The 85th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee will be held on May 28, 2023 in National Harbor, Maryland. Ten year old Tanoshi Inomata, from Allston’s Winship School, will be among the 278 spellers competitors. Tanoshi has the opportunity to be only the second Massachusetts resident in 80 years to bring home the trophy. Sampan had the pleasure of speaking separately with Tanoshi and Aaron Noll, Winship’s librarian and Spelling Bee coordinator. What follows are edited transcripts of our email conversations.
SAMPAN: What first led you to spelling bee competitions?
TANOSHI: I’ve been interested in letters since I was little… I wanted to read the alphabet on the license plates. That was my first step to learning the ABCs…I got selected for the classroom representation for the classroom spelling bee. That led me to the spelling bee competitions.
SAMPAN: What’s the hardest part of preparing for a spelling bee?
TANOSHI: The city spelling list has as many as 4500 words and many of them are not used in everyday life… Level one is easy, two is intermediate, three is hard. Level three has some language-origin words that have no spelling rules. It takes time to study and memorize all the words.
SAMPAN: Do you have a favorite word?
TANOSHI: My favorite is tintinnabulary because it’s funny; the definition is the ringing of bells, and the word sounds like the ringing of bells. I first realized this when I was searching for definitions of words in the dictionary.
SAMPAN: Do you have a favorite book?
TANOSHI: My favorite book is a Japanese book called “A dictionary for elementary school students to learn kanji characters.”(Edited by Yutaka Kawashima, illustrated by Taro Gomi.) I am interested in kanji and the illustrations are funny and help me understand the kanji’s meanings. (ed. note: kanji is a system of Japanese writing using Chinese characters.)
SAMPAN: Who are your favorite spelling bee competitor role models?
TANOSHI: Mr. Noll, the librarian at the Winship school and my study partner is a good role model. He is always studying hard [and] that has had a great influence on me.
SAMPAN: Many people are visual learners who can explain things through their mind’s eyes. Others are auditory learners who hear a word and can sound it out through repetition. Which are you?
TANOSHI: I’m a visual learner. It lets me study at my own pace; I can skip some content and take more time with other content I want to learn deeper. Also, I like to draw Japanese comics and look up kanji in the dictionary to make my character’s lines. I used my drawing skill to make me visually memorize the words that I missed during my studying for the City Bee.
SAMPAN: How would you argue for the importance of a traditional spelling education in these modern times?
TANOSHI: Spelling is not just about enumerating alphabets. They are filled with the country’s history and culture, so we have to learn about them.
SAMPAN: What do you like to do in your spare time? How do you relax?
TANOSHI: I like to play the piano, draw comics, play with my toy cars, and also play with my younger brother. I made a game called “bad hide and seek”. It is hide-and-seek that is funnier than a normal one. I hide first, I scream to scare him when he comes close to my hiding spot, and we scream away laughing…
SAMPAN: How far would you like to go in the spelling bee world? Do you think you could be a great international ambassador for the spelling bee competition life?
TANOSHI: I like languages and geography, and my dream is to go to different countries, meet new people, and interact with them…I would like to exchange cultures…at the National Spelling Bee.
SAMPAN: How should a beginner prepare for spelling bee competitions and enjoy the thrill of learning when there’s so much pressure to win?
TANOSHI: I would suggest reading favorite books and learning words from them. Also, learning about etymology will help increase interest in spelling. I do not have any pressure, and I focus on the fun of learning. I like to study new words; Learning their etymology is interesting. Some of the words have funny pronunciations, have interesting looks, and are even palindromic.
What follows is our conversation with Tanoshi’s spelling bee coach Aaron Noll.
SAMPAN: How important are spelling bee traditions at your school?
AARON: The spelling bee is the only annual academic competition at the Winship, although there are several other annual events in which students are able to demonstrate their academic excellence… Students across the school look forward to both the opportunity each January to participate as well as observe excellent spelling from their classmates. The idea that a student could advance from the classroom.to the school, to the city then National Spelling Bee, all by simply spelling words correctly… never fails to incite their imagination and ambition.
SAMPAN: What drives your typical spelling bee competitor?
AARON: It’s about reaching a high standard of spelling excellence and…recognition from their peers… It’s been mostly in the media coverage of Tanoshi following his city bee win that I’ve heard him express his desire to win spelling bees…I have no doubt that his ambition to win is genuine… I think the impact that Tanoshi has had on other Winship spellers is noteworthy. In the 2022 and 2023 spelling bee seasons, during both of which he was a Winship School champion who advanced to the Boston city bee, the general competitiveness of Winship spellers has increased. I think Tanoshi’s excellent example goes a long way in explaining this increase. The 2023 Winship Spelling Bee was the longest I have ever seen in my time here. Tanoshi battled several other top spellers for 30 rounds in 3 hours before finally winning. He teaches his classmates by his example how a champion speller conducts himself.
SAMPAN: What drives you as a librarian and educator to carry on this tradition of spelling bees?
AARON: I strive to build curiosity, a true love of learning that (I hope) extends far beyond the classroom into all areas of students’ lives, and a sense of wonder and amazement in seeing the world…. I have experienced this satisfaction under the direction of special teachers in my own life, and my goal is to pass it on to others like Tanoshi. When we study words, I often speak about the fact that we’re learning together. I’m his teacher and a fellow inquirer–we’re both reaching for deeper knowledge. We often make new discoveries in understanding difficult words as we study for the city and national bees, particularly in…word roots and etymologies. I have tried to carry this same enjoyment of word learning to a small group of 15-20 Winship students in the Spelling Club that I began about a year ago… I’m eager to increase their curiosity and amazement in studying where English words come from and how this helps to explain their spellings.
SAMPAN: The ESPN broadcasts of these national spelling bees are often very suspenseful. How do you prepare competitors to face those TV lights?
AARON: During my time at the Winship, we’ve only had one other speller reach the National Spelling Bee–Farah Raslan Haniff in 2017. I learned a great deal when I attended the NSB with her six years ago and I’m sure that I’ll learn much more this year. My goal is to do everything I can to prepare Tanoshi ahead of time so that he will not be surprised by much of what he sees there. During our study sessions, I’ve described to him… what the NSB auditorium looks like, who the pronouncer is (Jacques Bailly) and how he typically speaks, funny stories from past National Spelling Bees, how to avoid basic mistakes, and more. I would like him to be familiar with even small details of the NSB so that he is not surprised by anything and feels comfortable enough that he’ll enjoy the experience.
SAMPAN: What sets Tanoshi apart from other spelling bee competitors?
AARON: Tanoshi has two traits that I think set him apart from most other spellers I’ve known at the Winship: 1) work ethic, 2) curiosity and joy in learning new words. After Tanoshi was eliminated from the 2022 city bee in Boston in the 3rd Round, he began studying for the 2023 city bee on the very next day. From April to June of 2022, Tanoshi, the Winship Spelling Club, and I worked on creating a spreadsheet displaying the 4,000 word study list for the 2023 city bee. We had categories for the part of speech, definition, language of origin, and a significant picture illustrating the word. By June, we had entered several hundred words… Tanoshi was the only one who continued to work on the spreadsheet throughout the summer…we’d joke about reading the dictionary during the summer vacation… I think it’s just as amazing to see how much he continues to enjoy learning new words and practice his spelling. He’s an inspiration to his classmates, Winship staff, and anyone who has the opportunity to see the joy with which he pursues learning. I have been privileged to be his school librarian since he was four years old, including two years (K2 and first grade) when I taught him ESL, and have witnessed the gradual growth of his work ethic and curiosity over the years.
