"You have to leave... all your hope... to go back to sleep at home, comma..."
, chants Rachid Santaki, author and creator of La Dictée Géante.
On the terrace area of Saint-Lazare station, this excerpt from
La Recherche
leaves many passengers wondering, for whom returning to school is not always easy.
Fabien, 45, lives in Cabourg but works for an insurance company during the week in Paris.
Like Proust more than a century ago, he takes the railway line linking the capital to the city which inspired the author to create the imaginary seaside resort of Balbec.
“I did not know that this dictation was organized
, he confides thirty minutes before catching his train.
After correction, I realize that I only made two mistakes.
One on the agreement of a verb and the other on a proper name… It's quite funny because it brings me back to childhood, a bit like Proust and his Madeleine finally.
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Read also“Proust is an heir to the classical language of the 17th century”
Pascale can pride herself on having done flawlessly.
Staying in Paris before starting a year-long trip, for which she was looking for a work to put in her suitcase, she decided to take Proust as a companion.
“This morning, I went to the BnF exhibition
(
Marcel Proust. La Fabrique de l'oeuvre
, NDLR)
, before coming to this dictation.
I think it's a very fun and simple way to discover Proust”
, explains this spelling enthusiast, proud of her result.
For Odette, in her seventies, it's time for a cold shower.
“It doesn't matter who wrote the text, this exercise isn't my forte
,” she laughs.
I was waiting on the other side of the station when I heard there was a dictation.
Let's say it's a way to pass the time while learning.
Listening carefully to Rachid Santaki's corrections, she asks her young neighbor to follow her example so as not to repeat her mistakes.
Giant dictation at Saint-Lazare station, on the occasion of the centenary of Proust's death (@SNCF and @franceculture).
For Pascale, it's a simple and fun way to discover the author's work.
@FigaroPlume pic.twitter.com/aBjzOiyxxL
— Dorian Grelier (@DorianGrelier) November 18, 2022
Mistakes, “it happens to everyone”
Joseph had an hour to kill before leaving to join his family for the weekend.
A university student, he admits not having done dictation since first class:
“Obviously, I haven't lost the good habits.
No mistake!"
At the rate of one dictation per hour, the texts are quite short.
“But Proust's prose is not obvious.
His sentences are very… too long.
You have to constantly research the subject.
It's really not my cam.
Also, I am not surprised that some are lost.
Read alsoDictation: a French passion
Never mind.
Angélique and her sister Charlotte, 21 and 23 years old respectively, completed the exercise by assigning themselves alone (because the exercise is not evaluated but falls under a
"moment of intergenerational sharing"
and
"transmission of knowledge"
, according to Sandrine Treiner, director of France Culture) the score of 8 out of 10.
“It is a received idea to think that all young people have an execrable level of French
, notes Charlotte.
They are not illiterate.
I think it's rather the lack of concentration, the lack of time, that makes you don't write correctly.
And it happens to everyone.
Sometimes too, I think it's a kind of joke.
Jokes, Fabien's children must be, he confides:
“At 13, spelling goes over their heads.
I would have to make them do dictations more often perhaps, à la Pivot… it can only do them good.
Me too by the way.”