Try spelling a word in Vietnamese in the “official” manner. I’ve no idea if it’s done in competitions, but it is the way you’re supposed to (according to my Vietnamese teachers) spell the word when so commanded by the teacher. I think it can be described best as recursively spelling from the inside out.
Example, with commas separating the announcements:
Word: Tie^'ng (pretend those two non-alphabetic characters are both on top of the e, that the ^ is actually part of the letter, and the ’ is the tone mark)
Meaning: Language
Step one: e^
Step two: i, e^, and say: ie^
Step three: e^i, ng, and say: e^ng
Step four: ta (name of the letter t), ie^ng, and say: tie^ng
Step four: Sa('c (name of the tone), and say: tie^'ng
That’s it for a simple word. I’m starting to believe this is the reason there’s gun control in that land.
Seriously, though; I’ll ask my teachers if there are spelling competitions either in Vietnam or in the Vietnamese schools outside that country.