Q/A and advice for 2012/Future VCE Japanese Students

[Fyrefly]

One way that I am trying to improve my listening is by watching the Japanese news whenever possible and checking up some of the common words that I don't understand.
Would you recommend this to VCE students? Am I wasting my time?
Is understanding somewhere from two-fifths to three-quarters of that (depending on the level of difficulty and the day) anywhere near idyllic? (Usually a good portion of this is me listening, not watching.)

You probably can learn a lot of new vocab from watching daily news, but I found that they use a lot of difficult words that I don't know either in some news stories. Understanding about 50-70% is still really good at VCE level!
If you want to watch Japanese news programs, I'd recommend maybe looking for special news reports where they introduce something. Probably the vocab used in those types of segments is more useful and easier to understand!
Maybe like this from Asahi TV News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNcMaHSYoHg 

I only watched Japanese News when I was looking for things for detailed study related things! I think just youtubing clips from drama might be more helpful though because the daily conversation and vocab used is more like what you will probably have in your exam.

I strongly recommend this: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/
It's an *easy* version of the NHK news.
They speak more slowly and with more simple Japanese.

Edit: Also, for the written articles, you can hover over words to read their definitions (in Japanese).

[jibba]

@Edward

Try watch some dramas with Japanese + English subtitles if you can!
Liar Game is a good one! I remember I watched it with Japanese + English subtitles when I was in high school.
 
If you can't keep up with the lines, it is usually because you are not familiar with the vocabulary. Also might be you have come across the vocabulary before but you haven't heard it being spoken before so you are unable to recognise it quickly. Either way, it's good to watch drama and listen for vocabulary you do know and also write down ones that you don't know but hear regularly.
Good luck (y)

[AngelWings]

Thanks for the advice, Fyrefly and jibba. Much appreciated.

[Edward Elric]

@Edward

Try watch some dramas with Japanese + English subtitles if you can!
Liar Game is a good one! I remember I watched it with Japanese + English subtitles when I was in high school.
 
If you can't keep up with the lines, it is usually because you are not familiar with the vocabulary. Also might be you have come across the vocabulary before but you haven't heard it being spoken before so you are unable to recognise it quickly. Either way, it's good to watch drama and listen for vocabulary you do know and also write down ones that you don't know but hear regularly.
Good luck (y)

Thank you so much, I appreciate it

[RazzMeTazz]

This is going to sound really ignorant, since I am doing Year.11 Japanese at the moment, but what exactly are 'General conversation' and 'Detailed Study' for Japanese?
I knew there was an oral exam at the end of the Year 12 but that's about it..

My teacher rarely talks about them and I don't personally know anyone close to me, who has done VCE Japanese before, so I realised I actually have no idea what they are.

Thanks!

[RazzMeTazz]

Hi, when you are nominalising verbs to make them act like nouns, my book (Wakatta) says you add こと / の  to the appropriate plain form of the verb.

So then if you had the sentence 母が車をガレージにいれるのが聞こえました, would that translate to "I heard mum put the car in the garage" or " I heard mum putting the car in the garage."

Because the book says this would translate to " I heard mum putting the car into the garage" but I was confused, because if it was putting I thought the verb would have to be いれている not いれる ?

Is there any difference between using the plain continuous form of the verb (いれている) or just the plain form (いれる) or am I just not making any sense? 

Any clarifications would be appreciated!

[Mieow]

This is going to sound really ignorant, since I am doing Year.11 Japanese at the moment, but what exactly are 'General conversation' and 'Detailed Study' for Japanese?

The oral exam has two sections: General Convo (~7 minutes) and Detailed Study (~8 minutes). General convo is just the really generic conversation, like travel, family, work, study, hobby etc. and it could go anywhere. Detailed Study is a discussion on a topic that you choose to research about. For example, my topic is Pop Culture, and I researched on a girl band named AKB48. So I'll present some information and research that I found and the assessors will ask me questions on that to facilitate deeper discussion.
Hope this helped 

[Mieow]

What are the writing conventions used in writing an email?
Like how in a letter you open up with a greeting and comment on the season etc, what are the key features used in emails?

[Fyrefly]

What are the writing conventions used in writing an email?
Like how in a letter you open up with a greeting and comment on the season etc, what are the key features used in emails?

What sort of email? Who are you writing the email to?

[Mieow]

What sort of email? Who are you writing the email to?

It's an email to my friend Kazumi persuading her to stay in Australia because she wants to go back to Japan (2008 exam)

[Fyrefly]

It's an email to my friend Kazumi persuading her to stay in Australia because she wants to go back to Japan (2008 exam)

That's... not what I was expecting. VCE is not real-life, so see what jibba says because he has VCE experience.

General format for emails:

------------------------------------------------------------------
Email Subject Line (Make sure you fill this out)


Recipient + Honorific (先生、様)

State your Affiliation. (モナシュ大学のホタルです。)
Opening Greeting (いつもお世話になっております。）

Introduce the Topic of your Email (来週の発表について、お願いがあります。)

Elaborate and Explain your Topic (this is the essence of your email).

Closing Greeting (では、よろしくお願い致します。)

Sender Name (ホタル　イーネ)

------------------------------------------------------------------

[RazzMeTazz]

Could someone please explain the 'て きます' pattern?

My Wakatta book says that it means to go do something and then come back, but would that be used in translations from Japanese to English?

For example: "パンを買ってきます’ would that be: I will go buy bread and come back?

[RazzMeTazz]

The oral exam has two sections: General Convo (~7 minutes) and Detailed Study (~8 minutes). General convo is just the really generic conversation, like travel, family, work, study, hobby etc. and it could go anywhere. Detailed Study is a discussion on a topic that you choose to research about. For example, my topic is Pop Culture, and I researched on a girl band named AKB48. So I'll present some information and research that I found and the assessors will ask me questions on that to facilitate deeper discussion.
Hope this helped 

Thankyou for the explanation !

[Fyrefly]

Could someone please explain the 'て きます' pattern?

My Wakatta book says that it means to go do something and then come back, but would that be used in translations from Japanese to English?

For example: "パンを買ってきます’ would that be: I will go buy bread and come back?

Yeah, that's how I'd translate it. Japanese and English are very different languages, so it's hard to get a clean translation. For your exam, write what you've suggested. For your own learning and understanding though, I think the most natural spoken English would probably be more like: "I'm going to buy bread. I'll be back."

[RazzMeTazz]

I'm finding I have trouble with direct translation from Japanese into English, if someone could clarify things that would be of great help.

My workbook says that the sentence: "本田さんのドレスはすてきだったとおもいます。” would be translated into English as " I thought Mrs.Honda's dress was beautiful."

But then for another sentence: "ハりーくんのたん生日はきのうだったと思います”  English translation is stated as " I thinkHarry's birthday was yesterday." In accordance with the translation of the previous example shouldn't this sentence then be translated into English as " I thought Harry's birthday was yesterday."

So ultimately my main question is if you have a past tense/negative word before the '思います’ does that essentially change the "I think" to " I thought" or " I don't think."

??