Gokul Venkatachalam, an eighth-grader at Parkway West Middle School, will be among the favorites at this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee, held May 24–29 in the D.C. area. He learned to spell “Kierkegaardian” the hard way.
• I’ve won the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Spelling Bee four years in a row. At the National Spelling Bee, I’ve finished 10th, 19th, and third.
Get a fresh take on the day’s top news
Subscribe to the St. Louis Daily newsletter for a smart, succinct guide to local news from award-winning journalists Sarah Fenske and Ryan Krull.
• Last year, I took third place. I missed “Kierkegaardian” in the national finals, but I got another word that I spelled correctly with an educated guess, “pampootie.” It’s a type of shoe in Ireland, I think.
• I study an average of three to four hours every day. Some days, I don’t have any time, and some days, I have a lot of time. I don’t really count hours; I just do as much as I can. On my longest day, I’ve studied for about six hours.
• The technique is not memorizing every single word you see but learning the roots and language patterns and memorizing the words by using your clues. Most of the time, the word roots are Latin and Greek, but occasionally they’re French and German. For the more obscure languages, like Japanese or Yiddish, you study patterns.
• This year at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Spelling Bee, I didn’t get any words that I didn’t know yet. At nationals, there will be a lot that I don’t know.
• One year, I got the word “smellfungus.” I had to laugh at that. It means a person that always criticizes things.
• Spelling on TV is actually not that different from spelling when you’re not on TV.
• At the National Spelling Bee, first there’s a barbecue on Monday. It’s always fun; all the spellers are there, and there are activities and good food. On Tuesday, you have to take a written test that determines if you make it into the next phase. Wednesday is the preliminary round, and everyone gets a chance to spell onstage. After that, they add up all your scores and determine who makes the semifinals. The same day, all the semifinalists have to take another test on vocabulary and spelling. On Thursday, the semifinalists spell onstage, and the people with the best score go to the finals later that evening. The finals are during primetime on ESPN.
• The next day, Friday, there’s a sightseeing tour in the morning and the awards banquet in the evening. The champion gives a speech, and there’s fancy food and everyone is dressed up. I’ve made a lot of friends in past years.
• I don’t spell the word out on my hand with a finger. That’s not my technique.
• I don’t try to size up the other spellers. It’s hard to make assumptions based on how a person spells.
• I don’t think people bet on the spelling bee, but I wouldn’t do it. It’s very unpredictable.
• I’ve run into [former National Spelling Bee champion and St. Louis native] George Thampy at nationals each of the past three years. He volunteers for the National Spelling Bee as a judge.
• My little brother is getting into the spelling bee hobby. My advice is to stay diligent toward your work and study with concentration.
• A lot of careers deal with words. In almost every career, you have to communicate effectively. The vocabulary skills you learn from selling bees can become a part of it. I might be interested in a career as a lawyer or in business.
• I also like to play basketball. I play for a club. I’m the point guard.
• Math is my favorite subject in school. I’ve just always been good at math.
