Derek Neary
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 05/98) - Megan Robinson's proficiency at French has helped her to become truly immersed in French culture.

Robinson, a French-immersion student at William McDonald, was in Montreal to compete in the at the national-level French dictation competition, "La Dictee," over the long weekend in May.

She qualified by becoming the Western Canadian champion after conquering regional opposition. When the competition had begun at the classroom level, there were 33,000 students across the country vying for the title.

The contest, sponsored by the Fondation Paul Gerin-Lajoie, consisted of an 80-word dictation. The students with the fewest grammatical, accent and spelling errors advance to the national event.

Robinson, an 11-year-old Grade 6 student, was one of 100 competitors to earn her way to Montreal, all expenses paid, to take part in the final dictation at Radio Canada. Although she has yet to find out how she placed, she knows the winner, who was docked a mere half point, has been declared and received a trip to Florida.

Robinson acquitted herself well by returning with a medal for the top performance for a Northern student. She also brought back a backpack filled with a dictionary, educational software, posters and a year's subscription to a French-language magazine. During her three-day stay, she said she was most impressed by Montreal Biodome, where a variety of plant and animal life are on display.

Robinson began learning French in kindergarten while living in Winnipeg. After moving to Yellowknife, she picked it up again in Grade 4. Her older brother, Mark, is also a French-immersion student, but her practice essentially comes at school as her parents aren't francophone.

"My dad speaks a little but he's not exactly fluent," she said.

She also received some coaching from teachers Yolande Savoie and Marie-Francoise LeDoze.

Although she excels at it, French doesn't make the grade as her most beloved class.

"I think it's one of my least favorite subjects, actually," she said, adding that she prefers home economics.