“Ouagadougou” Is the Hardest Word: A Day at the Spelling Bee

by Jim Newell

I spent yesterday afternoon at the Scripps National Spelling Bee at National Harbor, a fake mall metropolis in Maryland, to chat up some spellers. They’re all perfect, smart, friendly humans who will make lots of money when they grow up, doing whatever. Here are some of them, on their experience, preparation, and the hardest words they’ve seen — or just one word, really.

Arvind Mahankali, a 13-year-old from New York City, won it all last night with the word “knaidel.” Congratulations to all of them, and best of luck in high school. It is… fun?

Hrishikesh”Everyone here is really fun and cool. The hardest word? It’s probably” — [writes it down for me] — “Ouagadougou.”

Anuk”There isn’t really a hardest word. They all have the potential to be not right.”

Audrey”It’s really been exciting, it’s my first time here. I’m in eighth grade so I can’t come back next year.”

Matthew”I studied with online tools they gave us. I studied the books. I studied just about everywhere I could find words.”

Maja”It’s pronounced ‘Maya’ — it’s Swedish… I didn’t get to study as much I wanted to because I was playing lacrosse. My mom and I would look through the dictionary for the hardest words. And then the online program came out. Pretty boring.”

Jasmine”I spent several hours studying a day — I studied roots, the study guide, my own guide book.”

Jasmine’s father: “The girls hang out under the banner of George Thampy. We call them the G-Thamps.”

Qingyi”It’s my first time here, but my third time in the United States. I’m from China. It’s really different on the other side of the globe. I can tell there are not many people, the density is lower. In DC, in New York, there are not as many people on the road.”We actually have a few international students, but most are out of international schools. I’m from a full Chinese school. It’s a little bit harder, but that’s OK.”Qingyi’s father gives me his phone number in Beijing.

Madeline”I scored both of my words correctly in the preliminary rounds, but didn’t score high enough on the test in the last round. But they [those left in the competition] are all really good spellers and the videos are all really cute.”

Piper”I was worried before I came here about animosity between the spellers, but everyone is really nice. The preliminaries were easier because I was able to study for it… In today’s round I got an American word with no root. Using the roots and word parts is really key.”

Hannah”I knew the words we got on the stage — they were the same on the test. The hardest word on the test was” — [writes it down for me] — “Ouagadougou.”Ed. note: “Ouagadougou” is the capital of Burkina Faso; pop. 634,000.

Jim Newell is a writer in Washington, D.C.