathematical skills singles you out as 'weird'. A competitive academic environment, on the other hand, not only keeps motivation up but if anything pushes kids to spend extra time on their work, to help them 'win'.
In either case, though, a balance is needed. Overly pushy parents and excess competition seem to lead to social problems and feelings of inadequacy.
The difference is the emphasis a particular culture places on an activity vs race. We notice these particular differences in sports and entertainment because it is in our faces most of the time, but academics, neighborhoods, food consumption, jobs, etc are all influenced by our culture. As a white male southerner, I'm introduced to gun use, Protestant church, pig based barbecue, college football, etc. That's what I do.
Stupid people worship jocks because it is easier to imagine being strong than being smart. This would be fine if it didn't have devastating consequences for society.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Indian here. By and large Indian society focuses on learning by rote and not on creativity.
What good does winning spelling contests achieve? Efficient secretaries?
Writing is better than talking. Thinking is better than writing. Deciding is better than thinking - William James
"Immaculate" spelling isn't necessary, but spelling well is useful. Language functions as more than simply a way to communicate ideas. The way we write and the correctness of our writing confers to readers the care with which we approach our endeavors. This is particularly important in business, where mispelling word can make one appear incompetent.
Kids who win spelling bees are better at spelling than will ever useful to them. However, even with spell-checking, being able to spell the entirety of your working vocabulary has real benefits and no disadvantages.
My other sig is clever.
Different? Not at all. The strawman is the fact that "we are not supposed to talk about it".
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
The US is savagely anti-intellectual.
Unless you make an effort to live and work among superior people most of the country is a (Katzian definition) Hellmouth. Americans are brutish and willfully ignorant, most are superstitious (from religion to astrology), and they fetishize their stupidity and ignorance in their popular entertainments and choice of elected officials. Except for a very few people, the US has turned into a bad place.
It's really no surprise that business and government can't resist exploiting such people. Most of them deserve it.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
No, actually pretty everyone in the world is better than native english speakers at spelling, because they learn English mostly by reading it, instead of learning it by listening and speaking it...
The answer is simple. Asian parents constantly stress the importance of academics and hard work. On the other hand, American parents think it's important to have their kids do a million different activities unrelated to academics, and even worse, they value socializing too highly. Well, what they seem to value more than just socializing is being popular. It is important to socialize, but overdo it and it gets in the way of excelling in school. Then there's the entitlement mentality that keeps being pushed on kids, that they're special and deserve the world. Too many American children's cartoons are obsessed with the notion that it's important to be yourself. Everyone is taught that you're only living life if you're doing something perceived as exciting, be it something like skydiving or partying. So of course your average American kid isn't going to see the value in academics. So ultimately, it's a cultural issue.
There is a strong divide between (very generally) Western and Asian cultures. In the West we tend to believe that talent and ability is innate, and that your success in life will be down to the use of your gifts. Contrarily, Asian cultures believe that success is directly proportional to the effort the person puts into it. The psychological evidence is they are essentially correct.
[FUCK BETA]
"Right, that's why we don't reward professions that require a lot of education with money and prestige...oh wait we do."
No, we don't. The people who are rewarded most are those who are the most arrogant and conceited, and most willing to be morally flexible and exploit the desires of others to be like them. Celebrities. Rock Stars. Require little or no education - just certain personality traits.
"Well, that's why most kids say they want to be ditch diggers or work at Wal-Mart or at a slaughterhouse."
No, they don't. They want to be football players, music video stars, movie stars, sports stars, or whatever else makes the most money and requires the least education.
"Well, I guess it's like how we don't have a system of higher education that people come from all over the world to learn from"
We have a system of higher education that has basically unlimited government money to loan to poor foreign nationals. They don't come here for the education. They come here because we'll loan them the money to pay for it, and it's easy to get in because their secondary education is so much better than ours.
That has more to do with entry routes. Europeans are likely to come to America on the basis of family relationships or wealth. The only real entry route for many Indians is to be well educated.
[FUCK BETA]
Thats a myth. There can only be one leader in a team
Not true at all - teams often have multiple team captains, and individual team units often have their own leaders. Take football for example: you may have the offensive team leader (with the quarterback being the most visible) but there are typically leaders among the subgroups like offensive backs, defensive backs, O linemen, D linemen, receivers and linebackers.
When I was at school there was nothing worse than having some teacher take the sports too seriously as it just spoiled the fun.
This is all too often true, but that's not a failure of sports, but rather a failure of the school leadership.
Wow do you know any nation where some kids don't want to rock stars, move stars, race car drivers, or soccer players?
I guess you have never been to Japan, Korea, or India.
Or the UK for that matter. Think Football aka Soccer. Take a look at the tabloids...
I wanted to be an astronautic myself.
As far as religion as superstition... Go to India sometime or Japan. Shinto shines are common even in peoples homes.
Sound like your some whacked out self-loathing person that has little real experience it other cultures.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
What's wrong with sports? Sports teach leadership and teamwork,
This is crap parroted by sports to further their programs at the expense of programs that actually matter and require teaching. There are LOTS of ways to teach leadership and teamwork. In fact, in contrast, Japan and China excel at teaching both and generally without sports. Its part of their culture and "group think". Same is true for teamwork. Just like in America, the popular "group think" is, "sports teaches leadership and teamwork"; no matter how incorrect that may be.
Besides, social sciences CLEARLY shows leadership is an inherent part of being human which really does not require much teaching. And the areas which do require teaching are absolutely not taught in athletics. Time and time again, leadership is naturally asserted. Accordingly, a natural pecking order always falls out and leaders are naturally established. What follows are, well, the other people. The fact that roles in athletics are ASSIGNED actively defeats nature's role and other natural leadership capabilities.
Sports tend to elevate those capable of physical feats. Hundreds of years ago, and more likely, thousands of years ago, that made a lot of sense. It might even explain why their genes are still around today. These days, it makes little to no sense at all. These days if you want to get a head, its NOT by physical agility and strength. In short, not only does sports teach negative aspects of humanity (oppression by physics prowess), it emphasizes other aspects which are least likely to benefit humanity or themselves in the long run; as in, not brain power or higher learning.
What we can authoritatively say about athletics is, if you actually "learned" teamwork and leadership (which for most actually means shut up and follow), then you're dumber than a bag of hammers. If you learned teamwork in athletics, that means your parents, friends, and extended family all failed horribly, because that's where its actually learned.
To be clear, I don't have a problem with athletics. Everyone should enjoy competition, feel victory and defeat. Heck, the exercise alone is beyond rebuke. It absolutely does help with character building, social skills, learning reasonable expectations, even brain chemistry, so on and so on. There are lessons to be learned. Good lessons. Just the same, leadership and teamwork are not inherent qualities generally learned or taught by association. The fact this is commonly repeated means their brainwashing has been very successful - so their future funding won't be a concern.
Now if you want to argue sports can help improve social skills, I won't outright disagree. But then again, you'll find they are generally poor activities to do so. And if social skills were truly of concern, you'd see everyone following in the footsteps of the fairer sex as by all measure they appear to be experts as social skill development.