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Spelling Bees in Japan?
Slate published an article about how Spelling Bees are a distinctly American and British phenomenon, and other countries with nonalphabetic languages seem to lay more emphasis on recognizing and identifying characters and their meanings. If the idea of a Spelling Bee in Japan brings up images of interesting Japanese game shows, never fear, Kanken promises to be a fascinating (and pretty difficult) version of the Spelling Bee:
In Japan, where Chinese characters known as kanji are part of the language, you might see entire families entering the Kanji proficiency exam, known as the Kanken. There are 10 levels, each testing for skills like writing, pronunciation, and stroke order. Level 1 is the hardest and requires knowledge of about 6,000 kanji; in 2000 just 208 people passed this test.
The article also has interesting tidbits about French and Chinese competitions, so go read it, if you can! (ELHAM)
June 9, 2007
