Starting German for the Leaving Cert

d.a.r.r.a.g.h

I was wondering would anyone be able to give me any advice..

I'm considering taking up German for the leaving Cert. At present, I don't really have any German besides a few simple phrases, and I didn't study it at all for my junior Cert, I did French instead.

But I really flew through French; I'm only at the beginning of fourth year, and my teacher has told me that I'm ready for the leaving already. Naturally, my arse is numb sitting in French listening to her go over the same simple rules over and over again, and I was thinking, maybe I could do something more productive.

So what I was wondering was, would it be at all possible to get through the basics and move on to leaving cert level stuff in two years, and come out in the end with some sort of result? Or am I crazy?

luciemc

I dunno but I hear the grammar is tough, don't know anyone who found it that easy...paper is more demanding too! I did french and spanish though and loved both? Having french really helped my spanish and vice versa. They were my easiest A1s. I'd recommend having a go at that over german? Also make sure you keep up the french! Read french newspapers/novels, watch french tv and maybe flick through some past papers once a week or you will forget it.

luciemc

Or you could take up another subject and 'drop' french...? Study it outside school and sit an exam in it without having to waste time in classes? I wish I had done this but only thought of it too late! Got my sister and one of my mates to do it though and it's worked out brilliantly for them! Are there any other subjects you might have an interest in?

Canard

+1 for Spanish, I only ever did it in 5th and 6th class and very badly too but it looks very similar to French and I've heard its good for it. German has picture sequences or projects, far harder grammar and harder written topics as far as I know. But you know best I'm sure And how about Japenese? That only starts in TY/5th year anyway so it mightn't be too bad, plus it would be very interesting.

Chuchoter

I think that'd be a great use for fourth year (in fact I wish I'd done it!) Having done French and German for JC though, they didn't help eachother at all. They're too different and I found German very hard. I think once you get to 5th though you'll need to be having classes in both, or you'll end up with 2 average grades instead of an A1.

d.a.r.r.a.g.h

Chuchoter wrote: »

I think that'd be a great use for fourth year (in fact I wish I'd done it!) Having done French and German for JC though, they didn't help eachother at all. They're too different and I found German very hard. I think once you get to 5th though you'll need to be having classes in both, or you'll end up with 2 average grades instead of an A1.

I think I've confused you... My school seems to be the only school where 4th year is actually 5th year, and TY is just TY. So I'm in 5th year, really

Chuchoter

Then I'd have to advise against taking the new language then. You've enough work for doing really, if it had been TY you could have spent TY covering all of JC and then 5th moving through the LC course as normal.

leaveiton

I'm in 6th year now and doing German, I think it would be too much to take up in 5th year. The grammar gets very complicated and if you don't have any sort of grounding you'd find it very tough. I personally don't find the grammar too difficult, because everything is logical and follows a pattern, but there's an awful lot of it. I'd really advise you against taking it up.

deand21594

German is a hard enough language, but if you have a flair for languages i'd say go for it

0mega

I would say it's too late and I think by trying this your other subjects could suffer and you might not even be able for the exam...

So I'd say to think about it carefully before you take it on.