Spelling Bee - The Children's Competition that Grips America
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 2 January 2018
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1985 one of the most famous children’s competitions in the world was won by an Indian-American for the first time. Balu Natarajan was 13 years old when he won the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which has been running in the USA since 1925. Balu tells Farhana Haider how he first got interested in competitive spelling and why he thinks people of South Asian background have excelled in the Bee.
Photo: Balu Natarajan poses with his National Spelling Bee championship trophy 1985. Credit: Balu Natarajan.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less searching |
| 0:25.7 | and a lot more auction. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.2 | Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness Podcast history is told by the people who were there. |
| 0:35.6 | I'm Frahanahyver and today I'm taking you back to 1985 and to the final of one of the world's most famous children's competitions, |
| 0:44.0 | the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the USA, |
| 0:46.7 | and to the first champion of South Asian descent. |
| 0:49.9 | Glad eat all this. |
| 0:51.9 | Nack. Can I have a definite? Laddie all this. |
| 0:54.0 | Nack. Can I have a definition? |
| 0:56.0 | A video by the Scripps National Spelling Bee commemorating the competition, which has been held almost every year in the US since 1925. |
| 1:05.0 | The Spelling Bee is practically part of the school curriculum in America, |
| 1:09.0 | with millions of children between the ages of six and 15 taking part in competitions at school and then at |
| 1:16.1 | state level with the very best spellers in the country eventually reaching the finals in |
| 1:20.7 | Washington where millions of people can watch their alphabetic gymnastics on television. |
| 1:26.0 | H-A-M-P-I-O-N-S champions. |
| 1:32.0 | Balu Naturajan, a Chicago native, was 13 years old when he became the first Indian American Spelling Bee champion. |
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