VIDEO // Thousands of people wrote together in Romanian at Great National Dictation

The Great National Dictation took place today in the center of the capital, in the Great National Assembly Square. Now in its fourth edition, the event brings together over 3,000 participants from Chișinău and from across the country. At the official opening of the event, the participants were welcomed by Prime Minister Vasile Tofan and Minister of Education and Research Dan Perciun, who delivered messages dedicated to the importance of the Romanian language and its role in society.



Prime Minister Vasile Tofan spoke, at the opening of the fourth edition of the Great National Dictation, about the importance of the Romanian language, as well as about the sacrifices of those who fought for the return to the Latin script and for the recognition of the Romanian language in the Republic of Moldova. He paid tribute to those who fought for the Romanian language and national identity and who paid a price for this. Among the personalities he mentioned were Grigore Vieru, Nicolae Dabija, Leonid Lari, Ion Vatamanu, Dumitru Matcovschi, Gheorghe Ghimpu, Ion and Doina Aldea-Teodorovici, as well as teachers from schools with instruction in Romanian on the left bank of the Dniester.


“The Romanian language has resisted here despite the Soviet occupation, the foreign alphabet that was imposed on it and the enormous pressure of the Russian language in education, in administration, in public life. It resisted because it could not be taken out of people. It was the language spoken at home, the language of grandparents, the language of songs, the language in which people expressed their joys and sorrows. It was in the marrow of this nation. There were people who paid a very high price for our right to say today, without fear, that we speak the Romanian language,” the Prime Minister declared.




The Prime Minister underlined the importance of all citizens of the Republic of Moldova knowing the Romanian language.


“If you live here, it is natural to learn Romanian. Yes, we are an open and welcoming people, we respect the languages spoken by the people who live here, and no one must give up their mother tongue. But we also respect our own language and we want the people who choose to live in the Republic of Moldova to learn and speak Romanian. It is a sign of respect for the country in which you live and at the same time the Romanian language allows all of us, regardless of the language spoken at home, to understand each other. Romanian is extraordinarily rich, and to love it you do not necessarily have to speak it with a Bucharest accent. Romanian sounds just as beautiful in our sweet Moldovan dialect,” Vasile Tofan noted, recalling regional words used by his family from Călărași.




In the Prime Minister’s view, the Great National Dictation is more than an orthography exercise.


“The Great National Dictation is not really about who places all the hyphens correctly. It is about the fact that we care, that thousands of people come together in this square to write in their language: students, teachers, parents, grandparents. It is a beautiful tradition and I hope it will grow from year to year,” said Vasile Tofan.


The Prime Minister urged participants to love, speak and read in Romanian and to pass it on to their children.

The Minister of Education and Research, Dan Perciun, emphasized that the values enjoyed today by the Republic of Moldova – peace, freedom and the Romanian language – were built and obtained over time, through the efforts and sacrifices of several generations. The minister paid tribute to the heroes who suffered during the Soviet period for their desire to be free and to assert their identity. Dan Perciun also spoke about the role of the Romanian language in today’s society, stressing that every citizen contributes, through the way they speak and write, to its preservation and development.


“The Romanian language must not be a barrier; it must be a bridge. Knowledge of the Romanian language means the possibility to fully participate in the life of this country, it means access to education, to work, to culture, to institutions, the possibility to speak with one another and to build the same society together. The responsibility of the state is to create the conditions for this to be possible. That is precisely why we are already in the process of implementing the second National Program for the study of the Romanian language. We continue to ensure access to Romanian language courses for adults who wish to learn it or to speak it better,” declared the Minister of Education and Research.




This year, participants had to transcribe a fragment from “Testament” by Gheorghe Urschi, a playwright and humorist known as “the king of humor” in the Republic of Moldova.

Participants who achieve the best results will be awarded during a ceremony organized at the Ministry of Education and Research, about which they will be informed in advance. The papers will be evaluated by a team of university professors, PhD in philology, and the results will be sent to participants, confidentially, by email, stated Adriana Cazacu, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education and Research.



The event is organized by the Ministry of Education and Research under the patronage of the Presidency of the Republic of Moldova.

This year’s edition also had an important inclusion component. For the first time, people with visual impairments also participated in the Great National Dictation. The Ministry of Education and Research ensured the necessary conditions for their participation, including adapted space and materials.

Moldova’s Great National Dictation was launched in 2023 by the Ministry of Education and Research as part of efforts to promote the Romanian language and to encourage its correct use. The three previous editions also brought together thousands of participants from across the country.

The Republic of Moldova celebrates Romanian Language Day on Monday, 31 August. Officially called “Our Romanian Language” after the poem by Alexei Mateevici, the holiday has its origins in the period of National Revival. In 1989, following pressure from tens of thousands of people gathered at the first Great National Assembly, the Romanian language was proclaimed the state language of the Moldavian SSR and the Latin script was reinstated.