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Comment by oneplane | Hacker News Reader

The whole thing about 'spelling bee' seems crazy to me. What is the point in memorising a dictionary and then repeating what was in it to an audience?

Most competitions (why is it a spelling bee and not a spelling competition?) seem to revolve around a specific skill that stands on its own, and it's rarely about retaining facts that are described in a book. Compared to a physical sport, it's as if you'd remember all the rules but then not play the game. Or compared to a sport like Go or Chess, there is no interaction with an opponent, there is no improvisation or strategy, just data.

Maybe it's an American thing, and it holds it's value because it's a tradition that was recently created (well, relatively recent). It's what most searches seem to suggest... (as well as it being the reason that I don't run in to a 'bee' in other countries)

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What is the point in memorising a dictionary and then repeating what was in it to an audience?

You could say this about every form of recreation, let alone competitive activity. You don't find it interesting, that's okay, different people enjoy different things.

The best spelling bee champs (the ones winning the big scholarships) are not just memorization machines, they have deep understanding of the etymology and structure of English words (which I happen to find very interesting).

If you set aside a few minutes to watch the Scripps spelling bee, you'll notice that the competitors ask about the etymology and usage of the word in a sentence. This information gives subtle clues (such as Greek or Latin roots) that a good speller can use to spell a word they've never seen before. That is an impressive feat, if you ask me!

I did watch a few of them, and I still didn't get it. You're not really directly competing (all you have is failure count which you cannot influence - except your own of course).

I get that it can be interesting to some people but the scale of the whole thing (in the US) is what surprises me every time.

Then again, I also don't get reality TV or pageants. Maybe I'm not the target audience...

I think a big contributor to the popularity and scale of spelling bees in the US is the high cost of university tuition. Many families couldn't afford it without a scholarship.

Huh? A spelling bee is a competition in exactly the same way that a race is. You can't influence how fast your opponents run, you can only be faster than them. Same in a spelling bee; you have to last longer than your opponents.

I suppose there are races that are constructed so that you can not influence each other, but there are plenty where you can.

At the same time, being able to spell obscure words doesn't have a wide application like being able to run, cycle, drive or swim fast has. (but those probably have their limits as well - fast cycling/running is handy when you also want to be a bike courier or need to outrun a bear, but less useful when you have a day job as a painter).

I guess in the end the point I made also works against my instinct to express a dislike for arbitrary contest when I don't get the scale/following.

I think a better comparison is a game like chess. Is chess useful outside of being a professional chess player/instructor? No. So being a chess Grandmaster is every bit as useless as being a spelling bee champion, apart from the prestige.

Having said that, being able to spell obscure words is likely to increase your vocabulary, which may be useful if you decide to become a writer. Frankly, that's probably more useful than learning how to throw horseshoes.

One could argue that throwing horseshoes would have gotten the same following as spelling bees would have if it were at least as good/cool ;-)

>What is the point in memorizing a dictionary and then repeating what was in it to an audience?

I think it's less about the act and more about the competitors. You never really see spelling bees among 30+ or even 20+ contestants - because at that age nobody cares. But for teenagers or elementary schoolers, being able to demonstrate an above-excellent level of English comprehension is impressive precisely because of their lack of experience.

Spelling bees don't test English comprehension.

> What is the point in memorising a dictionary

This isn't too different from quiz shows, I guess, although information from those tend to be more applicable.

It's also probably a bit of an oversimplification to call it memorizing a dictionary, some of the learning strategy involves understanding the rules of multiple languages, their root words, word etymologies, etc.

I suppose applicable was the word I was looking for. The parallel I was aiming at was the one where a well known scientist said he wasn't interested in memorising facts (in this case mathematical constants) from a book because that's what the book was for.

I enjoyed this look behind the scenes at this year's national spelling bee, which also delves into its history:

https://medium.com/@elqin93/stone-cold-spellers-b77e1a916ad

Memorizing PI seems to be a global hobby, and that's less useful than the dictionary. After a few dozen digits PI is essentially a useless string of random digits.

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