Taking up french.

christina_x

if i have to repeat, im thinking about taking up french and just trying to even pass the ordinary level paper. Iv never done french berfore, i have no language and atm am limited to courses. Do you think its possible?

A Neurotic

To be honest, I'd see it as one the worst subjects to take up in one year, seeing as all French students will be expected to have 4 or 5 years of French under their belt already. My teacher always maintained that you just can't cram a language, and I'd agree with her.

EDIT: Sorry, I somehow missed the part where you said you needed a language... In that case, the best thing would probably be to speak to a French teacher in your school or in the area and see if they think it's possible. I'd say it would be very hard though.

Aard

I agree, French is not a wise choice. If you're looking for an easy A, then do Japanese. It's only offered at LC level, so the standard would be akin to that of JC French.

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

soccymonster

Sorry to just come in on this but I have to choose between lcvp and japanese and study next year. Is japanese siht hard? People say it is (but these people never did it!).

LimeFruitGum

christina_x wrote: »

if i have to repeat, im thinking about taking up french and just trying to even pass the ordinary level paper. Iv never done french berfore, i have no language and atm am limited to courses. Do you think its possible?

You might not need to repeat You'd end up spending loads of time catching up in French at the expense of other subjects, for the sake of 50-60 points. It depends as well on the balance of Honours and Pass subject you'd have.

I reckon history would be a good subject for points, but if I were you, I would go for a subject like Economic History for which you don't need to have studied it in the JC and can be easily covered in a year and at honours level.

Aard

Japanese was easy as pie.

soccymonster

Aard wrote: »

Japanese was easy as pie.

sound

christina_x

:cool:

LimeFruitGum wrote: »

You might not need to repeat You'd end up spending loads of time catching up in French at the expense of other subjects, for the sake of 50-60 points. It depends as well on the balance of Honours and Pass subject you'd have.

I reckon history would be a good subject for points, but if I were you, I would go for a subject like Economic History for which you don't need to have studied it in the JC and can be easily covered in a year and at honours level.

Yeah see its a langauge i need, as a requirement, not so much for points! Thanks though

ALincoln

Well if you accrued enough knowledge to get to a fair JC standard, that would, in my opinion get you 40% on a pass LC paper. That said, learning a whole new language in a year is not easy, and while you don't need to be a linguist, having a reasonable aptitude and competency when it comes to learning language will probably be a plus.

Regarding Japanese, that is apparently hard to get an A1 in, but if you're aiming for 40% in pass, that moves the goalposts considerably. According to a friend, you need quite a lot of patience in the beginning, so as to adjust to a new alphabet (they use symbols, not letters).

It's important to bear in mind external considerations as well. In my opinion, the Department may possibly expect and accommodate a lesser standard for Japanese. Students can potentially study French for 6 years, but Japanese for only 2 years, so you do the reasonable expectation calculation.

Edit: Economic History was abolished at least three years ago!

christina_x

thanks guys:)
Well, if all else fails, i'l try look for grinds in japanese, my school doesnt offer it but..!:)

Thanks!:):D