Osnabrückers tinker with the German language at the finals of the Great Dictation Contest

Osnabrück, May 6, 2015

Around 7 p.m., a murmur goes through the crowd in Frankfurt. The atmosphere at the Great Dictation Competition seems like an exciting soccer match as the sentences that have just been dictated are presented in correct spelling. Chihuahua, Apophthegma and Horsd'œuvre the Duden editors had thought up a few traps, and not just for the words. "I found it totally difficult to decide what to write in upper or lower case," says Sylke Ditting. With only eight mistakes, she was the best participant in the 14-strong delegation from Osnabrück that went to the finals of the competition organized by the Polytechnic Society Foundation in Frankfurt am Main. Ditting had qualified in February together with other winners from the groups of students, teachers, parents and audience at the preliminary competition in the Hasestadt, to which the Friedel & Gisela Bohnenkamp Foundation had invited. "I found the dictation even harder than the one in Osnabrück," says Nele Winkler. Nevertheless, the student from Greselius-Gymnasium Bramsche had one less mistake than in the preliminary round. And so she is proud of her 13 fault points, with which she only just missed the winner's podium.

The best participant in Frankfurt had won the final with only three fault points in the parents category. After an initial correction phase by the participants themselves, the dictations were checked by a jury. And even though none of the Osnabrück delegation was able to take home one of the prizes, Michael Prior is very satisfied with the participation. "I think it's totally great that we managed to send a small but fine delegation to Frankfurt for the finals of the Great Dictation Contest," says the managing director of the Bohnenkamp Foundation.

About 350 participants competed against each other in Frankfurt's Goethe-Gymnasium. Most of the guests had come from Frankfurt am Main and Hesse. A small group came from Hamburg, where the competition was held for the first time this year, as in Osnabrück. The Grand Dictation Contest was developed in 2012 by the Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft Frankfurt am Main, which has since organized it annually with the Duden editorial team and other partners. The participants from Osnabrück traveled to the finals in Frankfurt by bus and passed the time before the contest with a visit to the "Experiminta" - a science center in downtown Frankfurt.

On average, there were 19.7 errors per participant with a total of 231 words in the competition dictation. Among the particularly difficult challenges, were "pants hanging at half-mast," "thuja hedges, dahlias and freesias" and a "brand-new quartz watch." "I made some things worse in the correction phase," sighs Sylke Ditting.

Thomas Allewelt is annoyed that he made more mistakes in Frankfurt than in Osnabrück, where his colleague from the "In der Wüste" high school had won the teachers' group with 7 mistakes. Everyone takes the result sportingly, no one feels disgraced, and not only Thomas Allewelt says: "I'll be back next year. We can do better."

Michael Prior will be approaching schools in Osnabrück and the district in the coming weeks to recruit participants for the 2016 competition. "Those who don't master their language have a harder time in their educational biography," stresses Prior, who sees the Great Dictation Contest as a nice opportunity to improve their knowledge of the German language in a fun and sporty way.