“What if…” is never a happy question, and seeing defeat snatched from the jaws of victory isn’t fun, especially here in Chicago where we’ve been witness to that scenario a few too many times over the years with our sports teams.
I can only wonder how long it will take Julianna Canabal-Rodriquez to get over the sting of being unfairly bounced from the finals of the recently concluded 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Unlike Armando Gallaraga, the Tigers pitcher who received an apology from umpire Jim Joyce, who denied him a perfect game with a badly blown call—Julianna, to my knowledge, hasn’t heard a word from Jacques Bailly, the official of the Scripps Spelling Bee whose careless pronunciation caused her to misspell her word in that fateful 6th round last Friday.
Julianna’s word was “gyokuro,” (correctly pronounced “gyOH-ku-roh”) which we were told was a type of high-grade Japanese tea. Bailly, the “official pronouncer” for the annual spelling bee, mispronounced the word on his first read-through as “gyAH-ku-roh.” He mispronounced it again on his second try. Then, when asked by Juliana to repeat it, he mispronounced it several more times, never getting it right during the two-and-a-half minutes she stood at the microphone before eventually misspelling the word and stepping away.
Watching Julianna you could tell she was grappling with what came down to two choices in her mind: going with “g-y-a” or “g-y-o” to start the word. By her repeated requests for Bailly to repeat “gyokuro,” it was obvious to me that she was leaning toward the correct spelling but that the way he was pronouncing the first syllable was pushing her toward a spelling she had no confidence in. In the end, she went against her gut entirely because of his pronunciation. She was eliminated from the tournament as a result.
As she was walking off the stage in stunned disappointment, the commentators were remarking about how Bailly had seemingly led her down the wrong path, having Anglicized the word when he pronounced it “gyAH-ku-roh.” They were right. No one speaking correct Japanese would have said it that way. Even I, for whom Japanese was a first language when I was growing up, would have ended up spelling it incorrectly after being given that erroneous hint.
For a contest predicated entirely on absolute precision, the E. W. Scripps Company ought to be as demanding of perfection on the part of its officials as it is the young men and women who courageously compete each year in its famous spelling bee.
even though in Japanese, it’s pronounced gyoh ku ro, the english pronunciation is a little different. I just looked it up in the official dictionary of the national spelling bee, and according to the dictionary, Dr. Bailly was pronouncing it correctly.
The “official” dictionary of the spelling bee sanctions Dr. Bailly’s pronunciation? No surprise there. Two things. First, the “gyAH” pronunciation has no justification other than the fact that the majority of Americans apparently say it that way. Do we pronounce tofu as “TAH-foo” or Hokkaido as “HAH-kye-doh?” Second, why is the Anglicized version (Dr. Bailly’s version) of gyokuro acceptable on the one hand, when he took great pains to give the word “confiserie,” from Round 7, the true French pronunciation, “COHN-fee-zer-ee?” as opposed to the Anglicized “CAHN-fiz-er-ee?”
Sounds like a case of the golden rule to me: he who has the gold makes the rules.
I want to congratulate Mr. Rick O’Dell for his very accurate comments on the unfortunate spelling of Dr.Bailly that caused Julianna’s misspelling of “gyokuro”.Your exact observation of the event is extraordinary.Can you contact Dr.Bailly and send him your blog?
GRACIAS!!!!!
manuel canabal
Julianna’s grandfather
I just checked confiserie, and the way Dr. Bailly said it is the way that the official dictionary tells him to say it. He’s just reading what’s in the dictionary. Don’t blame him. If you don’t like the pronunciation, blame the dictionary. He’s reading EXACTLY what the dictionary says. If there were any mistakes, they would have brought the speller back in.6
An honor to hear from you, Mr. Canabal. Your granddaughter performed admirably under trying circumstances. I’ve always felt the true measure of a person is when they face adversity, not when circumstances put them in a favorable position, and Julianna’s reaction spoke volumes about her. That was a more accurate reflection of her character than had she won the spelling bee. You and your family ought to be doubly proud of her about that.
The main issue here isn’t whether the dictionary is right or wrong (even though it’s definitely wrong in this case). It’s an inconsistently applied standard of precision, which resulted in an unfair ouster of one of the participants. The kids are required to be unerringly precise, yet both the official pronouncer and the dictionary are given wiggle room in a case where they’re both WRONG.
I understand if you think it was wrong, but please dont blame Dr. Bailly, he was only reading what he’s been told to read.