what if my school doesn't offer vce japanese?

[hildegard]

Hello,

I wish to undertake Japanese SL for my VCE subject, but my school doesn't offer Japanese as a LOTE subject.

So I'm currently attending VSL.

But I had a chat with my careers counsellor the other day and he said that I can take VCE Japanese out of school, but that would mean I have to take 7 VCE subjects in total.

I'm not completely optimistic about the idea and I'm wondering if doing 7 subjects would be worth it or would it be better if I drop Japanese as my subject?

Another thing, I'm currently doing year 10 VSL japanese (I'm in year 9 in day school btw) and would I be allowed to accelerate Japanese along with the 2 other subjects that I'm accelerating at day school? (thus completing vce 3 subjects unit 1 and 2 in yr 10)

btw, I really enjoy learning Japanese though

I would really appreciate the advice!
Thanks

[Geoo]

Hey,

I'm a bit confused as to why you would need to take 7 subjects? Why can't you take six with Japanese being the sixth?

You can take VCE Japanese as a language via VSL with the distance education version. So you would study 5 subjects at your regular school, and Japanese via distance education at VSL?

I'm not sure about the acceleration part, it really depends on each school and what they allow. My school only allowed a maximum of 2 subjects to take accelerated. You would need to discuss this with your year level coordinator.

Hope this helps

[hildegard]

hey there,

thanks so much for your reply!

as for why we need to take 7 subjects in total, our school doesn't permit empty schedules (so like if i was to take japanese as my vce subject, then my schedule would have one subject empty) and we're supposed to undertake 5 subjects in yr 12 (unless if we're accelerating 2 subjects) so that would mean 7 subjects for me including japanese

(btw i'm really sorry for the confusing explanation)

[AngelWings]

I'm not completely optimistic about the idea and I'm wondering if doing 7 subjects would be worth it or would it be better if I drop Japanese as my subject?

Depends on whether you think you can handle it and what you want to do.

Another thing, I'm currently doing year 10 VSL japanese (I'm in year 9 in day school btw) and would I be allowed to accelerate Japanese along with the 2 other subjects that I'm accelerating at day school? (thus completing vce 3 subjects unit 1 and 2 in yr 10)

This is something I did back in 2012. I took U1/2s of Psych, General Maths and Chinese SL in Year 10, with Chinese SL being taken at VSL. This was OK’d by my school, but definitely a bit abnormal. I often struggled with Chinese, being not very strong in the subject to begin with. I ended up quitting Chinese, took Psych U3/4 in Year 11, and took Further U3/4 in Year 12 normally. I did Japanese SL U3/4 in Year 12 normally at my school instead, so I remember the workload being rather heavy and time-consuming.

Depending on your other subjects, you might find the combination to be overwhelming or OK, particularly if your other accelerated subjects are very heavy subjects.

btw, I really enjoy learning Japanese though

I would consider the subjects you’re doing already and decide based on the following two criteria primarily:
1. What subjects are prerequisites for your future studies after high school?
2. What subjects do you like the most?

If you like Japanese and is worth it, then do 7 subjects. If not, don’t.

Back in my day, it wasn’t heavily uncommon for some students go take a 7th subject, especially so they had a “safe subject” in case they wanted to knock out their weakest subject, but this comes at the cost of lack of time and high chance of burn out. Times have changed since I did high school though, so I’m not sure if it’s common any more.

[hildegard]

hey AngelWings,

thanks for your response!!