Shengda College held the second Alemayehu Spelling Bee championship round on November 24, 2011 in the Multi-purpose Hall of the Foreign Language Building. Foreign teachers, Jeffrey Woo and Charles “Chuck” Crush, along with Chinese teacher, Yuan Hang, acted as judges. Twelve finalists competed in the event and eight would receive financial prizes. The champion, however, would go home with the coveted award of 800RMB and a trophy.

The number of competitors quickly dwindled during the competition until the last three. In only a few rounds, nine competitors had been eliminated. The remaining trio battled intensely for first place. They lasted numerous rounds, burning through their TEM4 and TEM8 words quicker than ever. The competition, however, nearly halted when “sumptuous” was announced. The stumped and soon-to-be third place contestant requested its pronunciation numerous times from all three judges. Eventually, being placed on a time constraint, he unnervingly spelled it incorrectly. Intermission was then announced and volunteers from the audience had a chance to take part in their own competition. Upon resumption, first and second places were quickly established after just a few words. Peng Xian won the championship with Liu Xiao Hui and Feng Lei winning second and third places, respectively. The relatively fast paced and heated competition was an improvement over last year’s “marathon”, as event organizer Zhang Baopei put it.

Sponsor and former Shengda teacher, Lester Paul, established this contest in 2010 in honor of his son, Alemayehu Paul. This year, he provided over 2000RMB in funding. He and his son delivered a recorded video message just before the competition. In the video, Mr. Paul acknowledged last year’s Spelling Bee champ and offered words of encouragement for this year’s competitors. The Paul family has promised to sponsor this event every year.

By Alan Wu, FAO Assistant