Over the past couple of days, Haiarpi, 20, has been spending her free time in the evenings reviewing Armenian grammar. She has taken out the Armenian language book and the books on Armenian spelling and punctuation that she once studied for a unified exam. However, this time, she is not preparing for an exam, but a dictation. “My sister told me about an initiative, and I got excited and decided to register. I really want to see how I write and what mistakes I make, but I hope I don’t make mistakes,” she said, smiling. Varduhi, who will also be writing a dictation, states that she has joined the initiative for entertainment. “When I read about the initiative, I recalled my years in school when my beloved teacher would solemnly dictate and my classmates and I would write attentively. I want to relive those feelings. Besides, I have not written anything with a pen and paper for a long time. I miss writing,” she said. Pan-Armenian dictations will be held in Moscow (17 March) and on four platforms in Yerevan, in Dilijan, in Gyumri and maybe in Stepanakert (18 March). Hundreds of people will gather and write a dictation. In the course of two weeks following the dictations, they will see their grades and the mistakes they made. The assessments will be sent individually so that each person knows what mistakes he or she made.

The frequent mistakes will be discussed online, and again, anonymously. The organizers of the dictation are a group of young people. According to Hayk Daveyan, one of the organizers, during a conversation, he and his friends came to the conclusion that literacy of the Armenian language has become problematic, there is a lack of literate Armenian, and they decided to focus on this issue. “I personally interact with pedagogues and often hear that Armenian children write words with a transliteration or forget words in Armenian and use Latin words,” he says, adding that the pan-Armenian dictation is a symbolic event that will provide the opportunity to draw Armenians’ attention to the problems of linguistic literacy so that the need of writing and speaking literately is discussed and so that people think about formulating or writing correctly before saying or writing something. Hayk states that there are several goals of organizing the pan-Armenian dictation. “Whereas writing literately in Armenia is a problem, writing in Armenian is generally an issue in the Armenian Diaspora. Consequently, with this, we want to draw Diaspora Armenians’ attention to the preservation of the Armenian language,” he said. Hayk also stated that an in-depth study of the issue makes it clear that preservation of the Armenian language has even become an issue in Armenia due to writing in English letters. “We want this initiative to be an annual initiative and become as popular as possible, including at Armenian schools of the Diaspora. Our prospective goal is to promote speaking and writing in Armenia in the Diaspora and the literate use of the Armenian language in Armenia,” he said.

Hayk states that dictation is not the only tool for assessment of a person’s literacy, but it will provide each person with the opportunity to get a picture of his or her strengths and weaknesses in terms of Armenian language proficiency, which will stimulate the person to work on speech and writing and think about the right option before speaking or writing. “We view this as a part of the initiative and leisure that will provide the opportunity to draw attention to the in-depth and major issues,” Hayk says. Touching upon the reactions to the initiative, Hayk mentions that the organizers expect to see a turnout of 700 people in the first year. He states that there are people who avoid writing dictation because they are afraid of the quality of their written work. “We let those people know that this dictation will be anonymous and nobody will know their grade. If we don’t do something well, we have to know about it and be able to change it. The same goes for this. Dictation is a celebration of language, there is nothing to be scared of.” When asked what will happen if the indicator is mainly poor, Hayk stated that, in that case, the relevant organizations will have to cope with those indicators. Interestingly, most of the applicants are females. In terms of age, most of the applicants are between the ages of 25 and 35. Currently, the youngest registered applicant is 10 years old, and the eldest — 63. Registration continues. The organizers state that they are even ready to provide the opportunity to people who decide to test their level of knowledge of Armenian and visit one of the venues for the dictation at the last minute.

Photos taken from website of initiative

Ankakh.com