Ten-year-old Sohum Sukhatankar of Indian-origin has won this year’s Golden Chick Regional Spelling Bee.
When he was a second grader, words like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and humuhumunukunukuapua’a was child’s play for him.
No, wonder that a 10 letter word would pose any kind of problem to the fifth grader during the Saturday’s competition.
Sohum remained composure as his fellow wordsmiths were whittled down at the studio in downtown Dallas. One by one as the final four were knocked off by "erbium," "glissade," "enthetic" and "parterre," and Sohum stood still in the championship round.
He knew every word thrown at him and when he heard "decamerous" which means consisting of 10 parts or divisions — he quickly spurted the letters out.
While other contender’s asked country of origin and definition for their words, Sohum did not require any assistance, as it was not part of his routine.
“I was actually really surprised I knew all of the words I got,” Sohum said. “The key to doing well is study and review your mistakes.”
He lost last year’s Collin County spelling bee and was determined to put in more effort and practiced for hours day and night with his father, Mandar.
"They had a talk and his dad said, 'You're not going to go anywhere if you don't put in 100 percent,'" said Sohum's mother, Gargi. “Sohum understood that hard work is important. Just because you are intelligent it doesn't come easily."
Her mother Gargi, who is a yoga teacher and occupational therapist, helped her son to learn the power of self-affirmation and positive thinking.
Sohum borrows a dozen books from the library each week and is teaching himself Spanish. Other than books and spelling, he practices origami, coding and singing traditional Indian songs.
His parents said that they are proud to see his studying paid off, but winning the bee is not the most important part of being an expert speller.
“He's able to communicate much better in different situations, and it will be easier for him to read different books and understand things better when he has a wider vocabulary,” Gargi said. “It’s more than the winning aspect of it.”
Sohum now moves on to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May this year in Washington D.C.
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