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Photo courtesy of Jeremy Landau (8-1)
May 31st marked the 95th annual National Spelling Bee. Regional bee winners all throughout the country came to Washington D.C to compete for the Scripps National Spelling Bee Trophy, along with a $50,000 check. Masterman has one of the three finalists from Philadelphia: our very own Jeremy Landau (8-1). Jeremy has quickly become one of the best spellers for his age group in the country. He has quickly ascended to local and even national fame, as Jeremy’s page on Scripps’ site can be found here: https://spellingbee.com/meet-the-spellers?speller_number=159. I got a chance to interview Jeremy, and ask him a little bit about himself and his experiences with spelling:
How did you first discover your love and talent for spelling?
“In 5th grade, I was the representative for the 5th grade Spelldown in Philadelphia, where the winner of that would go to the regional spelling bee, and the winner of that would go to the National spelling bee. I got 3rd place in the 5th grade Spelldown, I got out of the word ‘Consonants’ which I guess I skipped over when studying… This year, I was the representative, and I went to regionals and I won.”
How many hours do you practice a week? How do you practice?
“Before regionals, I practiced an hour a day, now I have a spelling coach and I practice 2-3 hours a day, more on weekends. In my lessons with my spelling coach twice a week, we go over different languages. We’ve completed Latin, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and we’re working on Greek. I go over the stems, language rules, and diminutive endings, so if a word comes up that I don’t know, I can decipher it and figure out how to spell it even if I’ve never heard it before.”
How many years have you been spelling with the goal of going to a bee?
“I’ve always wanted to go to the National Spelling Bee, it has always been a dream. This year, I didn’t think it would be a reality, it was so surreal until I realized I would actually be going to the National Spelling Bee.”
What would your advice be to someone who wants to get started?
“Start with Words of the Champions, which is a book that Scripps gives out, and has all the words that will be in regionals… If you get to Nationals, learn stems and language rules.”
What’s a trick or tricks you use to help you remember how to spell so many words?
“Many words I just know, I just know and I don’t have to practice again. Other words, I have to practice over and over again. I don’t really have a trick, especially with words I’m trying to learn with language rules and stems, I just try to use what I know to decipher them.”
Have you ever competed before? What’s your most interesting or unusual story?
“I’ve only competed twice, once in 5th grade and at the end of March, so I don’t really have an interesting story, but I think I’ll probably have some interesting stories at Nationals. That’s going to be a fun week.
Is there one word that you find very difficult to spell? Do you have a favorite word?
“I don’t think there is one particular word I struggle with. I really like this word that I learned recently, Llullaillaco.” (Llullaillaco - A dormant stratovolcano at the border between Argentina and Chile.)
What are some of your favorite things to do outside of spelling?
“I played on the Masterman middle school golf team earlier this year. I like playing golf, I like speedcubing - my record is 35.19 seconds, and I enjoy reading a lot. I also love to learn about history, it is my favorite subject, and I especially like to learn about the American Revolution.”
Is there anything else you would like to say?
“I get to the National spelling bee on the 29th [of May] and it ends on the 4th. The preliminaries of the competition starts on the 31st, and then there's the quarterfinals, semifinals, and then the finals. If I get to the finals, I will be able to be watched on television, which will be pretty cool if people can see that.
It’s no easy task to get through all those rounds of qualification, but all of Masterman will be rooting for you Jeremy! Good Luck!
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