Leaving Cert Japanese

L-M

Posting for a friend in need.

"Seeing as how I'm doing Japanese for the Leaving Cert., I have to prepare for an oral. However, I have no idea what's on it. How's about you post and ask in whatever the relevant forum is on my behalf?
I need to know what's involved with the role-play, the picture sequence, pretty much everything. Also need to know whether the Leaving Cert book for it covers the oral exam in any detail. There's nothing about it online."

Any help greatly appriciated

timmywex

I would imagine its the same as most languages, yourself, family, are/house/town, pasttimes, typical day etc.....


Check out the cirriculum here also, there maight be something on it

http://www.curriculumonline.ie/index.asp?locID=471&docID=-1

spurious

The most recent Chief Examiner's report (2004) says :
The Oral Examination at each level was allocated 100 marks and had three parts: a general conversation covering candidates’ lives and interests both inside and outside school; a question which asked candidates to choose one of a number of topics written on a card and to discuss it, and the third part, which had two sets of pictures and encouraged candidates to compare and contrast the two topics illustrated.

The rest can be got here.

L-M

Lads thanks for the info, he seems to have found that already. What he's looking for is what is actually involved. Like, if somebody had actually sat through the thing. The syllabus and all that doesn't explain any particulars.

L-M

Any more info on this??

muffinman

I did Japanese last year. The LC book has all the vocab and topics needed for the oral, but doesn't, as far as i can remember, have any guide to approaching the actual exam.

The first section is a general discussion - name, age, family, pastimes, school, friends, etc. Examiner asks the questions, you give the answers and elaborate a little.

Section 2 - You are given a card with 3 special topics and you choose one to discuss in detail - topics can include school, summer holidays, what you'd like to do in the future, how you spend your weekends, your favourite films/music, etc. You get 1 minute to prepare (you can have a pen and notebook (with nothing written in it obviously) in the exam to write your ideas on) and then you should speak for as long as possible (maybe 2 minutes +) on the topic. Examiner will then ask questions on what you said.

Section 3 - 4 pictures face down - randomly choose one to talk about. In previous years 2 pictures (one Japanese and one Irish) were given to compare (e.g. Irish/Japanese breakfast, school, shops, etc.), but in the last two years, she has gone for asking candidates to discuss just one picture. It should be something typically Japanese, such as a Tokyo street, a tea party under cherry blossom trees, a sushi market, a Japanese room with tatami mats, Japanese festival, etc. Again, you get a minute to study the photo and prepare what you'll say, and you talk about what you see in the photo for 1-2 minutes, before being questioned by the examiner. It's also good to compare what you see to how the same thing would be in Ireland...

Hope that helps your friend

UpCork

I'm not a Leaving Cert student (that was many years ago), but never knew you could do Leaving Certificate level Japanese (or Japanese at any level). How many years can you do that for? Are there many people doing it, I wonder ?

Twinkle-star15

UpCork wrote: »

I'm not a Leaving Cert student (that was many years ago), but never knew you could do Leaving Certificate level Japanese (or Japanese at any level). How many years can you do that for? Are there many people doing it, I wonder ?

It's only a 2 year course- I don't think you can do it for junior cert. There's two doing it in 6th year in my school at the moment- I don't think there's a lot doing it over all.

Podge_irl

muffinman wrote: »

I did Japanese last year. The LC book has all the vocab and topics needed for the oral, but doesn't, as far as i can remember, have any guide to approaching the actual exam.

The first section is a general discussion - name, age, family, pastimes, school, friends, etc. Examiner asks the questions, you give the answers and elaborate a little.

Section 2 - You are given a card with 3 special topics and you choose one to discuss in detail - topics can include school, summer holidays, what you'd like to do in the future, how you spend your weekends, your favourite films/music, etc. You get 1 minute to prepare (you can have a pen and notebook (with nothing written in it obviously) in the exam to write your ideas on) and then you should speak for as long as possible (maybe 2 minutes +) on the topic. Examiner will then ask questions on what you said.

Section 3 - 4 pictures face down - randomly choose one to talk about. In previous years 2 pictures (one Japanese and one Irish) were given to compare (e.g. Irish/Japanese breakfast, school, shops, etc.), but in the last two years, she has gone for asking candidates to discuss just one picture. It should be something typically Japanese, such as a Tokyo street, a tea party under cherry blossom trees, a sushi market, a Japanese room with tatami mats, Japanese festival, etc. Again, you get a minute to study the photo and prepare what you'll say, and you talk about what you see in the photo for 1-2 minutes, before being questioned by the examiner. It's also good to compare what you see to how the same thing would be in Ireland...

Hope that helps your friend

Pah, we didn't get a minute to prepare anything back in my day! She also gave the exact same picture to all six of us to discuss (which was of no help to me as I was first in). I did find it mildly amusing that the oral examiner was someone we had had as a teacher a couple times though.

They changed the Japanese course a few years back to make it aimed at beginners as opposed to native Japanese speakers. The year I did it (2004) was the first time it was examined as such and was part of a trial run so we got free classes every weekend. 36 people did it in my year, I have no idea whether or not it has expanded much since.

Geranium

Have to agree with the description of the oral already given here. I did it myself three years ago. I'd advise, along with family/school etc, just learning off one hobby/internet and some relation it has to Japan.

They'll be happy to hear you speaking any japanese at all, so just bend the conversation to suit yourself. I mentioned going to the cinema on my birthday, and then got to talk about my hobby I'd prepared, watching films. However, I was then asked about Japanese films, which I hadn't prepared at all. So linking it back to Japan might be a good idea, whatever you pick.

And while you're thinking about how to answer a question, just throw in a "so desu ne....." and a thoughtful expression!

muffinman

Geranium wrote: »

And while you're thinking about how to answer a question, just throw in a "so desu ne....." and a thoughtful expression!

sou desu ne and ee to will never let you down!

As regards numbers doing it for the LC, it's growing every year, think it was above 100 people last year, but I don't know the exact figures. Also pretty sure that the same lady wrote the book, set the paper, did all the orals and corrected all the papers :P

blondie.paula

As regards numbers doing it for the LC, it's growing every year, think it was above 100 people last year, but I don't know the exact figures. Also pretty sure that the same lady wrote the book, set the paper, did all the orals and corrected all the papers

Not true. The woman who wrote the books, U.Zimmermann taught me Japanese in transition year. There is a different woman, based in Dublin who sets the papers. An woman of Japanese origin does the orals and a selection of Japanese teachers correct the papers.

spurious

blondie.paula wrote: »

Not true. The woman who wrote the books, U.Zimmermann taught me Japanese in transition year. There is a different woman, based in Dublin who sets the papers. An woman of Japanese origin does the orals and a selection of Japanese teachers correct the papers.

This.
The SEC wouldn't allow someone with a conflict of interest to set papers.

Dripdrop

I am doing my Japanese oral exam on monday and my teacher is the lady who write the books, U. zimmerman. The format has already been said here. Are there any other questions you have regarding the exam itself? There are 60 students in 6th year taking japanese in my school.

MightyMandarin

Dripdrop wrote: »

I am doing my Japanese oral exam on monday and my teacher is the lady who write the books, U. zimmerman. The format has already been said here. Are there any other questions you have regarding the exam itself? There are 60 students in 6th year taking japanese in my school.

I'm doing japanese and have my oral in 2 weeks. Our teacher is pretty much hopeless and I'm doing most of the work myself. What topics have you learnt for the section 2 part? Alot of them are similar in the content you need to know.