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March 28, 2024, 10:50:21 pm

Author Topic: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students  (Read 130391 times)  Share 

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Fyrefly

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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #15 on: February 15, 2012, 10:26:40 pm »
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I'm doing Japanese 11 & 12 at monash this year, pray for me :3

!!!

Please let me know how you go! The only way I can fit 11 and 12 into my studies is if I take them in the same semester as 9 and 10 respectively. I think my results are good enough that I'd be able to get permission to do this, but I'm curious to know if it'd be academic suicide or not, ha ha.

Good Luck!
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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #16 on: April 12, 2012, 08:11:02 pm »
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Thanks so much for the invaluable advice!!! 50 in Jap is truly inspirational. :-P
2011- Aus history
2012- English, Literature, Japanese SL, Methods, MUEP Aus history/ politics

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omgllama

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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #17 on: April 13, 2012, 11:49:47 am »
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I'm doing Unit 3 & 4 Japanese this year and I cannot tell you how much I hate it.
There is only three people in my class and I am obviously the lowest scorer.
I have a listening outcome coming up that I have very little faith in passing...
HELP!!! we dont get any questions to answer we just have to go straight into a writing piece...
could someone give me suggestions for making Jap more exciting and easier to learn?????
hahaha yeah like jap could be easy!!
THANK YOU

jibba

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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #18 on: April 13, 2012, 09:16:19 pm »
+1
@omgllama

Japanese can definitely be fun! I can help you with improve your listening if you give me more info on exactly what type of SAC it is...!
Learning Vocab is definitely a key part of learning any new language and I believe the best way to learn is through watching drama or anime.
I prefer Drama as the vocab is more useful!
I love watching comedies mainly as I can have a laugh while listening to the japanese.
I also found it helping watching with both Japanese and English subs (I know they exist for Liar Game Drama)
If you are interested I can recommend you some drama, and link you to the relevant sites~!

I'm actually learning korean from scratch at uni this year, and I'm finding it incredibly hard.... I started watching drama in korean this break and I've picked up new vocab here and there and am starting to get an understanding of the language :) (Also it's becoming more fun as well ! )
I'd strongly recommend watching drama to improve your japanese and make study fun :D


2011: Japanese SL [50] ATAR: 99.40
2012-2017: Arts/Law at Monash
My Japanese Advice Thread Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
2013: Currently tutoring VCE Japanese. JLPT N2
2014: Exchange to Hitotsubashi University, Japan (April - August) & Seoul National University (September - December). JLPT N1
2017: Tutoring VCE Japanese/Offering VCE Japanese notes email : [email protected]

Fyrefly

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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #19 on: April 14, 2012, 03:14:56 pm »
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I'm actually learning korean from scratch at uni this year, and I'm finding it incredibly hard.... I started watching drama in korean this break and I've picked up new vocab here and there and am starting to get an understanding of the language :) (Also it's becoming more fun as well ! )
I'd strongly recommend watching drama to improve your japanese and make study fun :D

How is Korean? My understanding is that much of Japanese and Korean grammar is the same. Does it have the equivalent of kanji, or just an alphabet?
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jibba

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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #20 on: April 14, 2012, 11:39:33 pm »
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I've heard the grammar is similar, I haven't really learnt any grammar yet in my 4 weeks of korean :P
There are some words that are really similar like Yakusoku is Yaksok
They just have an alphabet (Hangul) but the pronunciation is soooo much harder than japanese, they have like three different vowels for 'o'


2011: Japanese SL [50] ATAR: 99.40
2012-2017: Arts/Law at Monash
My Japanese Advice Thread Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
2013: Currently tutoring VCE Japanese. JLPT N2
2014: Exchange to Hitotsubashi University, Japan (April - August) & Seoul National University (September - December). JLPT N1
2017: Tutoring VCE Japanese/Offering VCE Japanese notes email : [email protected]

jessicayao

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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #21 on: April 15, 2012, 04:32:56 am »
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I'm actually learning korean from scratch at uni this year, and I'm finding it incredibly hard.... I started watching drama in korean this break and I've picked up new vocab here and there and am starting to get an understanding of the language :) (Also it's becoming more fun as well ! )

WHAT SORTA KOREAN DRAMA ARE YOU WATCHING???

jibba

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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #22 on: April 15, 2012, 11:37:10 am »
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I don't know many yet XD
But I'm watching 'You're Beautiful'
I've seen the Japanese version (Ikemen Desu ne) and heard that the original korean version was better (I'd have to agree :D)

2011: Japanese SL [50] ATAR: 99.40
2012-2017: Arts/Law at Monash
My Japanese Advice Thread Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
2013: Currently tutoring VCE Japanese. JLPT N2
2014: Exchange to Hitotsubashi University, Japan (April - August) & Seoul National University (September - December). JLPT N1
2017: Tutoring VCE Japanese/Offering VCE Japanese notes email : [email protected]

al.t

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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #23 on: July 18, 2012, 10:19:36 pm »
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hey jibba,

I'm currently studying Jap 3/4 atm and as the oral examinations are coming up, I'm having a very hard time finding and/or choosing a sub-topic to talk about.... which is really starting to make me worry if I can do well, especially since in these past few months I've really come to like Japanese as a language and a culture... D:
My teacher is strongly recommending to my class school life, but I don't feel like I can do too much with it, so I was wondering if you could construct a list of sub-topics and the ones you'd recommend

Also, I think its great you've made this thread to help jap students like me :D and I'm very surprised you were able to pull off a topic like vocaloids O: I'm sure you deserved that 50 :D

Thanks :)v
2011 - Biology
2012 - English | Methods | Chemistry | Physics | Japanese (SL)
2013 - 2015 UoM.BSc | Mechanical Systems

jibba

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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #24 on: July 20, 2012, 06:36:57 pm »
+2
Hey Al
If you would like to talk about something related to school life, you could maybe talk about entrance exams for high schools and universities in Japan. That could lead onto Juku (cram school tutoring), pressure on students, negatives such as sleep deprivation (I heard from my school teacher that there is a saying that if you sleep more than 4-5 hours, you cannot pass!)
You could also maybe talk about students who 'take a gap year' (best way I can put it) because they didn't get into their no.1 university preference, and attend another form of cram school in order to pass the entrance exam for the uni the following year.
I've also seen that some elitist schools in Japan rank students in the year level based on their marks, that may be a topic of discussion when comparing the school system to Australia.

Other school related topics could be bullying, maybe a bit depressing but high school suicides are quite common in Japan (the entrance exam pressure may also be a factor)
Other more fun topics could be bukatsu (club activities) or the Gakuensai (a school festival that schools commonly hold yearly)
That's my brainstorming off the top of my head, but I would recommend choosing a topic you are genuinely interested in! This will make memorization and research a lot more fun and efficient
Good Luck!
« Last Edit: July 20, 2012, 06:38:35 pm by jibba »

2011: Japanese SL [50] ATAR: 99.40
2012-2017: Arts/Law at Monash
My Japanese Advice Thread Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
2013: Currently tutoring VCE Japanese. JLPT N2
2014: Exchange to Hitotsubashi University, Japan (April - August) & Seoul National University (September - December). JLPT N1
2017: Tutoring VCE Japanese/Offering VCE Japanese notes email : [email protected]

Poplar

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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #25 on: July 26, 2012, 03:47:51 pm »
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I'm trying to decide on a detailed study topic. I know, it's late in the year to still be deciding.
My teacher chose a topic for the whole class, and so far she's shown us a clip from a TV show and some articles, and we haven't started writing the speech or anything yet. I'm finding it really uninspiring so far, and I can't think of anything interesting to talk about. Is it supposed to be a presentation of information or a discussion on an issue?

I had an idea that I was considering doing; I heard about it from a segment of a TV show I wanted when I was in Japan last summer. It's called 'Paris Syndrome', and it's a psychological disorder that tourists (in particular Japanese) sometimes encounter. It's similar to culture shock - they have this romantic, dream-like image of Paris in the media but when they finally get there it doesn't meet their expectations. It can cause delusions, hallucinations, feelings of persecution and apparently people call the Japanese Embassy about their problems pretty regularly.

I'm not sure how easy it would be to study though, especially with my teacher's reluctance to allow us to pursue a topic other than the one she set.

Also it could be much too topical, instead of something that you just talk about? I'd like to hear a second opinion.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2012, 04:04:02 pm by Poplar »
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jibba

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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #26 on: July 26, 2012, 08:20:39 pm »
+2
@Poplar (also love the Sawako DP ^^)

To sum up, I think that's a great idea!!
Definitely a very interesting topic and a quick google search leads to many results.

You seem to be a bit confused about how the detailed study component of the speaking exam is actually like. It's a bit of a hybrid between a presentation and a discussion isn't it...
Maybe a simple analogy could be that that it's a bit like a press conference, where you front up and present some information to an audience and based on that information you get asked questions. But in the detailed study, the information you present at the very start is in the one minute introduction, which is what the examiners will base their questions on. (I probably confused you more D:)

Back to your topic, I think it's quite unique and if you research thoroughly, you should score very highly!
I'd recommend trying to find as many Japanese news reports on パリ症候群 as you can, I found them very useful when preparing for my topic. Also you should be able to find statistics, which would also be helpful.
You could structure it like, Introduction, Definition/Explanation of topic, History/Factors leading to Syndrome, Negatives, (Benefits? not any are there), Your Opinion, Proposed Solutions to Problems, Future Issues
I tried moulding the generic structure of a detailed study to suit your topic, but as I don't know much about it, you would obviously categorise it differently based on your research.
Good Luck!

2011: Japanese SL [50] ATAR: 99.40
2012-2017: Arts/Law at Monash
My Japanese Advice Thread Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
2013: Currently tutoring VCE Japanese. JLPT N2
2014: Exchange to Hitotsubashi University, Japan (April - August) & Seoul National University (September - December). JLPT N1
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Poplar

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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #27 on: July 27, 2012, 03:08:53 pm »
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Oh, your explanation makes sense. My teacher hasn't talked much about the actual exam yet so I wasn't really sure.
Thanks for all the advice, I'm feeling a bit more confident about it now.
2013-2017: Bachelor of Software Engineering and Diploma of Modern Languages (Japanese, advanced entry)

J0nnyb0i27

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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #28 on: November 09, 2012, 10:45:23 am »
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Hey Jibba,
I am nearing the end of my exams, with Japanese being the last one on the 19th of November, which gives me just over a week to prepare for. However, because I have had 5 others preceding it, i've naturally neglected study of Japanese in general since the school break-up (October 22nd), and feel like my listening, vocab etc. is very rusty. As I feel really unprepared, what  would you suggest as the best way to prepare in this final week leading up the Japanese written exam? And I don't know whether writing in english or romaji is best for listening tasks- i've just written down in English for the whole year, but do you think I could get used to writing in romaji in a week of practice?

Thanks alot,
Jonny.

jibba

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Re: Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
« Reply #29 on: November 09, 2012, 11:23:52 am »
+3
I'd say spend time revising what you already know (like especially vocab and kanji) to make sure you can recall those things like how to write kanji, or the spelling of vocab instantaneously, without having to waste time searching it in the dictionary. As you have a week to study, you can still learn new vocab over that week but best to start learning those ASAP instead of leaving til like the night before. That way you can recall them better.
Vocab is quite important I think, and if you read last years examiners report it mentions students commonly making the mistake of ようやく instead of よやく. (I spent the last minute of my exam changing ようやく to  よやく for what it's worth lol) If you can get a wide range of vocab memorised (and learn it correctly), you will do much better in the exam. If you're using the Wakatta text book, try and learn as much of the vocab in it as you can. My aim was to learn all of them, but by the time of the exam I probably knew about 90-95%. Kanji I knew 100% of the VCE ones, and a few extra ones which I used in the Writing Section.  

With Listening, I would recommend for the ANSWER in ENGLISH listening, to make notes in english but for the ANSWER in JAPANESE to make notes in Roomaji (as close to word for word as what you heard in the dialogue).
In the Answer in English section, the aim is to translate the word into English as accurately as possible. So if they say 料理(りょうり)を作ったことがない it would translate best to 'I haven't cooked before' NOT 'I can't cook' which would be 料理を作ることができない (Commonsense right? But some people still make the mistake)
In the Answer in Japanese section, they are testing how well you can hear the language of Japanese and understand the conversation. All you need to do is copy what they say and write it in the answer section in Japanese. (Although there might be exceptions where they do intend for you to change the way the phrase is worded) The aim of the Answer in Japanese section for listening is NOT to test your grammar, that is done in the Answer in Japanese section for the Reading Comprehension.
With noting in Roomaji, you can get used to doing that in a week of practice. I used to do the same thing, note in English then try translate it back to Japanese, but then I realised how inefficient that was when the purpose of that section is to copy the Japanese they say and write that as your answer

I hope I answered your question, feel free to ask about anything else ~
(I'll probably be active the night before the exam when all the questions may flood XD)

2011: Japanese SL [50] ATAR: 99.40
2012-2017: Arts/Law at Monash
My Japanese Advice Thread Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students
2013: Currently tutoring VCE Japanese. JLPT N2
2014: Exchange to Hitotsubashi University, Japan (April - August) & Seoul National University (September - December). JLPT N1
2017: Tutoring VCE Japanese/Offering VCE Japanese notes email : [email protected]