An American in Provence

One thing that I have found that seems to be unique to learning French is the Dictée. Basically, it is a way to test your listening comprehension, spelling, and verb conjugasions all at the same time. The teacher reads a text, and you have to copy what he or she reads. Sounds easy right? Nope. Because there are a lot of spellings that you can't hear and have to know that they are there, depending on the text. Such as the difference between "je suis allé" for a man and "je suis allée" for a woman. They sound exactly alike. Whereas for English, if you know the spelling, which granted can be tricky sometimes, you can pretty much get it right.
Even when I took one semester of French 101 in Virginia the teacher did this. Here in France, there is a TV show where a man comes on and reads a Dictée and the audience tries to write what he says, and the home audience can do the same. Oh Boy!

Here is an example of what you hear for a dictée.

"Leh bah-ca-laur-ay-at a faytay ses doo cent shans en doo meel un. Ceh dee-plome res poor ahn gran nohm-bre day joone jhan une ayta pahm-poor-tan dahn leur par-cour scolaire. Leh bah-ca-laur-ay-at day-mure un eggs-ahmen deefeecile ohs you day ghen-air-ah-tions deh joone lee-say-ens qui see pray-san shaq ahnay. Ce-day-pan-dan, dehpui lay loi deh ori-en-ta-tion deh mille noof sans cah-tre vahn noof, leh bah-ca-laur-ay-at ah chan-jay deh ohb-jec-tif. Il neh sah-jee plu deh leh con-fair-air ah oone aye-leete may deh loov-rir lar-jay-mahn ah twot lay coo-che deh la poh-puh-la-tion dahn sen sue-see dahc-say ah lah coul-ture poor toos. Il ee ah may-teh-nahn une grahnd dee-ver-see-tay deh bah-ca-laur-ay-at. Dahns quel-que shan-nays, la pluh-par days Fran-says sehron tee-too-layr deh ceh dee-plome qui ooh-vreh lay poort ah bow-coo dough-tre sehx-ah-men ooou cohn-coor."

So that is what you hear. I wonder if anyone who knows French can figure out my phonentic translation. Besides the words, the teachers says the ponctuation, such as comma, period, etc. I am getting better at guessing where the accents marks are supposed to go. It helps to have a reader who is good at reading dictees. It is EEM POHR TANT that they pronounce correctly, remember to say all of the punctuation marks, and don't get lost and skip words.

Anyway, here is what you are supposed to write.
"Le baccalauréat a fété ses deux cents ans en 2001. Ce diplôme reste pour un grand nombre de jeunes gens une étape important dans leur parcours scolaire. Le baccalauréat demeure un examen difficile aux yeux des générations de jeunes lycéens qui s'y présentent chaque année. Cependant, depuis les lois d'orientation de 1989, le baccalauréat a changé d'objectif. Il ne s'agit plus de le conférer à une élite mais de l'ouvrir largement à toutes les couches de la population dans un souci d'accès à la culture pour tous. Il y a maintenant une grande diversité de baccalauréats. Dans quelques années, la plupart des Français seront titulaires de ce diplôme qui ouvre les portes à beaucoup d'autres examens ou concours."

Eet ees vair-ry dee-fee-coolt.