Japanese for the Leaving???

CianDon

Basicially I'm just about to go into 5th year in Cork and for the last few years I've had a bit of a fixation with Japan and it's culture. My school does not teach the language but I would like to know is it possible to learn the language outside of school for the Leaving Cert and have any body on here actually done it that would have advice??? I am already learning German but still willing to do this outside of school if possible.

Coeurdepirate

I'm going into 5th year and I also have a bit of an obsession with Japan, but I'm not doing it for the LC. I do learn bits and bobs though, and I came across this website which I bookmarked. It's a guide for doing LC Japanese without a teacher; hope it helps! : D

http://pervertedcoffee.webs.com/

CianDon

Thanks sooo much for the link. I'll definately start giving that a look through in the next few weeks. I'm still really enthuiastic about the idea but I've never mentioned it to anyone and am still weighing up doing it for the leaving. Still, the chance of being one of 150 students sitting a subject is kinda cool really

Niamhf

The book that is used for the lc is called nihongo kantan! I don't know much more after that but if you go to soc then languages on boards you'll find info there!

Craguls

Try give the department of education a call they might be able to give you a hand. I never sat the paper myself but I'm learning Japanese in my spare time, what I do know is that the course is examined on the basis that it's starting from scratch so in a sense content wise it's a little easier than say german, french etc. So put a lot of time into grammar and vocab and you should be set.

Irishchick

Just be aware that Japanese is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn. Plus youll have the extra pressure of having to learn the language and script well enough to do an exam in it.

If you think you can handle it go for it but if you think the workload is gona be too much just learn it as a hobby for yourself in your spare time.

spurious

At the same time, the level of Japanese you would need for LC is a lot less than the level of, say, German you would need for LC as you would be expected to have been doing German at least 5 years. Japanese LC is roughly comparable with JC level in other languages.

Coeurdepirate

Irishchick wrote: »

Just be aware that Japanese is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn. Plus youll have the extra pressure of having to learn the language and script well enough to do an exam in it.

If you think you can handle it go for it but if you think the workload is gona be too much just learn it as a hobby for yourself in your spare time.

The only reason Japanese is hard for English speakers is because of the alphabets. And for the leaving cert you only need to know all of the hiragana and katakana (about 45 characters each) and there are something like 110 kanji on the LC course. That's 200 characters for the LC. And once you get your head around those, it's grand. Sentence structure and grammar are very different to English, but also much more flexible. Once the verb is at the end of the sentence and you add the correct particles to each word, your sentence is basically flawless.
Don't try to scare him, because learning Japanese is, for an Irish secondary student, a fairly unique and probably very rewarding experience.

FruitLover

Irishchick wrote: »

Just be aware that Japanese is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn

Not true in the slightest. In fact, from a grammatical point of view, it's easier than most European languages. You don't even need to know very many kanji for the LC exam.

2 years is plenty of time to learn enough to pass. Check out the various stickies in the Japanese forum and get cracking.

Coeurdepirate

FruitLover wrote: »

Not true in the slightest. In fact, from a grammatical point of view, it's easier than most European languages. You don't even need to know very many kanji for the LC exam.

2 years is plenty of time to learn enough to pass. Check out the various stickies in the Japanese forum and get cracking.

Exactly, the only things that make it so 'hard' are the alphabets and the fact that it doesn't have as many similarities to English as say, French or German.
What you said about the grammar is true, and the Japanese pronounciations are cake.

Coeurdepirate

After feeling sorry for myself about only doing 5 honours I decided that I will do Japanese outside of school. :P Ask me for my MSN address if you want someone so that you won't feel like you're the only person on earth doing it.

ruadhan

I'm going into sixth year and am doing Japanese outside of school. I think if you get the book nihongo kantan, get a good teacher or class and have an aptitude for languages and of course work for it the you should be able to do really well. I only have an hour and a half one on one class once ever two weeks since November of fifth year and I already could do the exam easy. It's a very easy exam in my opinion compared to other subjects but I guess it depends on how well you an learn it, some people really fond I difficult. I can answer any other questions you have if u want.

Coeurdepirate

ruadhan wrote: »

I'm going into sixth year and am doing Japanese outside of school. I think if you get the book nihongo kantan, get a good teacher or class and have an aptitude for languages and of course work for it the you should be able to do really well. I only have an hour and a half one on one class once ever two weeks since November of fifth year and I already could do the exam easy. It's a very easy exam in my opinion compared to other subjects but I guess it depends on how well you an learn it, some people really fond I difficult. I can answer any other questions you have if u want.

Do you know of any classes in the Galway area?

ruadhan

Haha, no not at all. I live in Waterford.

lctake2

my friend took up japanese in 5th year outside school, he got an a2 in it so that sounds great buy he got a1s in 6th other subjects so for him it was harder to do than everything else i suppose

spurious

lctake2 wrote: »

my friend took up japanese in 5th year outside school, he got an a2 in it so that sounds great buy he got a1s in 6th other subjects so for him it was harder to do than everything else i suppose

Or he had been studying the other subjects 5 years instead of 2 which makes his A2 better than the other A1s.

lctake2

i think it's presumed that you only did japanese for 2 years as it's examined at a much more basic level. but i guess he had alot less classes in japanese (2 hours a week i think) than anything else so if you'd have to take that into account

CianDon

Thanks for all the advice. I've made a few enquiries about lessons and I'll keep ye all updated on my journey

spurious

Make sure next year to let your school examinations secretary know that you want to sit the exam (if you still do).
The SEC needs to arrange things so they need to know in advance.