In an effort to make an informed decision, you should consider two things:
- Interest
- Performance potential
Interest:
Interest (or lack thereof) in taking a particular subject usually plays an important role in deciding whether you should take a particular subject. Regarding Japanese Beginners, consider your experience of learning the language throughout year 8. In doing so, reflect on the following questions:
- Did you enjoy learning Japanese in year 8?
- Did you find the Japanese language easy to learn?
- Are you interested in enhancing your knowledge of the language by taking Japanese Beginners in Stage 6?
If you confidently respond with a "yes" to all of these questions, this is likely an indicator that you should take this subject. If you found it rather difficult to answer as such, then you should probably consider other options.
In the case of English Extension 1, there is the possibility for a better judgement of your experience given that you studied English for significantly longer than you have studied Japanese. In determining whether you would be interested in taking English Extension 1, you should consider whether your experience (especially that of year 10 English) was positive and whether it was superior to your experience of learning Japanese. Additionally, you should consider whether your interest would push you to extend your learning beyond the content of English Advanced. However, from your comments, it seems that you would be more interested in taking Japanese Beginners.
Performance potential:
This refers to whether you have a firm belief that you will be capable of performing favourably in one or both of the subjects that you are contemplating. From your post, it seems that this is an outcome that would be within your reach in both Japanese Beginners and English Extension 1. In such a case, you may wish to consider which subject you may be able to maximise your performance in (potentially exceeding that of the other subject). Understanding the nature of each subject can assist you in doing this:
- Essentially, a Beginners language subject (in this case Japanese Beginners) assumes that students have little to no exposure to the target language. This makes Japanese Beginners a relatively easy subject (as opposed to higher levels), which, when combined with an interest in the subject, could enable you to ensure superior performance in this subject.
- On the other hand, it is reasonable to expect that English Extension 1 will be more difficult than English Advanced, which may invite you to question your performance potential in this subject compared to Japanese Beginners. Of course, you can still ensure favourable performance in this subject if you are interested in taking it, provided you are ready to commit and be diligent in your studies throughout year 11 and year 12.
I hope this helps!
