What do you think is the most important thing to learn early on when starting vce jap?
I did VCE Japanese and continued it into uni (I have a minor in Japanese studies, despite having a Bachelor of Science (Hons)!). Apart from grammar as mentioned by Jigsaw, here’s a few things I think would be nice to hone in on before VCE Japanese:
1. Your reason to study Japanese - if you like Japanese, there’s probably a good chance that you’re probably interested in some degree to their traditions and culture (whether it be traditional or pop culture e.g. anime, manga, J-pop, electronics, food), their way of life (生活), the language itself or something else entirely. I’d suggest you find some aspect to enjoy about it outside of purely “this is a subject at school I have to learn”, if you haven’t already.
2. Japanese speaking and listening skills. Totally optional, but you’ll likely find the VCE Japanese journey a little easier if you work a little on these two skills. Whether it’s finding a Japanese-speaking friend (who can speak semi-formally i.e. uses the です/ ます form with you) or listening to Japanese media, it’ll help to make the final oral and written exams a little easier. Again, totally optional.
3. Another optional thing you could do is to try having a go at writing with げんこうようし (that square box manuscript paper). There’s a few “rules” that come with writing using げんこうようし, so I can only really see benefit in learning this a bit earlier. (Emphasis on optional.)