KUANTAN: DRAWING inspiration from her elder sibling, who is a regular in the RHB New Straits Times Spell-It-Right (SIR) challenge, S. Shantaana Lakxmi is hoping to make a memorable debut in the national challenge this year.
The 10-year-old SK Assunta Convent pupil, who emerged Pahang’s top speller in her first attempt this year, said besides her parents and teachers, her 15-year-old brother, Vigneswaran, was her mentor and motivator.
“During school hours, headmistress Nor Hayati Abd Malik and co-curricular senior teacher Low Sait Lein train me. At home, my parents are my guides.
“My brother introduces
new words and techniques to
memorise them.
“We spend time reading, playing scrabble and word games together,” she said, adding that since her exams were over, she was spending long hours preparing for the challenge.
Shantaana Lakxmi, who wants to be a doctor, had represented Pahang in squash and international cultural dance competitions, according to her parents, Professor Dr S. Shankar and R. Santhi.
They said they had to cut short their Deepavali celebrations this year to ensure Shantaana could focus on the finals on Oct 21 at Bangsar South, Kuala Lumpur.
Nor Hayati described Shantaana as a person of few words. She said the school was proud that she was representing the state in a major spelling competition.
In the secondary school category, the state representative is Mara Junior Science College (MRSM) Kuantan student Arianna Sophea Adruin Shazaen.
The Form Two is no stranger to SIR, with this year being her sixth consecutive participation.
The 14-year-old former Selangor champion has been participating in SIR since Year Three when she was studying in
SK Taman Bukit Subang,
Shah Alam. She was the state champion in 2014, but only managed fourth spot at the national-level competition.
This year, Arianna, the Pahang secondary school champion, has another shot at becoming the country’s top speller.
Aspiring to be a marine biologist, Arianna, the eldest of three siblings, said despite being nervous, she aimed to do well in the competition by putting in extra hours reading English dictionaries.
“I have been reading dictionaries since Year Three and have completed reading 11 types of dictionaries.
“Since I live in a school hostel, my friends and classmates would regularly ask me to spell difficult words. I hope some of the words will be tested in the finals.
“The preliminary challenge was different this year as the competition has gone digital. I didn’t realise that I had become the state champion until my friends told me that my name was in the New Straits Times.”
She added that around 200 students from MRSM Kuantan took part in the preliminary rounds of SIR.
Her school teacher, Wan Shahriza Wan Ab Rahman, who is coaching Arianna for the competition, said Arianna was not under any pressure, but was determined to be No. 1 this year.