Fleming Dirk Bosmans wins Het Groot Dictee
Flemish communications advisor Dirk Bosmans of Brussels has won the Low Countries celebrated dictation competition
Event pumped up the difficulty this year
From left: Maud Vanhauwaert, Dirk Bosmans and Kees van Kooten at Het Groot DicteeThis year found 62 Flemings and Dutch participating in the annual contest. Just like the runner-up, Joke Beltman from the Netherlands, Bosmans, 36, made 13 dictation errors but, crucially, one less spelling error. The best performance among the celebrities also came from Flanders; poet-performer Maud Vanhauwaert made 21 errors.
The dictation was written by Dutch actor and writer Kees van Kooten. For the first time, the dictation included language mistakes, which participants had to mark but not correct. The event, which takes place in The Hague, is broadcast on Dutch and Flemish television. With this 16th Flemish victory in the event’s 24-year history (occasionally there is a tie), Flanders now has five more wins than the Netherlands.
