Japanese for Leaving Cert

Syntha45

I'm currently in 5th year and I have an aptitude for languages, however my school only offers one language French so I after talking to my French teacher about it I am thinking about doing Japanese for my Leaving Cert outside of school. I know it is late in the year to start but I am willing to put the work in especially over the summer as I plan on living in Japan for a while after university. I'm based in Mayo and I've talked to a two people who did it for their leaving cert and did well without having to get grinds except for their oral exam.

I have the syllabus, getting a few books like grammar ones and Nihongo Kantan books, have been told to put my phone settings in Japanese after a month or two and to watch anime and get some pen pals.

Just posting her to see if that will be enough/ if I'm missing anything/ any tips or comment about it in general

trickshots

i'm studying japanese rn in 6th year and i think you'll find it is a very fun subject to learn! during 5th year, we didn't have a very heavy workload- most of our work was familiarising ourselves with basic sentence structure, introductions & making sure we were able to read and write hiragana & katakana.

will you be attending a class or learning on your own? my class and teacher have found the nihongo kantan books to be pretty unhelpful so you may have to turn to outside resources. i have seen the Genki textbook series to be the one most frequently encouraged for new learners, but it is rather expensive.

i've been using the app WaniKani (free!) to help me learn kanji and vocab and i feel that's been very helpful, especially if you're on a bus/train and have some time to kill!

the japanese in anime tends to be very fast, dramatic & casual or rude, whereas almost all japanese you will speak or write for leaving cert will be formal. definitely watch it if you're interested, but it might not apply and help as much as you would think! there's a netflix reality series done in japanese with english subtitles called Terrace House which people love, if that sort of thing seems interesting then you should try watch it! since its a reality show, it shows how people really talk (one of the girls on the newest series isn't actually japanese, she says that she learned how to speak from watching terrace house!)

it's a pretty easy subject compared to the standards of speaking done for french at leaving cert, and i think you'll find it easy enough to catch up on start by using the ordinary level papers, then work your way to the higher level ones when you think they're easy. if you can find someone willing to correct your essay work, that would definitely be a bonus!

Syntha45

trickshots wrote: »

i'm studying japanese rn in 6th year and i think you'll find it is a very fun subject to learn! during 5th year, we didn't have a very heavy workload- most of our work was familiarising ourselves with basic sentence structure, introductions & making sure we were able to read and write hiragana & katakana.

will you be attending a class or learning on your own? my class and teacher have found the nihongo kantan books to be pretty unhelpful so you may have to turn to outside resources. i have seen the Genki textbook series to be the one most frequently encouraged for new learners, but it is rather expensive.

i've been using the app WaniKani (free!) to help me learn kanji and vocab and i feel that's been very helpful, especially if you're on a bus/train and have some time to kill!

the japanese in anime tends to be very fast, dramatic & casual or rude, whereas almost all japanese you will speak or write for leaving cert will be formal. definitely watch it if you're interested, but it might not apply and help as much as you would think! there's a netflix reality series done in japanese with english subtitles called Terrace House which people love, if that sort of thing seems interesting then you should try watch it! since its a reality show, it shows how people really talk (one of the girls on the newest series isn't actually japanese, she says that she learned how to speak from watching terrace house!)

it's a pretty easy subject compared to the standards of speaking done for french at leaving cert, and i think you'll find it easy enough to catch up on start by using the ordinary level papers, then work your way to the higher level ones when you think they're easy. if you can find someone willing to correct your essay work, that would definitely be a bonus!

Thanks a million for the reply, will take all your advice into account honeslty really means a lot, I'm doing it on my own unfortunately but my french teacher even though she doesn't know Japanese said she'll be checking up on my progress (she does Chinese i know it's different but any help is help as far as I'm concerned) and was thinking about getting some exercise books as a way of continuous assessment for myself and will focus entirely on it over summer

spurious

You might be surprised who is about. Stick a notice up in the back of your local supermarket asking is there any Japanese native about would give you a digout for the oral. There are all sorts of people in the strangest places in Ireland.

Syntha45

spurious wrote: »

You might be surprised who is about. Stick a notice up in the back of your local supermarket asking is there any Japanese native about would give you a digout for the oral. There are all sorts of people in the strangest places in Ireland.

Thanks, very true you never know what you'll find in Ireland 😂

daveintokyo

I'm a Dubliner living in Tokyo for about 7 years now , JLPT N2 certified. I've helped out a few mates back in Ireland with their Japanese study via Skype and e-mail before, and time-permitting I'd be happy to help out OP or anybody else thinking of doing Japanese for the Leaving. Feel free to PM.

evolving_doors

Japanese embassy might point you to conversation classes too...might be more suited to adults.

Syntha45

daveintokyo wrote: »

I'm a Dubliner living in Tokyo for about 7 years now , JLPT N2 certified. I've helped out a few mates back in Ireland with their Japanese study via Skype and e-mail before, and time-permitting I'd be happy to help out OP or anybody else thinking of doing Japanese for the Leaving. Feel free to PM.

thanks man, I'll be in touch with you soon if thats ok

daveintokyo

Syntha45 wrote: »

daveintokyo wrote: »

I'm a Dubliner living in Tokyo for about 7 years now , JLPT N2 certified. I've helped out a few mates back in Ireland with their Japanese study via Skype and e-mail before, and time-permitting I'd be happy to help out OP or anybody else thinking of doing Japanese for the Leaving. Feel free to PM.

thanks man, I'll be in touch with you soon if thats ok

sure thing