Language 3/5 Entry Point

[holaiyin]

I'm planning to continue Japanese at UoM as breadth after finishing VCE Japanese last year. After doing the language placement test, I was placed in Japanese 5, but the description (eg. recognising 400 kanji, knowing honorific forms) makes it sound too hard for someone who has just finished VCE Japanese, especially since Japanese 3 is designed for people who have finished VCE according to the handbook. So I was wondering if anyone has done a language 5 class and if they are difficult to pick up with only VCE language experience? Thank you!

[holaiyin]

I got 37, but I'm worried about doing Japanese 5 and struggling because it may affect my GPA, which needs to be 70% to get into honours. Student connect told me to email the convener to request a change, but are they likely to agree? Thank you for your response btw!

[holaiyin]

Haha thank you! Hopefully 70% is achievable Do you know if the workload is a lot for level 5 languages to keep up?

[Mieow]

I was in the same predicament as you, OP, but I decided to hold off Japanese for a year for personal reasons. From what I heard,
 Japanese 3/4 is pretty much VCE content and some more. So I have a feeling it's a somewhat awkward position where 5 is too advanced but 3 is too easy.

70% is a very manageable WAM and like abc12345j said, doing one difficult subject in first year isn't going to be that detrimental to your overall grade so I say give JPN5 a go and if it's too hard speak to the subject coordinator for approval to go down to 3   

[holaiyin]

Thank you both for your help! UoM advises that you hold off on starting the diploma until second/third year so you can cross-credit your points to your bachelor and DipLang, but by doing that, it means there's no room for other breadths, such as business law that may be more beneficial to my future career. If I'm not planning to work in Japan, do you think doing languages is worthwhile at Uni? Do employers look on it that favourably if the language isn't that relevant to their company? Thanks again!