Putting our feelings into words of wisdom

NST,Monday August 16, 2010

Spelling competitions mushroom globally because of their universal appeal.

It is obvious that contestants did their homework preparing for the contests, which are exciting
with heart-stopping moments.

Organisers of such events should be lauded as they promote mastery of vocabulary and
spelling, which is much needed to counter the effects of abbreviations and misspellings as these
are not appropriate in formal writing.

However, any type of competition that becomes increasingly common would soon lose its luster.
As such, new and more meaningful competitions should be introduced.

Although spelling contestants impress by stringing the right letters, people can learn much
more if they are required to define, describe or explain a word.

However, little is gained in learning words that are seldom used. Instead, common words can
be the most challenging and useful for our everyday lives.

It would be very interesting to hear the contestants’ interpretation of words such as
attitude, compassion, courtesy, cooperation, courage, discipline, diversity, gratitude,
harmony, honesty, integrity, justice, leadership, love, patriotism, punctuality, rationality,
respect and solidarity.

High marks are to be given when the contestants can relate their personal experiences and
beliefs to these words. It will be a truly great learning experience for all.

These competitions can be held for all levels of society. For example, corporations can
sponsor such contests for senior citizens, who will gladly share their pearls of wisdom.

More importantly, it can be a revelation to those who think they know a lot by just being
exposed to a huge amount of information. They will soon realize that knowledge at a superficial
level is of not much use.

YS Chan

Kuala Lumpur