Spelling Bee Gaffe Brings Laughs
EmailA comical two-year-old video featuring an eighth-grader asking for a spelling bee word 16 times recently grabbed the attention of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who invited the reluctant speller on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Tuesday night.
While representing his eighth grade class from Santa Clara Elementary School in Oxnard, Ca., in the 2010 Ventura County Spelling Bee, Christopher Ferreria had difficulty understanding the moderator.
“I couldn’t hear the words,” Ferreira told Kimmel in a Skype interview on Tuesday, Jan. 31. He assured Kimmel that he was not messing around with the moderator and was being completely serious.
The moderator gave Ferreria the word “heron.” After he was given the definition and listened to the word being used in a sentence, Ferreria came up with “hairline,” “herring,” “herang” but not “heron.” The moderator repeated “heron” 16 times. Ferreria then asked for a definition the second time and did a dance of happiness. He finally understood the word, which he went on to spell correctly. Ferreria posted the video on his YouTube account Itsamecf9303 ‘ on June 2, 2011, with a message explaining he could not hear the word because the moderator was facing the audience and not the spellers.
Ferreria did not win the spelling bee, he tied for third. He was eliminated on the word “debutante.”
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Herons are common in Oxnard, so Ferreira would have shamed his school and his family if he had gotten the word wrong.
Posted by: Greggw | February 1, 2012, 12:43 pm 12:43 pm
Shamed his school and his family? Huh. I figured there’d be some stupid comment on this article. Glad I wasn’t disappointed.
Posted by: Really? | February 1, 2012, 3:24 pm 3:24 pm
Christopher, please have your hearing tested. I went from perfect speller to spelling the wrong words perfectly at the same age due to progressive hearing loss and teacher who dictated the week’s spelling test while strolling the room. Christopher mentions the moderator facing the audience, not the competitors. Progressive hearing loss is sneaky, often seems like “selective hearing loss” and “can hear when he wants to” because it depends on lighting, positioning, accents, facial hair, context, eyestrain, fatigue, background noise, and many other variables. To Christopher, good luck and the sense of humour about it will serve you well.
Posted by: Been there | February 1, 2012, 3:46 pm 3:46 pm