Isle student ties
for seventh place at
spelling bee

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By Pat Gee
Star-Bulletin

Matthew Won will never forget "Abidjan," the capital of the African country Ivory Coast, as long as he lives.

While he may not know anything else about it, the Iolani School eighth-grader will at least remember how to spell it because that is the word that tripped him up at the 74th annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

Won tied for seventh place in a competition against 247 other spellers who "seemed like geniuses."

Although he was really nervous, "I tried not to show it. It was an attitude thing. My goal was to get into the fourth round. Then when I got there, I wanted to take it as far as I could go," Won said.

His English teacher, Jane Romjue, who cheered him on in the audience alongside his parents, said she was not surprised at all that Won did so well. In her 30 years of coaching spellers, Won is "the best speller ever" that she has worked with.

"I never had one with such motivation, intelligence and drive as Matthew has," she said.

Romjue worked with Won six to eight hours a week from the beginning of the school year, "and I know he would go home, do his homework and practice his spelling some more," she said.

Won's affinity for words started young, when "my mom would read to me, and I would read to my dad."

He enjoyed reading because "it's fun to take yourself away in a book, and you can imagine things in your head better than any special effects that a director can put in a $150 million movie."

About losing the contest, he said: "It's just one of those things. It had to happen sooner or later."

His father, Reed Won, said he and his wife, Angie, were "extremely proud" of their son and that his achievement was "stupendous."

The winner of the bee was Sean Conley of Minnesota, who correctly spelled "succedaneum."