Registration for the IX World Dictation in Latvian is now open
This year’s World Dictation in Latvian will take place on Saturday, 14 October, starting at
at 12.15. This will be the ninth time the dictation has taken place, and this year the text has been created by
writer Māris Bērziņš, while in Riga – at the Palace of Light – it will be dictated by Latvian National Theatre
actress Agnese Budovska. From 3 October, registration for the live dictation
has started.
To participate in the live dictation, you need to register in advance at www.raksti.org, where you will be able
to choose from 16 writing locations in 11 Latvian cities. This year,
will take place in Riga, Bauska, Cesis, Daugavpils, Jelgava, Jēkabpils, Jūrmala, Liepāja, Rezekne,
Valmiera and Ventspils.
However, those who have not managed to register in time will be able to do so at the venue
shortly before the dictation starts, but please note that this will only be possible if there are free places,
so the organisers recommend registering on the website in good time.
It will also be possible to write the dictation remotely, this form of participation does not require special registration
in advance, but you do need to create a user account on raksti.org. For remote
participation, the dictation will be broadcast live on Latvian Radio 1, Latvian Television and Latvian
public media portal lsm.lv, as well as on the dictation website.
World Dictation in Latvian is a private initiative aimed at developing the Latvian language and
strengthening its roots in today’s multicultural environment. In nine years it has grown from a small event organised by
language enthusiasts to an international project, with
2000 participants from 29 countries last year. Each year, a contemporary Latvian writer creates
a text of around 300 words, dictated by a famous Latvian actor. This year, the
author is the writer Māris Bērziņš, and the
announcer is the actress Agnese Budovska from the Latvian National Theatre.
Māris Bērziņš (1962) is a writer, author of six novels, several short fiction and play collections.
He is the author of the novel “The Taste of Lead”, for which he has received wide acclaim and several awards, including the
Dzintars Sodums Award for Innovation in Literature and the Baltic Assembly Award. In 2022
he received the Order of the Three Stars, 4th Class.
Agnese Budovska (1992) is an actress at the Latvian National Theatre. She has been nominated several times for the
Play Night Award. She won the award in 2016 in the nomination “Debut or New
Stage Artist of the Year” for the role of the bride in the play “Blood Wedding” at the Latvian National Theatre.
Agnese Budovska in 2021 for her role in the film “Wild East.
The aim of the initiative is to develop the ability to write in Latvian, to foster respect for the mother tongue, to build
closer ties with Latvian diasporas outside Latvia, to unite society, and to encourage
foreigners to learn Latvian better. Dictation is a voluntary free
event.
The 300-word dictation has been checked for Latvian language norms and
approved by Baiba Saulīte, a researcher at the Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the University of Latvia.
No marks will be given for correcting the dictation, but orthographic and punctuation
errors and their number will be indicated so that everyone interested can assess their knowledge. The best
results will be awarded with theatre tickets from the Latvian National Theatre and valuable
books from the dictation partners – Latvian Language Agency, Jāņa Roze Bookstore and
publishing house Zvaigzne ABC.