KEY POINTS:
An Afghan refugee who did not speak a word of English until about six years ago has been judged the country's third-best speller.
Abbas Nazari finished third in the national spelling bee in Wellington on Saturday.
The 12-year-old student at Christchurch's Burnside High School made the final three of the championships but was stumped in round five with "silhouetted", The Press reported.
He missed out a 't', a mistake he put down to nerves as it was a word he knew.
Abbas came to New Zealand via Nauru as one of the Tampa refugees. In 2001, he was one of more than 400 refugees rescued from a distressed fishing vessel north of Australia by the Norwegian freighter MS Tampa.
They were refused permission to land on Australian soil.
Abbas, however, spent just one day on the Pacific island of Nauru before being flown to New Zealand in late 2001 with his family.
"When we came to New Zealand we were so deprived of knowledge," Abbas said.
"I didn't know any English so I stayed at home and I could only watch TV or study, so I studied and caught up with all the rest."
At home the family still speaks its native Afghan language, Dari.
Thomas North of Hamilton won the spelling bee and Hugo Carnell of Auckland was second.
- NZPA
