After winning the county spelling bee and more recently taking second in the state bee, 10-year-old Aaron Marcuse-Kubitza knows the sweet spell of success. The Isla Vista fifth-grader correctly spelled "frangipani," "obsequious" and "bougainvillea" before flubbing "Philippines" during the state competition last month in Sonoma County. But, showing a maturity beyond his years, he says he wasn't disappointed after falling just short of the championship. "I wasn't really that upset because second place is pretty good," he said. "I was happy to get that far because I never thought I could win the state spelling bee."
     Besides, the thrill was greater for Aaron when he won the county bee in his hometown in February. "It felt really good to know that I had won," he said. "Every now and then I would go to bed and think about it and realize it all over again."
     Aaron attributes his language prowess to his voracious appetite for books and his diligent study habits. "They give you a list to study from for the county bee and I studied it really hard," he said. "My dad would test me until I knew all the words."
     His father, UCSB professor Harold Marcuse, is amazed at his son's ability to spell words he's never before encountered. "Aaron uses logic and his vocabulary skills to deduce the spelling of the word," he said. "A lot of the words on the list have French or Greek origins, so he can figure them out from that."
     Before the county bee, Aaron had never seen "frangipani," a type of shrub or fragrance derived from it. But when he was asked to spell it, he never flinched. "It's actually a pretty easy word to spell," he said. "Most people use Y's instead if I's, but if you sound it out it's not that bad."
     Amazingly, English is not Aaron's first language. He was born in Michigan but his family moved to Germany soon afterward, and he spent his first three years speaking mostly German. He is still fluent in German, though he has some trouble writing the language. But he appears to have mastered his adopted tongue. As for the future, Aaron says he wants to be a computer programmer "so I can design programs that are very easy to use," he says. And Sabrina Jensen, his teacher at Isla Vista School, says that the sky is the limit for the young spelling phenom. "He has a very advanced sense of how to figure things out, " she said. "In school he's an excellent student in all areas."
     So has Aaron let his myriad of triumphs go to his head? Not likely. "After I won the county bee, I realized that for a little while I got congratulations from everyone," he said. "But soon things were right back to normal, which is fine with me."
     Still, he wouldn't mind trying for a repeat performance. "I'll definitely do the spelling bee again," he said. "Next year I'll go for first place in the state."