Questions about Japanese Continuers (1 Viewer)

[moni5281]

hey guys, not sure if anyone will see this (the japanese section looks quite dead) but i have a few questions about this course. The thing is I was planning to take chemistry this year as one of my subjects, however I think that i won't enjoy this subject very much (chose it for scaling/for the sake of doing one science), so I think i may be interested in continuing with Japanese.

1. Does this subject scale well? I'm not too concerned, but i just don't want to get a mark lower than I deserve...
2. How do the HSC exams work for this subject? Like is there just one written paper, or do we also have to go to a separate speaking exam for this subject?
3. Not really specifically about the course, but how do u study for japanese??? especially speaking (where I always stuff up)

Do you think i should consider doing this subject? I am pretty interested in it, just the teacher has very high expectations which can stress me out sometimes. Last year (year 10), I thought that i wasn't going to take this subject next year so I didn't study at all for the subject but I still managed to get a high 80s in the written test for the yearlys. I've forgotten like a third of my katakana and parts here and there, but if I wanted to i think i could catch up a little if I decide to take it this year.

Thoughts?

 

[Soulful]

Hi Moni! I'm doing Japanese continuers next year!
I don't actually have any experience in the course but I'll try my best to answer your questions

1. Japanese, like most languages, scales quite well. On par with Chemistry and Physics I'm told

2. Here is a link to a past exam where you can get a feel for what the exams are like
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.a...pdf_doc/2012-hsc-exam-japanese-continuers.pdf
Here is another link which goes into a bit more detail about what the exam entails (this includes some information about the speaking exam, which is a conversation)
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.a...nguages-continuers-1-assessment-reporting.pdf
If you want to find out more about the Japanese continuers course, this page basically has all the relevant documents
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/japanese-continuers.html

3. For speaking, the best way is to find a Japanese person to speak with. Most of the time for me, I know clearly in my head what I want to say, but when I actually say it, it comes out as an awkward mishmash of words which remotely sounds like Japanese. This is a confidence issue! So the best thing to do is to get comfortable with speaking, especially to another person. I think practicing communicating in Japanese is very important especially considering the speaking exam in the HSC is a conversation. For writing, I write as much as I can in Japanese. For example, before the exam, I will always tell myself to write a story based on the theme of the topic tested. Most my stories are too cringe-worthy to be shared online, but I found it really helped me to familiarize myself with not only writing, but also the grammar structures and the new vocab. I don't actually spend that much time on Kanji because
a) Coming from a Chinese background, Kanji is not as difficult
b) The amount of Kanji used in the course is laughable
But from what I've heard, flashcards are great! Also, try to imagine the Kanji as a drawing made of many components which tell a story relevant to the Kanji's meaning. Apparently that's a very successful way of learning them, but there's always the good old "rote learning" method which has been used to teach billions of children in China and Japan.

4) I think you should definitely take Japanese next year since you are obviously very interested and talented in it. But it all really comes down to your own choice. I think catching up for you will be a piece of cake since Katakana can be remembered in like, 2 days and the prelim course starts off in a very "gentle" place that should overlap with what you have done in year 10 Japanese (though I've been told there is a slightly steep learning curve from then on)

Anyways, it's all up to you, but I think - go for it! Esp. since then we'll be able to practice and support each other on BoS!

Hoped this helped

 

[moni5281]

thanks so much for taking your time to answer this! haha I'm half chinese so I ace through the kanji as well (vaguely remember some from when I was young) with katakana i think i don't remember coz I spent last years lessons day dreaming and sleeping sometimes (always had it in the morning for some reason) but i do genuinely like the subject

if i do end up taking it, yes we can practice with each other i get so nervous in the speaking exam for some reason. i'll have to ask my parents first and think about it for a week or so before i decide though...

again, thanks for your feedback i actually thought no one would see this

 

[Soulful]

thanks so much for taking your time to answer this! haha I'm half chinese so I ace through the kanji as well (vaguely remember some from when I was young) with katakana i think i don't remember coz I spent last years lessons day dreaming and sleeping sometimes (always had it in the morning for some reason) but i do genuinely like the subject

if i do end up taking it, yes we can practice with each other i get so nervous in the speaking exam for some reason. i'll have to ask my parents first and think about it for a week or so before i decide though...

again, thanks for your feedback i actually thought no one would see this

Omg same here. I always feel really stupid reading out English words in katakana and I find it really hard to remember. Like honestly, so many of them look the same!

Glad to be of help! Good luck in what ever you decide to do

 

[DLMisme]

Well languages usually scale fairly well I think, so I wouldn't really be too concerned with that. There is written, listening and speaking parts to the exam but I'm not 100% certain how it all works. I also found studying for particularly the speaking parts a pain. I found the best way was talking to another person. We were lucky enough to have a Japanese exchange student with us, so being able to talk to native speaker was really helpful. But before he got here my teacher would let us email her voice recordings or even use Skype to practice our speaking. Also I was really passionate about Japanese and would try to work as much Japanese into my everyday speech as I could. My family probably got sick of me chatting away in Japanese!

I think if you're genuinely interested in it and could do better in it than Chemistry, then definitely consider taking Continuers. If your reasons for choosing Chemistry were as you said for scaling and the sake of having 1 science, then I'd have a look into changing it. You obviously have a natural ability for the subject to score that well in exams without study, and you sound very interested in it. Good luck

 

[cadd1ct]

I did both chemistry and Japanese so I can provide a little insight about both subjects.

Chemistry:

Year 11 is the real chemistry, where you learn about how atoms operate and all the intermolecular, intramolecular bonds (i.e how atoms and molecules attach to each other through forces) and some cool stuff about water, metals and a few things about combustion. It'll be very boring to put up with unless you have a genuine interest in chemistry (this type of content reflects Uni chemistry as well, except without as much calculation).

Yr 12 chemistry is basically learning about how chemistry is used and what's so great and not so great about it. You'll learn a few new principles but also have a lot of hardcore memorising to do. This is very different to Japanese as it's more about applying your grammar and remember the essential vocabulary then writing writing and writing.

Japanese:

Japanese was my favourite subject and if it wasn't for my interest in nutrition I would have studied pure languages and gone on to be an interpreter... I love it, teach it and spend a lot of my free time watching anime and taking notes to learn vocabulary and other cultural notes (esp. with Conan).

The preliminary and HSC are very similar, which consist of studying prescribed grammar, kanji as well as amassing vocabulary. It is impossible to remember all the vocabulary in your textbook (Wakatta I'm assuming) although a top student will be able to remember 99%, but you get a dictionary in your exam so its not too bad.

Flashcards, like other people say, are a good idea and I highly recommend Anki - it's free and totally awesome . As for studying, just read, read and read. That helped me experience more 'correct' Japanese and expose me to tons of vocabulary and grammar. It's boring learning grammar and vocabulary by themselves but through reading you tend to have a deeper impression of what you see.

Speaking is difficult, and you need to respond with more than one sentence that has good substance in order to score high marks. A good idea is to first write a rough plan of your answers to various types of questions then practice speaking with a friend and work on pronounciation by repeating things that you hear from Japanese culture e.g anime, TV, drama.

Personally I think if you are doing sciences in uni it'll be good to have a chemistry background but if you are looking at Commerce then a language is a great choice because you can continue learning it in uni and it'll have slightly better employment prospects. But I always recommend Japanese in the end because it's something do because they love it.

 

[moni5281]

1. Japanese, like most languages, scales quite well. On par with Chemistry and Physics I'm told

Hey Soulful, i just asked my parents about dropping chemistry and they are still concerned that Japanese scales really low, if you don't mind me asking, where did you hear this?

I might be able to try talking to my parents again if I can find solid proof that Japanese scales well.

 

[moni5281]

Thanks so much @DLMisme and @cadd1ct, I think I might try out one chem lessons and see how it goes before deciding

 

[Soulful]

Hey Soulful, i just asked my parents about dropping chemistry and they are still concerned that Japanese scales really low, if you don't mind me asking, where did you hear this?

I might be able to try talking to my parents again if I can find solid proof that Japanese scales well.

Here is the UAC scaling chart from 2013. It shouldn't be treated as the "absolute truth" since there are many other things which will affect scaling, but it will give you a rough guide on the scaling of subjects

http://www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/2013-tables/2013_HSC_TableA3.pdf

Correct me if this is wrong, but I think this year Japanese Cont. actually scaled higher than chemistry in the higher percentiles

Here is a link to another post on the BoS which talks about the scaling of Japanese and chemistry

http://community.boredofstudies.org/65/japanese/258459/how-does-japanese-continuers-scale.html

 

[moni5281]

Here is the UAC scaling chart from 2013. It shouldn't be treated as the "absolute truth" since there are many other things which will affect scaling, but it will give you a rough guide on the scaling of subjects

http://www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/2013-tables/2013_HSC_TableA3.pdf

Correct me if this is wrong, but I think this year Japanese Cont. actually scaled higher than chemistry in the higher percentiles

Here is a link to another post on the BoS which talks about the scaling of Japanese and chemistry

http://community.boredofstudies.org/65/japanese/258459/how-does-japanese-continuers-scale.html

hey, thanks for the links any idea how to read the table though?? (in the first link)

edit: actually wait... is it like the higher the number in the 'mean' column, the higher the subject scales haha?

 

[LoveHateSchool]

1) It scales handsomely.
2) The HSC exams are on the site for perusing.
3) I'll leave it to qualified hands (above and someone I asked to leave input). But generally for language listening/speaking, I always found listening to the language a lot (via watching TV shows with subtitles) or recordings from specific language websites to help with the listening/speaking side of things. As well as practice with experienced speakers. Cause I always found writing languages easier (ok maybe with the exception of Japanese once you start learning the kanji cause hiragana/katakana is not so bad) because I remember what I read and see better.

Just to offer encouragement, unless you think you'll need Chem for your uni course definitely, a language is a similar scaler but with much desirability. I know so many people regret not taking a language in snr school (myself included for French and yes it was a toss up between Chem/Eco/French), because they get spooked off it. I guess the thing with all your subjects, is that if you are willing to work hard, you will reap rewards so not to be scared of tackling a language. It sounds like you did fairly well in yr 10 with not too much effort, and imagine what you can achieve with more work and the more frequent HSC classes. If you are motivated and want to study it, I would highly recommend you to do so.

You'll never know when language comes in useful, myself personally I am undertaking Indonesian this semester (beginner lol) because of a study opportunity with my degree. So like I regret stopping language at end of yr10 when I was relatively decent and now going back to languages 2nd year uni. Much better to keep the momentum and do it in yr 11/12 (language courses are exxy once you get out of HS or to put it on your HECs). If your HSC course offers an opportunity of a trip, even better and your speaking/listening improves exponentially with in country experience.

 

[moni5281]

so its basically confirmed that japanese has solid scaling thanks everyone! i think for uni although i'm not totally against doing a science degree i don't think i am particularly interested in doing something in this area. I think i will be going for something business related or computing/mobile phone technology, chemistry won't really be of use here right? haha i love languages, if i perfected all the languages i know right now and became extremely fluent then i would be able to speak 5 languages ahh will be my goal someday in life, urgh now its like i know half of this and half of that so i can't really write that i'm fluent on my resume yet.

 

[Soulful]

so its basically confirmed that japanese has solid scaling thanks everyone! i think for uni although i'm not totally against doing a science degree i don't think i am particularly interested in doing something in this area. I think i will be going for something business related or computing/mobile phone technology, chemistry won't really be of use here right? haha i love languages, if i perfected all the languages i know right now and became extremely fluent then i would be able to speak 5 languages ahh will be my goal someday in life, urgh now its like i know half of this and half of that so i can't really write that i'm fluent on my resume yet.

Out of curiosity, what are they? :3

Man, I envy you. I wish I knew 5 languages

 

[moni5281]

Out of curiosity, what are they? :3

Man, I envy you. I wish I knew 5 languages

English (duh), Japanese (currently learning), Indonesian, Hokkien (this is a Chinese dialect if u don't know) and Mandarin (though i really suck and cant read ) way too may asian languages but yeah ima asian. Want to be extremely fluent in all though, not quite there yet!

 

[LoveHateSchool]

English (duh), Japanese (currently learning), Indonesian, Hokkien (this is a Chinese dialect if u don't know) and Mandarin (though i really suck and cant read ) way too may asian languages but yeah ima asian. Want to be extremely fluent in all though, not quite there yet!

Once I learn a bit more Indonesian I should try conversing with you. But like I'm still at the pleb language stage of knowing phrases like 'saya suka nasi goreng'.

To be learning Hokkien is an interesting choice, do some of your relatives speak that dialect?