It's an affair where the words are complex and the agony contagious. Where one wrong letter prompts the sharp ping of a bell, signalling your demise.
Welcome to the first ever UAE Spelling Bee, featuring Dubai's gifted sixth to ninth graders. I attended the semi-finals on Friday at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel auditorium and it was a fascinating experience, to say the least.
Photo by Christopher Pike / The National
Imagine the scene: close to 200 youngsters falling one by one by the wayside, caused either by a deceptive vowel, a tricky homonym or sheer nerves, as their anxious families and bored-to-death siblings hang on their every letter. The whole thing could put a Hollywood thriller to shame.
So who's the city's top letter-wielder? Our full story on the bee appears in Tuesday's edition of The National.
