The Current - Can you spell this word? Test your spelling bee knowledge

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

Are you a self-identified “word nerd?” Jacques Bailly is, and he is a bit of a spell-lebrity… What is that you might ask? Well, he is the head pronouncer at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the Olympics of competitive spelling, and he was a spelling bee champion himself when he was 14. He’ll talk about why spelling is a skill we should preserve in a world of spell check and AI — and put Matt Galloway to the test.

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It's the perfect Canadian getaway. To quote William Shatner, who got his start in Stratford, every Canadian should make the pilgrimage to Stratford. Start your next adventure at StratfordFestival.ca. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. Here we go, spelling quiz. Can you spell chlorophyll? How about esquamelous or éclaircismon? That means cleaning up of something obscure, éclaircismon. 13-year-old Faisan Zaki from Allen, Texas knows that last one. If you spell this next word correctly, we will declare you the champion of the historic 100th year

of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Your word is... A. Claire C. Small. A. Claire C. Small. E. C. L. A. I. R. C. I. S. S. E. M. E. N. T. E. Claire C. Small. That is correct! I-R-C-I-S-S-E-M-E-N-T, because you know what? That is correct!

Yeah! Congratulations, Faisanzaki! You are the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion! Somebody peel him off the floor. It's the winning moment from last night, the finale of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. All the glory, the fame and $50,000 cash money went to Faizan Zaki who came in second in this contest last year. Each year the Scripps Spelling Bee brings together the best spellers from across the United States as well as a few international competitors. It's a week of excitement and competition.

It's like the Super Bowl for word nerds. Jock Bailey is the head pronouncer at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. He is a proud word nerd. Jock, good morning. Good morning, Matt. It was interesting. You, in listening to that, you paused for a second before you read out that word. Tell me what's going through your mind. There's a lot on the line, right? When you are about to

read out that word, what is going through your mind? I'm looking at the pronunciation symbols and kind of listening to it in my head to make sure I have each one right and to get the stress right because in my ordinary life, I don't always say the words the way they're supposed to be pronounced in the dictionary. You're not using a Claire Cismaux in regular conversation. Well, yeah, a lot of the words I just don't use, but there are several that I pronounce differently.

The one that they make fun of me for is that I say iron, and everybody insists that it should be iron and I find it kind of ironic that it's iron instead of iron. I've always said iron and I'm not going to change but for the spelling bee I will. It was a beautiful moment last night because this kid wins and falls on the floor, right?

And he came in second last year and manages to pull this off. Yeah, he's a brilliant young man. He really performed extremely well. He knew every word he got. He had a small slip up, but he recovered from that. There was a lot of drama and he's clearly the winner there. I mean, in fact, he won, but also clear, clearly the winner there.

Just, I mean, in fact, he won, but also he really knows his stuff. You know what it is like to be up there because you won the scripts of Spelling Bee when you were 14 years old. That's right. Back in 1980, 45 years ago, I came from Denver, Colorado, and to Washington, DC and had no idea I could win, but I stuck in there and the end of the day I won. It was quite a wild

ride. What was that like? You see the... I mean, they're young people, right? 13, 14 years old. It's got to be terrifying, but exhilarating. For you, what was it like standing on the stage and somebody says, here's a word and you have to figure out how to spell it? Honestly, I had no idea I could win. I didn't feel too much pressure in that way. And back in that time, there were intense television lights

and they were hot. Nowadays, they're not as hot. So it was a grueling eight hour day. And by the time I won, and I've talked to other, you know, champions from that time, there was just a sense of tremendous relief because it was exhausting. Now it's a little less exhausting, although we do keep them up past their bedtime now

for the, you know, eight to 10 broadcast. What was the word that you won with? Elucubrate. What does that mean? It's like a lot of championship words. It's not that hard to spell. It means to basically to study at night to burn the midnight oil. Had you ever read that word? Have you ever come across that word before they said this is your word? ever read that word? Have you ever come across that word before they said this is your word?

I don't think that I had. These spellers study literally tens of thousands of words, and so some of them you don't really remember whether you've come across because I guess they're easy to figure out. But when you're there and standing on the stage and those bright TV lights are shining on you and it's past your bedtime, what are the tactics that you use in the moment to nail the word? I think that the most successful spellers have a real focus and an ability to tune everything else out, to calm themselves and to be absolutely sure that they've used every bit of information that they can. If they jump in too fast, we see a lot of them slip up and it's an accident and they knew the word and it's kind of heartbreaking. So I think there's a certain performance element and a certain sort of coolness, just ability to focus.

How does one train for this? Do you just read the dictionary? Oh, gosh, lots of different ways. One thing is you can actually practice having people give you words cold from the dictionary and trying to figure them out. There are also lists of words that have been used in the past that you can get. There's, I think a lot of people just say, okay, I'm having trouble with these words from Hawaiian, so I'm going to gather all the Hawaiian words in the dictionary. And you can do that pretty quickly with a search function because it's electronic. And, you know, so you gather those, you can gather all the sort of homonyms or the German words. A lot of people have problems spelling German, but honestly, German is spelled the way it

sounds for German people. So if you can just figure out how German people spell their sounds, you're golden. But you have to do that in the moment. And I mean, I think of... Part of this is about being calm in that moment. And I just wonder whether they, is there like psychology to this, where the tactics to not just know how to function on that stage, but also how to put yourself

in the right mindset so that you can see the word in your mind. Oh, there certainly are tactics. Some of the visible ones you can ones, you can see them typing with their fingers, so they're kind of kinetically going through it. Then you can see them writing. Sometimes they write on their arms. Some of them write on a great big whiteboard that's imagining, you know, in their imagination in front of them. And so that's kind of visible signs. You also get a certain kind of ritual, like they'll say,

please give me all the information, and then they don't listen to it. Because then they ask for each item separately and think about it. So what they want is a moment where the focus is not on them, where the information is being given, but it's kind of washing over them. So they're just thinking, I imagine they're thinking, have I seen this word? Do I know this word? Is it the word? I think it is. And then they go back and check, you know, they kind of dot their I's and cross their T's and say, okay, I think this is from Greek. Yes, it's from Greek. Okay, that might, you know, that's a good sign. The definition that seems reasonably to match

what I think I know about the word. So there's just a lot of little checklists and making sure that you have a minute and a half to rummage around in your mind and figure out where is it? Do you approach your job, I mean, as somebody who has a key role in this and giving them the word, do you approach it differently knowing what it's like to have been on that stage?

I think I do. I understand that this is incredibly important to these young kids. This is one of the very first times in their life where something that they own, that they really have volunteered to do, that they are striving for a kind of excellence that is extraordinary. And I want to reward that with every possible chance of success. And also I really want to make some

even momentary connection to let them know, okay, we're both humans here. I want you to get this word right. I'm going to help you take a deep breath. Let's see if we can get you everything you need and please spell it correctly. You said, I mean, in the past, one of the things you do is you make eye contact with them. Yeah, I mean, in past that one of the things you do is you make eye contact with them. Yeah, I make eye contact and then I have a little cheat sheet in that, you know, on the

computer in front of me, it tells me what their name is and how to pronounce it. So I can say their name and I can usually get it right. And I think having somebody say, you know, howdy, I use howdy because way back when I was in high school, I adopted that because it's a very friendly greeting. And so I say that a lot. I'm kind of known for saying howdy. People ask if I'm from Texas, which I'm not. And, you know, we have a little tiny interchange that's friendly. And also, they've been here a week, and I try to wander the halls and talk to them a little bit.

They get my autograph and I get their autograph, just talk with the parents a little bit, let them know that we're really here for them to honor them because they've worked so hard. It's really important to respect that. Are you going to put me to the sword here? Am I going to have to spell a word? Oh, if you want to. I anticipate humiliation, but let's go.

Okay, let's try ABC Darien. Can you say that again? ABC Darien. Can you say that again? A-B-C Darien. A-Y-B-E S-E-D-A-R-I-A-N? No, I don't have a bell here, but... Is there a gong that I could hear or something? Okay, spell it for me.

A-B-E-C-E-D-A-R-I-A-N. It's as simple as it, I mean, is part of this that you overthink what the word is as well? Oh, very much so. Like I was going to say A-B-C and I thought, no, that's not what it is. Well the thing is that, you know, you didn't ask for the definition and it basically means one that is learning the rudiments of something such as the alphabet. So there's a huge clue, A, B, C, D. Well, it's the alphabet. Also, like you say, second guessing, if you don't know the word absolutely, I always tell them, go with your gut and go with the simplest thing because

most words are spelled the way they sound. I have to let you go, but are you surprised at how popular this is still? It's a television event, right? Yeah, I'm not surprised, honestly, because this was started by media companies for, to kind of get the word out about themselves and to celebrate young kids and learning. And so it's kind of a union between an industry that is very capable of getting the word out and publicizing things, and incredibly kind of interesting kids because they don't have a game face and they range from, you know, 8 years old to 14, so you get the, you know, the kid who has still got their plushie and is just really, they almost can't pronounce the words yet because their mouths haven't

completely grown up to the kid who's needing to shave and is top and six feet, looks like an athlete. So, it's a real mix and that is really neat to see. And they come from all sorts of people. So, it's just kind of riveting to watch that, that sort of human pageant of it. What a great pleasure to talk to you. You have a great job and you're excellent at it, but it's just, spell check is overrated. It's nice to be able to spell things and try to get them right in the moment.

Chuck, thank you very much. Thank you, Matt. This has been The Current Podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio One at 8.30am at all time zones. You can also listen online at cbc.ca slash The Current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening.