Monash Japanese Starting Point

[markwatson]

Just wondering, how big a gap there is between Japanese 5-6 (intermediate 1-2), the usual starting point for students who have done VCE Japanese, and Japanese 7-8 (proficient 1-2), which some people take first year if good enough, i.e how hard is the more advanced one?

[Furbob]

I plan to take Japanese 7/8 after doing 5/6 last year as a part of my Enhancement Study

I personally dont think 5/6 is very hard but I do recommend it considering that it includes 300 new kanji, vocabs lists and quite a number of new grammar patterns beyond VCE (Japanese 5 was quite cruizy as there was some overlap with 3/4 but the difficulty ramped up in Japanese 6)

I'm not sure if the 300 kanji + grammar will be assumed knowledge for Japanese 7/8 but its something worth considering

[markwatson]

Thankyou

Hmm, according to http://arts.monash.edu.au/japanese/ugrad/placement.php :

"Correspondence of JLPT levels and Japanese units at Monash University
Each level of JLPT is expected to achieve the following unit at Monash University:

Level N5: Upon successful completion of Introductory 2
Level N4: Upon successful completion of Intermediate 2
Level N3: Upon successful completion of Proficient 2
Level N2: Upon successful completion of Advanced 2
Level N1: Upon successful completion of Advanced 4 to 6"

I did JLPT N4 a year and a bit ago...I guess if that estimation is accurate, might try for the advanced one

[Furbob]

I did JLPT N4 a year and a bit ago...I guess if that estimation is accurate, might try for the advanced one

advanced one as in Japanese advanced 1/2?

Japanese Proficient 1/2 = Japanese 5/6
Japanese Advanced 1/2 = Japanese 7/8

just to make sure~ you should be aiming for Proficient 1/2

[markwatson]

Yeah proficient is the one I meant, my bad lol

[dc302]

Thankyou

Hmm, according to http://arts.monash.edu.au/japanese/ugrad/placement.php :

"Correspondence of JLPT levels and Japanese units at Monash University
Each level of JLPT is expected to achieve the following unit at Monash University:

Level N5: Upon successful completion of Introductory 2
Level N4: Upon successful completion of Intermediate 2
Level N3: Upon successful completion of Proficient 2
Level N2: Upon successful completion of Advanced 2
Level N1: Upon successful completion of Advanced 4 to 6"

I did JLPT N4 a year and a bit ago...I guess if that estimation is accurate, might try for the advanced one

'A long time ago', JLPT only had 4 levels. If you did level 4, then that is the equivalent of the current level 5. Also, they recommend 3/4 for VCE kids in fact, and 5/6 for high achieveing VCE kids. I definitely think you should aim for 5/6. 7/8 has a lot of kanji and is roughly equivalent to the kanji in JLPT level 2. This is according to my friend who did JLPT 2 before doing 7/8. Of course, I have also done 7/8 and I can tell you that if you can't read chinese, you will need to study quite a bit.

[markwatson]

Nope, I did it after the levels were changed, level N4, equivalent to the old level 3.

Ohh looks like I mixed the levels up cos of the old number system, they dont use that anymore with naming the units. The choice was always between 3/4 and 5/6, not 5/6 and 7/8.

So 5/6 it is

[dc302]

Nope, I did it after the levels were changed, level N4, equivalent to the old level 3.

Ohh looks like I mixed the levels up cos of the old number system, they dont use that anymore with naming the units. The choice was always between 3/4 and 5/6, not 5/6 and 7/8.

So 5/6 it is

Oh shit I just realised this is talking about monash... sorry man. My friend and I both did 7/8 in melbourne, although I'm pretty sure the levels will be similar so what I said should still hold.

[markwatson]

Cheers

[Fyrefly]

I'm not sure if the 300 kanji + grammar will be assumed knowledge for Japanese 7/8 but its something worth considering

It's assumed knowledge.