<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="gmail-headline" id="gmail-headline"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/world/europe/in-paris-suburbs-adopting-a-dreaded-school-test-as-a-tool-of-integration.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/world/europe/in-paris-suburbs-adopting-a-dreaded-school-test-as-a-tool-of-integration.html</a></h1>
<div class="gmail-story-meta-footer" id="gmail-story-meta-footer">
<p class="gmail-byline-dateline"><span class="gmail-byline">By <span class="gmail-byline-author">LILIA BLAISE</span></span><time datetime="2016-05-13T06:00:32-04:00" class="gmail-dateline">MAY 11, 2016</time>
</p>
<div class="gmail-story-meta-footer-sharetools">
<div class="gmail-sharetools gmail-theme-classic gmail-sharetools-story-meta-footer gmail-" id="gmail-sharetools-story-meta-footer">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/world/europe/in-paris-suburbs-adopting-a-dreaded-school-test-as-a-tool-of-integration.html#story-continues-1" class="gmail-visually-hidden gmail-skip-to-text-link">Continue reading the main story</a>
<span class="gmail-sharetools-label gmail-visually-hidden">Share This Page</span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail-story-body-supplemental">
<div class="gmail-story-body gmail-story-body-1">
<figure class="gmail-media gmail-photo gmail-lede gmail-layout-large-horizontal" id="gmail-media-100000004392302">
<span class="gmail-visually-hidden">Photo</span>
<div class="gmail-image">
<img class="gmail-media-viewer-candidate" alt="" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/05/09/world/09DICTATION1/09DICTATION1-master768.jpg"><div class="gmail-media-action-overlay">
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="gmail-caption">
<span class="gmail-caption-text">Children who participated in a
dictation waited to get a free grammar and vocabulary book in Nantes,
France, in March. The collective dictations, known as “La Dictée des
Cités,” started three years ago.</span>
<span class="gmail-credit">
<span class="gmail-visually-hidden">Credit</span>
Capucine Granier-Deferre for The New York Times </span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">FONTENAY-SOUS-BOIS,
France — There may be no part of French schooling apt to induce nausea
and sweaty palms faster than the dreaded dictation. The teacher reads a
passage from a famous work of French literature, and the student writes
it down, verbatim. And is graded on every mistake.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">For
a language in which the written word often bears little resemblance to
the spoken one, the exercise has at once become the legendary bane of
generations of schoolchildren as well as a rite of passage, even
indoctrination, to actually being French.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">So
more than a few French would consider the idea of taking a nice
Saturday afternoon to do a dictation for fun nothing less than “fou” —
or crazy.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">But
that is what 60 or so people from all ages and social backgrounds —
grandparents and children, wives and husbands, teenagers and immigrants —
did on a recent Saturday. And not just this once.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">The
collective dictations, known as “La Dictée des Cités,” started three
years ago. Today they travel from one heavily immigrant Paris suburb to
another every Saturday, taking all comers.</p>
<p id="gmail-story-continues-1" class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">They
are the inspiration of Abdellah Boudour, 30, a French-Algerian civil
servant from Argenteuil, a suburb of northwestern Paris, who came up
with the idea through his work fighting inequalities for young people at
his association, Force des Mixités.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">When
he met Rachid Santaki, 42, a writer of thrillers from the suburb of
Saint-Denis, they decided to turn the once-terrifying school exercise
into a playful competition for people in the neighborhood, offering a
way for all, including immigrants, to claim the French language as their
own.</p> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/world/europe/in-paris-suburbs-adopting-a-dreaded-school-test-as-a-tool-of-integration.html#story-continues-2" class="gmail-visually-hidden gmail-skip-to-text-link">Continue reading the main story</a>
</div>
<div id="gmail-supplemental-1" class="gmail-supplemental gmail-first">
<div class="gmail-supplemental-items"><aside class="gmail-marginalia gmail-related-combined-coverage-marginalia gmail-marginalia-item gmail-nocontent gmail-robots-nocontent">
<div class="gmail-nocontent gmail-robots-nocontent">
<header>
<h2 class="gmail-module-heading">Related Coverage</h2>
</header>
<ul><li><article class="gmail-story gmail-theme-summary gmail-">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/world/europe/france-hollande-labor-law-changes.html" class="gmail-story-link">
<div class="gmail-thumb">
<img alt="" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/05/10/business/0510hollandejpg/0510hollandejpg-thumbStandard.jpg">
</div>
<div class="gmail-story-body">
<h2 class="gmail-headline">
<span class="gmail-title">Hollande Bypasses France’s Lower House on Labor Law Overhaul</span>
<time class="gmail-dateline">MAY 10, 2016</time>
</h2>
</div>
</a>
</article>
</li><li><article class="gmail-story gmail-theme-summary gmail-">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/30/world/europe/france-nuit-debout-protests-paris.html" class="gmail-story-link">
<div class="gmail-thumb">
<img alt="" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/04/30/world/30France-web1/30France-web1-thumbStandard-v2.jpg">
</div>
<div class="gmail-story-body">
<h2 class="gmail-headline">
<span class="gmail-title">A New Generation’s Anger Resounds From a Packed Plaza in Paris</span>
<time class="gmail-dateline">APRIL 29, 2016</time>
</h2>
</div>
</a>
</article>
</li><li><article class="gmail-story gmail-theme-summary gmail-">
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/21/world/europe/france-state-emergency.html" class="gmail-story-link">
<div class="gmail-thumb">
<img alt="" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/04/21/nytnow/21France-web/21France-web-thumbStandard.jpg">
</div>
<div class="gmail-story-body">
<h2 class="gmail-headline">
<span class="gmail-title">France Seeks to Extend Emergency Powers as It Prepares for Sports Events</span>
<time class="gmail-dateline">APRIL 20, 2016</time>
</h2>
</div>
</a>
</article>
</li></ul>
</div>
</aside></div></div>
</div>
<div id="gmail-story-continues-2" class="gmail-story-interrupter">
</div>
<div class="gmail-story-body-supplemental">
<div class="gmail-story-body gmail-story-body-2">
<p id="gmail-story-continues-3" class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">“We
started with 40 chairs on the cobblestones in my neighborhood, and we
ended up with a record-breaking — of more than a thousand people last
year in front of Saint-Denis Basilica,” Mr. Boudour said.</p><figure class="gmail-media gmail-photo embedded gmail-layout-large-horizontal gmail-media-100000004392304 gmail-ratio-tall" id="gmail-media-100000004392304">
<span class="gmail-visually-hidden">Photo</span>
<div class="gmail-image">
<img class="gmail-media-viewer-candidate" alt="" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/05/09/world/09DICTATION2/09DICTATION2-master675.jpg"><div class="gmail-media-action-overlay">
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="gmail-caption">
<span class="gmail-caption-text">Volunteers corrected
dictations in Nantes. The dictation is not so far from the American
concept of the spelling bee, but it is more deeply embedded in the
national identity.</span>
<span class="gmail-credit">
<span class="gmail-visually-hidden">Credit</span>
Capucine Granier-Deferre for The New York Times </span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">The event usually gathers 60 to 200 people and also travels through several cities in <a class="gmail-meta-loc" title="More news and information about France." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/france/index.html?inline=nyt-geo">France</a>.
“No one expected it would work so well, but it was a way to gather
people around a common thing, the love for French language,” Mr. Boudour
said.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">Mr.
Boudour and Mr. Santaki travel all over the outskirts of Paris, from
gymnasiums to school cafeterias, to hold dictations on passages from
French literature, choosing the texts according to the history of the
neighborhood or the names of the streets.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">They
often pick classics — extracts from the iconic works of Victor Hugo,
like “Les Misérables,” or from Gustave Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary” or
“Sentimental Education.”</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">“Some
come because of the nostalgia,” Mr. Santaki said. “Others want to
improve their French, and others are just attracted by the lure of the
profit, since we offer gifts for the winners.”</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">The
French obsession with mastering every aspect of their language has an
almost chauvinistic quality — strangers, unprompted, will sometimes
correct a foreigner’s pronunciation or spell a word aloud for them.</p>
<p id="gmail-story-continues-4" class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">The
dictation is not so far from the American concept of the spelling bee,
but it is more deeply embedded in the national identity.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">“It
was also a way to select people,” said Daniel Luzzati, a linguist and
the author of a book on French spelling. At the beginning of the 19th
century, he said, “Napoleon Bonaparte made the dictation mandatory to
hire civil servants, for instance.”</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">“It was a way to show you belonged to the French nation,” he added.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">Not
least, the rigidity of the dictation has also been the subject of long
arguments over its heuristic value as a learning method.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">“I
remember it was the only school exercise where your grade could be
under zero,” said Yoni Diibril, 28, who attended one recent session. “It
was the worst, since every mistake on a word could cost you. The
dictation must have traumatized more than one kid.”</p><figure class="gmail-media gmail-photo embedded gmail-layout-large-horizontal gmail-media-100000004392305 gmail-ratio-tall" id="gmail-media-100000004392305">
<span class="gmail-visually-hidden">Photo</span>
<div class="gmail-image">
<img class="gmail-media-viewer-candidate" alt="" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/05/09/world/09DICTATION3/09DICTATION3-master675.jpg"><div class="gmail-media-action-overlay">
</div>
</div>
<figcaption class="gmail-caption">
<span class="gmail-caption-text">People from different walks
of life took the dictation at a gymnasium in Nantes. In teaching people
“good French” the sessions are a first step toward integration into
French society.</span>
<span class="gmail-credit">
<span class="gmail-visually-hidden">Credit</span>
Capucine Granier-Deferre for The New York Times </span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">Despite
its stern reputation, dictation became a popular exercise in 1985 when
the French cultural journalist Bernard Pivot started his own television
show in which he gave dictations.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">“There
were no more grades,” Mr. Pivot recalled in an interview. “It was like a
game, and you still got to test your grammar and all the difficulties
and traps of French language.”</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">When
Mr. Boudour and Mr. Santaki, neither of whom has a high school diploma,
decided to take the exercise into the streets, they, too, thought of it
as a way to both democratize the French language and entertain people.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">“In
a way, we desacralized French literature by making it more accessible
to everyone,” Mr. Santaki said. “It is a game, but people are still
writing and getting interested by the text itself, and therefore
practicing their French.”</p>
<p id="gmail-story-continues-5" class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">For others, there is still the social stigma of not speaking correct French, and they hope this exercise will improve it.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">“Speaking
good French is so important when you do a job interview or even for
your daily life,” said Ismaël Medjahed, 20, a volunteer at the sessions.
“I remember I used to be ashamed of myself when I was looking for a job
because I was afraid of making mistakes in the spelling.”</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">Like
a number of those attending the dictations, Mr. Medjahed is of French
and Algerian parentage and grew up speaking with an accent easily
recognizable as that of the children of immigrants and with a vocabulary
dappled with argot.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">In teaching people “good French,” the dictation sessions are a first step toward integration into French society.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">On
a recent day in Fontenay-sous-Bois, east of Paris, volunteers
distributed pens and paper, and Mr. Santaki dictated the rules before he
started to read.</p><div id="gmail-newsletter-promo" class="gmail-newsletter-signup">
<h2 class="gmail-headline">Today’s Headlines: European Morning</h2>
<p class="gmail-summary">Get news and analysis from Europe and around the world delivered to your inbox every day in the European morning.</p>
<form method="post" class="gmail-newsletter-form" name="regilite">
<div class="gmail-control gmail-input-control">
<div class="gmail-form-errors">
</div>
<div class="gmail-field-container">
<input value="" class="email-input" name="email" id="email" type="email">
</div></div></form></div></div></div><div id="gmail-newsletter-promo" class="gmail-newsletter-signup"><form method="post" class="gmail-newsletter-form" name="regilite">
<div class="gmail-control gmail-checkbox-control">
<div class="gmail-field-container">
<input checked value="MM" name="special-offers" class="gmail-checkbox" id="gmail-special-offers" type="checkbox">
</div>
<div class="gmail-label-container">
<label for="special-offers" class="gmail-checkboxLabel">Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services.</label>
</div>
</div>
</form>
<div class="gmail-messages">
</div>
<ul class="gmail-footer"><li class="gmail-first gmail-sample"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/sample/EE">See Sample</a></li><li class="gmail-manage-email"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/mem/email.html">Manage Email Preferences</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.nytimes.com/privacy">Privacy Policy</a></li></ul>
</div>
<p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">Some
participants wrote the date and even the title “La Dictée des Cités” on
their page, while others underlined it — as they used to do in class.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">“I
feel the same stress as when I was passing my exams,” said Aurore
Tangre, 32, a nurse. “It is so silly, I chose to come today.”</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">Not
far from her, Françoise Garcia, 74, a retired special education teacher
with a deep accent from the South of France, laughed nervously.</p>
<p id="gmail-story-continues-6" class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">“I
am from the old days and from a small village,” Ms. Garcia said. “It
was a time when we used to do a dictation every morning, and if you made
too many mistakes, you got a kick up the backside from the
schoolteacher.”</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">As
Mr. Santaki started to dictate a text from the novelist Hector Malot,
who lived and died in Fontenay-sous-Bois, he paced around the tables, as
a teacher would.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">Every
head was bent, hands carefully scribbling sentences, pausing to listen
carefully as he repeated the text. After half an hour, the copies were
collected and corrected.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">Those
with the fewest mistakes got a T-shirt or sneakers. Others got a novel
or a book on grammar. But for Mr. Santaki, the reward was the success of
the event.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">“In a way, we took back the French Republic, which people felt had abandoned them,” Mr. Santaki said.</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content">“That
is the force of French language, and that is a first step. I know the
dictation may look like a bubble from the outside, and that it will not
resolve every problem in the suburbs, but it is a start.”</p><p class="gmail-story-body-text gmail-story-content"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/world/europe/in-paris-suburbs-adopting-a-dreaded-school-test-as-a-tool-of-integration.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/world/europe/in-paris-suburbs-adopting-a-dreaded-school-test-as-a-tool-of-integration.html</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a target="_blank" href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a target="_blank" href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/%7Eharoldfs/">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
</div>