Taking a Language outside Of School.

Just Like Heaven

I am considering taking a language outside of school because many of the university courses i would like to do require a 3rd language.

Is a D3 in pass enough to qualify you for the course, or is it required to be one your 6 scoring subjects?

Also, does anybody have any advice on which language to choose, preferably one which doesn't have an oral exam and has a textbook written?

ruadhan

fewtinsoffroth wrote: »

I am considering taking a language outside of school because many of the university courses i would like to do require a 3rd language.

Is a D3 in pass enough to qualify you for the course, or is it required to be one your 6 scoring subjects?

Also, does anybody have any advice on which language to choose, preferably one which doesn't have an oral exam and has a textbook written?

They all require orals so you're going to have to work on that no matter what. I think the non curricular European ones don't have an oral but you have to be a native speaker to do them.
What year are you in? If you're in sixth I'd would say you're wasting your time by now. If you're in fifth then the only languages which are two year courses are Russian and Japanese. Trying to do one of the others would be a ridiculous challenge.
By the way I think one or a few of the universities accept Irish as a modern language but don't quote me on that

djcervi

I'd recommend Spanish. It's easier to do well in it (statistically speaking, in terms of getting the grades), since only 6,000 LCers sit the exam, compared to 20,000 who study French and German. It's also straight forward to pronounce, since you say it as it is written.

ruadhan

djcervi wrote: »

I'd recommend Spanish. It's easier to do well in it (statistically speaking, in terms of getting the grades), since only 6,000 LCers sit the exam, compared to 20,000 who study French and German. It's also straight forward to pronounce, since you say it as it is written.

Spanish is easier because less people do it....???? If you're saying higher percentage get A's or whatever, that's not the best indicator really of being able to scrape a pass. Plus if this guy is in leaving cert years he'll have to do 6 years work in 2 years. If youre not a language person at all that would be hard. The easiest language to get d3 in ordinary level leaving cert is with no doubt Japanese. In doing it plus I'm doing other languages too. The paper is so straightforward, it's only a two year course, very simple language only needed. Things that make it difficult is the writing but it's easier then you might think

djcervi

ruadhan wrote: »

Spanish is easier because less people do it....???? If you're saying higher percentage get A's or whatever, that's not the best indicator really of being able to scrape a pass. Plus if this guy is in leaving cert years he'll have to do 6 years work in 2 years. If youre not a language person at all that would be hard. The easiest language to get d3 in ordinary level leaving cert is with no doubt Japanese. In doing it plus I'm doing other languages too. The paper is so straightforward, it's only a two year course, very simple language only needed. Things that make it difficult is the writing but it's easier then you might think

Well the course content is easier, in comparison to the other language subjects on offer (and I've done other language subjects in the leaving). For scraping a pass on ordinary level (like other language subjects), it is doable as long as you have a good approach to the subject. For language exams it's another thing to pass, whether you are strong at languages or not, so having a strategy is vital. As I said you say it as it literally sounds, not like French for example. A lot of complicated grammar aspects can be left out too. Spanish also has the same alphabet as English, except for one letter. In the oral you do roleplays for some of the exam, which are
easily gained marks if you prepare well.

I'm sure that Japanese for Leaving Cert is straight forward in terms of the exam. In fairness though the idea of learning to write in a couple of alphabets can be a bit off putting.

Just Like Heaven

Thanks for your replys, i'm in 5th year. I'm not at all a language person, the Japenese sounds more practical, Obviously there are lots resources on the internet, but is the textbook completely comprehensive then? Does it start from the alphabets and so on? seeing as there is no junior cert course.

minichunkies

German will be most useful. It is the most spoken language in Europe.

Just Like Heaven

Ray Foley wrote: »

German will be most useful. It is the most spoken language in Europe.

Surely English is the most widely spoken?