Speller, son of Burmese refugees, to national bee

Lwin Moe Aung is a young man of few words, except when he is spelling.

The Fort Wayne seventh-grader will compete this week against 280 other kids at the 87th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee in suburban Washington, D.C.

How did Lwin Moe, 13, become such a good speller?

"I would always read a lot, when I was in fourth grade," he said. "Whenever we had a spelling test, I would always ace it."

Does the fact that he is the product of two cultures, of two languages – the American-born son of Burmese refugees – help him with spelling?

"I guess," he said.

Some spellers at the national bee will work their way through a word by writing invisible letters in the palms of their hands or in the air. Does Lwin Moe do anything like that?

"I just spell it."

Lwin Moe apparently will let his spelling do the talking. In March, he won the 60th annual Journal Gazette Spelling Bee presented by Touchstone Energy Cooperatives in partnership with the law firm Barrett McNagny. A year earlier, he tied for third. For four straight years, he has won the spelling bee at Lutheran South Unity School.

He practices spelling at least two hours a day. After he finishes his homework and has had supper, Lwin Moe spells words on a computer in a corner of the kitchen of his south-side home.

"That's his office," his father, Than Aung, said with a laugh.

Than Aung is more talkative than his son if no less direct. Dad's observation on spelling bees: "You survive if you're good."

Than Aung and his wife, Aye Aye Nwe, know something about surviving. They were part of the late-1980s Democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, the Southeast Asian nation formerly known as Burma. The military regime quashed the uprising and jailed Suu Kyi for most of two decades.

Than Aung became a freedom fighter in Myanmar's jungles. He was shot in the leg during fighting with military troops. Asked whether he shot anybody, Than Aung said: "I shot at them, they shot at me. We were soldiers."

He and Aye Aye Nwe later fled to a refugee camp in Thailand, living there for two years. Their daughter, Moe Moe, 16, was born in Bangkok and was 18 months old when the family arrived in the U.S. as political refugees. They spent a year in Buffalo, New York, before moving in late 1999 to Fort Wayne, home to one of the largest Burmese refugee communities in the U.S.

Than Aung is a machine operator for Kautex, an Avilla plant that produces fuel tanks, and Aye Aye Nwe is a machine operator for Fort Wayne handbag manufacturer Vera Bradley. Their family grew to include Lwin Moe and younger brother Soe Moe, 10.

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2014/05/28/speller-son-of-burmese-refugees-to-national-bee/