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The 2017 NatGeo Bee ended up with a poor decision by the 'expert' panel of judges. The final correct answer was given by winning kid as Kunlun Mts. and the other kid wrote Kunlun Shan.
The mean exactly same thing! If anything, Kunlun & Shan are both in the same language and that is how that mountain range is known to the locals. So that boy who lost, should have won or at least the judges should given to them another tie-breaking question.
I'm not familiar with the Nat Geo Bee, but presumably the contestants know in advance that their answers are expected to be in English, and that only "official" place names are acceptable, not historic names and not local names in indigenous languages.
If the rules are not made clear in advance then I would agree with you, but something tells me that the rules are clear.
One day I was showing some friends a Powerpoint of one of my experiences in Thailand, and they noted that in one frame I spelled a temple's name one way, and in the next frame I spelled it in a different way. And they jumped to the conclusion that one (or both) were wrong. But here's the problem -- there are not perfect translations of all words in one language to another language. For example, the word for canal in Thai is "klong" or "khlong".
I'm wondering if this spelling bee issue is similar?
My kid competed in this but never got as far as the national finals.
I guess they are telling you that he left out one of the syllables when he said and/or wrote the word. When the original word is written in a different alphabet, the spelling would have to be a transliteration and therefore, multiple spellings should be acceptable, but maybe in this case, he left out part of the name. Very nice that the competition officials sent you back a response.
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