Simon and the Bee

Two-time Culver City Unified School District winner Simon Johnson doesn't have much planned for his $500 in winnings from this and last year's spelling bees; he's just putting them in a savings bond until he figures out what the splurge on. Known for spending time with friends and watching "The Colbert Report,"  the expert sixth grade speller sat down with Patch to discuss his love for all things verbal: 

Culver City Patch: What do you love about words?

Simon Johnson: I just learn them for the sake of learning them. You don’t really have to have a passion for learning words. I have a passion for having learned them. So it’s more the end result that I like.

Patch: Were you nervous at this year's bee?

Johnson: This is my second time around, so it’s more comfortable for me. You’re less nervous when you’ve already won it.

 Patch: What is your method for learning words?

Johnson: Whenever my mom finds a new word, she keeps the words so we have all these study lists to study from. My mom gives them to me spelling bee style and then I spell them for her. If I don’t know the word, then I keep trying over and over again. We use neumonic devices as well. 

Spanish helps a lot. Since Spanish has most of the same letters as English, so it’s easy to directly transfer it.

Patch: What if you won the state?

Johnson: That would be awesome! What would I do? I would be uber-estatic and then things would go back to business as usual.