Comments on: Indian-Americans and the Spelling Bee conundrum

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:27:53 +0000

Just a minor quibble. Not all Indian names are Hindu or what some would consider obviously Indian. There are Christian Indians with last names like Thomas/Johnson/George and also some with Portuguese last names (Goa was a Portuguese colony).

By: hg

hg — Wed, 17 May 2006 06:58:31 +0000

yeah. that is weird. you guys should be mad about the movie “Akeelah and the bee” - no American-Indian representation whatsoever from what I can tell.
I think most of it is due to the fact that we get the brightest of the bright Indians coming to U.S. I work with some Indian friends for some of my classes and boy they are SMART. Even in Christianity, there’s Ravi Zacharias who’s considered one of the leading Christian thinkers in the world!

By: R. Sridharan

R. Sridharan — Tue, 16 May 2006 07:02:15 +0000

Hi Basab,
Numbers alone are unlikely to explain this phenomenon. However, part of the answer is provided by you yourself. The Indians who go to the US are not merely “college-educated” professionals, but the brightest the country produces. So the kids don’t just have a genetic headstart but also parents–typically, first-generation immigrants–who drive them to excel at school. It may be interesting to find out how many of the historical winners or finalists of the Bee were children of first-generation immigrants from India.

By: Ram

Ram — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 17:07:15 +0000

If an Indian gold medal is what is desired through spelling bees,perhaps the Indian-American kid born in the U.S is not the best candidate as desperate one might be for an Indian gold medal.

Most of the spelling bee winners,schooled in spellings in the U.S would probably identify more with being American than Indian.

Now,if we are talking of an Indian origin olympic gold medal,which is probably as rare a commodity perhaps adding spelling bees to the olympics could be of strategic value to India.

Ofcourse being an Olympic gold winner in India might garner more visibility,sponsorship in India than in the U.S and might motivate Indian American kids to choose the Indian umbrella.

There are ofcourse several instances of the above,we find several Olympic medal winners who practically learned and practice their craft in the U.S but identify themselves with a different country.This augurs an interesting question,more so in a flat globalized world:

What truly constitites an Indian Olympic gold?

Indian Passport?-If this is the standard,we should try getting a pool of probable gold medal winners to switch.

Indian schooled and trained?

Indian born?

Needless to say,the Indian media will make headlines if any of the above were true

By: neelakantan

neelakantan — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 09:12:54 +0000

I agree with Patrix on this - ratta maro combined with some garnish of parental pressure, keeps spelling bee busy. I am sure no kid will be motivated to know the spelling of chiaroscurist or xanthosis…

By: amIda1

amIda1 — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 05:08:49 +0000

“There are some other reasons that could explain this difference but in my opinion don’t do it adequately. The college educated Indian immigrant population is not a random sample from the college educated population of India. They represent the cream of the crop. I would have said ‘immigrant vigour’ was another contributing factor, but then America is a land of immigrants, so that doesn’t count.”

i think its the cream! Its true that America is the land of immigrants but nowhere is education so much valued as in india. its the only way to get out of your economic misery! it maybe the same attitude carried forward

i guess a really healthy sign of india’s prosperity to see more indians as sportsmen , artists etc .

By: Queer

Queer — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 18:02:59 +0000

I believe, a large percent of the Indian-american kids are home schooled. That could be a contributing factor. Plus as patrix pointed out….memorizing is ingrained in us:)

By: Vikas Chowdhry

Vikas Chowdhry — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 14:17:06 +0000

I think Patrix you are right. Sometime back I’d also posted about spelling bee competition on my blog. Here’s what I think:
http://www.arthshastra.com/archive/spelling-bee

By: SamY

SamY — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 04:39:58 +0000

ha ha, so u’v succumbed to idea that this is the way to earn a medal @ the olympics ;))

By: Patrix

Patrix — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 19:37:55 +0000

I think, the “ratta-maar” syndrome from our school days has helped us gain an edge in the Spelling Bees…it has persisted for so long that it has become hardwired into our genes