Japanese leaving cert essay question

jasm7574

Hi, so I've been self-studying Japanese for the leaving cert exam and I'm just wondering if there's a specific layout for the essay question. It would be good if someone can provide a few sample answers so I can see what would be considered a good answer and what is required.

Also, how long should I spend on each section, approximately? If anyone could provide a list of themes for the vocabs that I need to know, that would be nice too, e.g. Easter, weather etc.

Another question is, do we need to write the kanji from the comprehension for our answer even if it isn't on our syllabus? (ones with smaller hiragana on top of it.) or can we just write the hiragana version of it? For the comprehension question that we have to answer in Japanese, does it matter if you practically copy the entire sentence from the text, or only slightly change it?

Sorry if I'm not being very clear on what I need help with but I've been studying so much, I feel like I'm having a brain block, haha. xD

jasm7574

bump > < please help

BlazingBladeDA

LOL well, for the essay, there is two layouts you can use, Traditional japanese layout or the right to left normal way. I recommend the normal way since it's less confusing. Using more Kanji does get you more marks, but don't use Kanji from the comprehension completely. Use ones you should already know. I personally find Kanji difficult to learn, but constantly writing essay really works.

What examiners like is the consistancy of good usage of Grammar. This is probably where most of your marks will kick in. Make sure you use more than a small couple of grammar points. For example, incase you used the Te fom already, the next just switch to Tari Tari. Another example would be to write in the plain form. This mainly if you are writing to or for a friend.

Expand your range of vocabulary, this will get you a lot more marks, examiners like to see that your using a lot of different words.

In the comprehension, mainly for the japanese questions, they may ask you questions that you would have to actually comprehend from the text. They want to be able to answer the question without copying the fraction where the answer lies and rewrite it as your answer. You would have to forge the answer yourself, with reference to the answer in the text. If you look up the marking scheme it will help so much when correcting your work.

I've been studying Japanese by myself and pretty much stopped going to class much since the beginning of 6th year because the teacher can't teach -__-

Anyway, hope it goes well for you Good Luck

jasm7574

BlazingBladeDA wrote: »

LOL well, for the essay, there is two layouts you can use, Traditional japanese layout or the right to left normal way. I recommend the normal way since it's less confusing. Using more Kanji does get you more marks, but don't use Kanji from the comprehension completely. Use ones you should already know. I personally find Kanji difficult to learn, but constantly writing essay really works.

What examiners like is the consistancy of good usage of Grammar. This is probably where most of your marks will kick in. Make sure you use more than a small couple of grammar points. For example, incase you used the Te fom already, the next just switch to Tari Tari. Another example would be to write in the plain form. This mainly if you are writing to or for a friend.

Expand your range of vocabulary, this will get you a lot more marks, examiners like to see that your using a lot of different words.

In the comprehension, mainly for the japanese questions, they may ask you questions that you would have to actually comprehend from the text. They want to be able to answer the question without copying the fraction where the answer lies and rewrite it as your answer. You would have to forge the answer yourself, with reference to the answer in the text. If you look up the marking scheme it will help so much when correcting your work.

I've been studying Japanese by myself and pretty much stopped going to class much since the beginning of 6th year because the teacher can't teach -__-

Anyway, hope it goes well for you Good Luck

Thank you so much for your lengthy reply. T^T by the way, for the layout, say if you're asked to write a letter, would you have to put in stuff like address or dear whoever, as part of the layout, or would you be okay with just writing it as a normal essay?

God, I can understand Japanese, like when I read them in different forms, but I have so much difficulty conjugating it myself. There's a part in the exam that you have to change from the form they have given you to plain form and I only got one part of it right. Do you have any sites that I can go on for grammar help?

Again, thanks so much for replying good luck on your exams as well, lol, I'm the only one taking the Japanese exam at my school, so I'm basically going to sit the exam just by myself and with the examiner, I'm going to be the last student to walk out of school that day.