Written by Jocelyn Wiener - The Sacramento Bee
This article originally appeared in The Bee on April 7, 2008 on page A1.
In fourth grade, JosephineKao dropped the second "t" from the word "stitch" and lost her first spelling bee. For about 10 minutes, she experienced a deep sense of regret. Then her mom bought her a Starbucks vanilla soy steamer, and she recovered. Spelling wasn't an integral part of her life. Not yet. In fifth grade, one obscure word would change all that.
As a glowing Josephine celebrated her correct spelling of "cabotinage" -- behavior befitting a second-rate actor -- the coordinator of the regional bee would remark: "That's the first time I can remember the winner jumping up and down."
The word bug had bit; the Spelling Bee had stung.
Josephine, a slim girl with long brown hair and an easy smile, has won Sacramento's regional bee three times -- in the fifth, sixth and seventh grades. The wins qualified her for a trip to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. She took 45th in fifth grade, 16th in sixth grade and competes once again on May 29.
In her embrace of the 83-year-old competition, Josephine is no doubt tapping into some of life's grander themes: triumph and defeat, commitment and sacrifice. Before 6 o'clock each morning, while her peers are sleeping, Josephine pulls on pink slippers and a robe dotted with rainbow stars and spends two hours poring over word lists, flash cards and a 15-pound dictionary.
What compels a seventh-grade girl to commit so deeply to something that often wins her odd looks from other kids? It could be a hunger for success, it could be some underlying genius. But perhaps it's something simpler than that: Maybe, at 12 years old, Josephine is just a child in love with learning, for learning's sake.
"I really like it," she explained the other day. "It makes me sound like a nerd. But that's basically what I've become."
Even with spellcheck and almost any word just a mouse click away, the lore of the Scripps National Spelling Bee has grabbed hold of the popular imagination.
The 2002 Academy Award-nominated documentary "Spellbound" and the 2006 film "Akeelah and the Bee" depicted the competition's human drama, its humor and emotion. ESPN began broadcasting the semifinals in 1994; ABC started broadcasting the championship round in prime time in 2006, and last year, 9.7 million viewers tuned in for the bee's final 12 minutes.
"Spelling bees," said Paige Kimble, director of the national bee, "have become cool."
Next month, with her parents, Peggy and Steve Kao, and her 10-year-old brother, Wesley, in tow, Josephine will join 287 other children from across the nation in pursuit of a shared dream: to be the last speller standing.
James Maguire, author of "American Bee," says most of the children share common attributes, including a strong logical side, a good memory, a competitive streak, discipline, maturity and parental support.
This seems an apt description of Josephine, whose repertoire includes 23,000 words, plus the ability to dissect Latin, Greek, German, French, Sanskrit and Hindi roots of countless more. She will have studied about 20 hours a week since January.
The walls of her parents' immaculate two-story home are covered with sticky notes boasting words like "indicible." Josephine has a few copies of Webster's Third New International Dictionary Unabridged: one for underlining; one for studying; one, she and her mom like to joke, for the bathroom. She and several other national spellers have an online spelling group: the Wordaholics.
On a recent morning, Josephine was up with the birds, sipping mint tea while her mom quizzed her.
"A-N-D-R-O-G-Y-N-Y," spelled Josephine. "It's a man and a woman all into one."
Back and forth they volleyed, making their way through a thicket of complicated words. Anemophilous. Angwantibo. Anthropophagous.
Peggy Kao, who moved from Taiwan to Chicago to earn a master's in education, has home-schooled her children through the Visions in Education charter school since her daughter was a first-grader. By then, Josephine could already read chapter books and knew how to spell "lieutenant" and "surveillance."
Josephine and Wesley realize they're skipping some traditional schoolyard experiences. But Wesley's heard from other kids that "there's bullies all over the place," and Josephine notices certain friends getting caught up in text messaging and boys.
At least for now, this makes staying home rather appealing. Besides which, Josephine likes studying in her pajamas.
As the quizzing continued, Steve stopped in to hug his kids goodbye on his way to Kaiser Permanente, where he works as a general practitioner. Sometimes he gives Josephine medical terms to see if she can spell them. She usually can.
Around 8:15 a.m., Peggy high-fived her daughter. "You're just a spelling machine, honey," she said. "You know that?"
While's Josephine's not planning to win -- "the people that have realistic expectations are the ones that can actually do better" -- she can't help dreaming big. Isn't that the point, after all?
After two hours of spelling, she headed downstairs to practice piano. Josephine has played complicated pieces from memory since she was 4; Wesley prefers to compose his own.
On one wall hung a framed drawing of candy canes striped with the flags of the world. Josephine's winning entry to a UNICEF art contest last year was transformed by Pier One Imports into a holiday card. On another wall hung a picture of her synchronized ice skating team.
Josephine tries not to share these and other accomplishments with too many people, "not because they'll think I'm weird, but because I seem like I'm bragging," she said.
After piano, she tackled science and geography. Then, while Wesley helped his mom prepare lunch -- he's working on writing a cookbook and wanted to show off his favorite crepe recipe -- Josephine opened her dictionary. Benzidine. Zauberflote. Soukou.
At 11:45 a.m. she told her mother she'd be down for lunch shortly. Ten minutes later, to ward off nudging, she called: "Don't worry! I'm coming!"
She continued studying. "I get absorbed like kids playing a video game," she confessed. Josephine's spelling triumphs have brought other opportunities. She met the cast of "Akeelah and the Bee" at a special screening. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was in attendance, so Peggy had made sure her daughter practiced spelling his last name.
Her first year in D.C., Josephine got dinged after adding an "h" to the word "welkin," which means heaven. In an article in her charter school newsletter, she described: "There was a lot of tension for most spellers, if not all, which caused much onychophagy (biting of the nails)."
Last year, ESPN broadcast Josephine striking out on the word "tournure," meaning a device to expand a woman's skirt. "T-O-R-N-U-R-E," spelled Josephine. And that was that.
Even for veterans, competition can be nervewracking -- for everyone. Peggy has to press her hands down hard on her knees to keep them from shaking. Steve asked permission to skip the regional bee this year because his nerves couldn't handle it. And Wesley, who has memorized which words his sister can spell, worries "big time." In the last competition, he drew pictures of bees to calm himself down.
Currently, Josephine's plans include Olympic figure skating, teaching writing or becoming an ambassador to China or France.
For now, she's content making a mark closer to home.
The other afternoon, Josephine set up shop at a table at the new Martha Riley library in Roseville -- ready to host her first spelling club meeting. In front of her was a stack of spelling books. Her friend, Sarah Sweetser, 12, had helped her pen a sign advertising "Spelling Help" and was staying on for moral support.
Two sisters stopped by, but the younger girl had no spelling homework and the older girl finished "in like 30 seconds." Once they left, Josephine and Sarah worked on a recruiting strategy.
They made a second sign on which Josephine wrote the longest word in the dictionary, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, to show the quality people could expect. No takers.
Finally, around 5 p.m., the girls got ready to leave.
"It's nice having a phenom in the area," the librarian said, as they made their way out.
Could Josephine spell that?
But of course.
But near the end, Jetty was sandwiched between Kao and Anvita Mishra, a sixth-grade power speller from Excelsior school in Placer County. Jetty added an extra "e" to the word "nemoral," pertaining to a wood or grove.
"It's all luck on what word you get," Jetty said during a lunch break before her elimination.
And then, after about three tense hours, it was down to Kao and Mishra. Kao correctly spelled "embracery" followed by Mishra's quick "drupaceous," then Kao's "peregrinate." But then, there was a pause when Mishra was set to spell "exegetical," which means to involve the critical interpretation of a passage from a test.
"E-X-I-G-E-T-I-C-A-L," Misha said to a quiet auditorium.
Ding.
Kao volleyed with the correct spelling, before carefully "air-writing" the final word into the palm of her hand.
"Take a deep breath," she would later recall as those final moments on stage. "I'm just going to try to do my best."
Online Lessons
Each week The Bee publishes a new online lesson for teachers, students and families who use the Internet and newspaper as learning resources. The lessons are tied to current events in the news and help learners extend their knowledge on a wide range of topics. Click here to return to the table of contents.