10 tips for success in Japanese SL

[IntoTheNewWorld]

Hi Japanese Learners  

Here's a list of 10 tips that I hope will be useful in your endeavours in Japanese SL. Some of these tips and techniques may not work for you, everybody is different, but I hope you can gain something from them.

EDIT: Significant rewrite in progress

General Language (Non VCE) tips

1. Continuous, dedicated study

2. VCE textbooks are terrible

3. Vocab > Grammar

4. Study tools/Techniques

5. ...

VCE Specific Tips

6. Start your detailed study early. Your school may start detailed study preparation from the middle of the year, but I strongly recommend you give it an early start. This ensures you are more familiar with all the possible areas within your elected topic, and really enables you to speak on your topic with more authority. Structuring your Detailed Study properly in script form doesn’t have to be done in great detail before term though. Just getting a general feel for it is fine.

7.  Script your oral conversation, and practice it with native speakers. I realise that the examiner’s reports often talk about those who obviously have memorised responses. The people mentioned in the report are those who scripted random sentences, rather than a fully blown script on every possible topic. A detailed script covering all possible areas in detail is very, very helpful for obtaining high marks during the oral exam.

However during the year, in the interests of advancing your Japanese speaking skills which are essential to be able to utilise your script to the fullest, it is best to speak with Native speakers, whether these be your teacher, a tutor, or your friends etc. Although even without actually practicing speaking, you can naturally become more fluent just from being exposed to Japanese. Not being fluent usually stems from lack of vocabulary preventing you from saying what you want to say.

8. Know your essay structures well. This is a simple way to ensure that you don’t lose marks you shouldn’t during the exam. Losing marks on your essay to incorrect VCAA structure is such a waste.

9. Write practice essays on every form (except story, don’t do that), using varied topics. Although I believe reading is more effective for improving your Japanese, writing essays can help you with structure, and gives you a bank of ideas to draw from during the exam, as you’ll probably get a very similar topic. I don’t think it’s beneficial to do it under timed conditions until very, very close to the written exams. It’s better to give yourself all the time you want so that you can gather ideas, which is harder to come up with under timed conditions than structure. When you finish writing an essay ensure to upload it onto Lang-8 for free essay corrections.

10. Near the Written exams, do lots of practice exams. I only know of JLTAV, Leading Edge and VCAA past exams. The JLTAV exams are written very, very poorly so do not worry if you aren’t so well on them. VCAA exams are generally much simpler, and the questions always fit the passages perfectly.

[*ryan777*]

this is great advice
as a past jap SL student mysel, i agree with EVERYTHING above

[*ryan777*]

in my opinion any student who wants to do well should aproach this subject not as just another "subject" where stuff needs to me memorised etc etc but as an interest or hobby  (it will end up being so much more fun and as a result your ss will be AWESOME)

sorry if this was already mentioned above but it NEEDS to be emphasised

btw, a lot of vce japanese teachers will actually discourage you from going beyond the vce curiculum (like my teacher ) but just ignore them and you will be fine as stated above

[IntoTheNewWorld]

in my opinion any student who wants to do well should aproach this subject not as just another "subject" where stuff needs to me memorised etc etc but as an interest or hobby  (it will end up being so much more fun and as a result your ss will be AWESOME)

sorry if this was already mentioned above but it NEEDS to be emphasised

btw, a lot of vce japanese teachers will actually discourage you from going beyond the vce curiculum (like my teacher ) but just ignore them and you will be fine as stated above

yes I definitely agree with this. Japanese (until very close to the Oral and Written exams) shouldn't be treated as a traditional subject, otherwise you'll get bored. Unlike Maths, Physics and the like, you will benefit greatly by ignoring the syllabus, and studying whatever you find interesting (which will push you beyond the syllabus).

[*ryan777*]

just another small piece of advice, it may be a good idea to keep a notepad and pen by your side while you watch anime, drama or whatever and jot down any words/phrases that seem to be commonly said which you dont yet understand, check your dictionary afterwards, you can build up a very fluent, native sort of lexicon which could help you come oral and listning exam/SACs (but make sure you know if the word is slang or not before you actually use it in a VCE exam, slang = big no no in VCE)

[xXNovaxX]

At the risk of sounding stupid,

is it okay to read childrens books (yes the type with lots of illustrations and maybe 3-4 sentences per page?)

Because they are TARGETED to people with simialr abilities? Or is this dumbing yourself down too much?

[IntoTheNewWorld]

At the risk of sounding stupid,

is it okay to read childrens books (yes the type with lots of illustrations and maybe 3-4 sentences per page?)

Because they are TARGETED to people with simialr abilities? Or is this dumbing yourself down too much?

you will find that children's books are actually beyond the VCE Syllabus and harder than VCE exams (mainly vocab wise). Yes that's how broken it is.

[*ryan777*]

At the risk of sounding stupid,

is it okay to read childrens books (yes the type with lots of illustrations and maybe 3-4 sentences per page?)

Because they are TARGETED to people with simialr abilities? Or is this dumbing yourself down too much?

i havent tried that yet, but its definatly worth a try
then again ive found that japnese learnt as a second language is different to a child learning their native language
actually unit 1 english language looks at something like that (but ive forgoten lol )

[*ryan777*]

At the risk of sounding stupid,

is it okay to read childrens books (yes the type with lots of illustrations and maybe 3-4 sentences per page?)

Because they are TARGETED to people with simialr abilities? Or is this dumbing yourself down too much?

you will find that children's books are actually beyond the VCE Syllabus and harder than VCE exams (mainly vocab wise). Yes that's how broken it is.

lol thats actually a tad depressing to hear considering ive been learning since yr7

[IntoTheNewWorld]

At the risk of sounding stupid,

is it okay to read childrens books (yes the type with lots of illustrations and maybe 3-4 sentences per page?)

Because they are TARGETED to people with simialr abilities? Or is this dumbing yourself down too much?

you will find that children's books are actually beyond the VCE Syllabus and harder than VCE exams (mainly vocab wise). Yes that's how broken it is.

lol thats actually a tad depressing to hear considering ive been learning since yr7

LOTE education in Australia is broken =P

Not quite as broken as English education in Japan though.

[*ryan777*]

At the risk of sounding stupid,

is it okay to read childrens books (yes the type with lots of illustrations and maybe 3-4 sentences per page?)

Because they are TARGETED to people with simialr abilities? Or is this dumbing yourself down too much?

you will find that children's books are actually beyond the VCE Syllabus and harder than VCE exams (mainly vocab wise). Yes that's how broken it is.

lol thats actually a tad depressing to hear considering ive been learning since yr7

LOTE education in Australia is broken =P

Not quite as broken as English education in Japan though.

hahaha i was an exchange student back in year 10 but im sure my school just exploited me to help teach "conversation" english
but yeah the way they learn english just does not seem to work at all :-/

[kyzoo]

Most of Sm's tips are applicable to any LOTE. +1 for versatility.

At the risk of sounding stupid,

is it okay to read childrens books (yes the type with lots of illustrations and maybe 3-4 sentences per page?)

Because they are TARGETED to people with simialr abilities? Or is this dumbing yourself down too much?

you will find that children's books are actually beyond the VCE Syllabus and harder than VCE exams (mainly vocab wise). Yes that's how broken it is.

LOL that's the exact same for Chinese. It's especially words that you don't use in essays but use in everyday life such as "sweeping the floor," "digging a hole in the sandpit," "licking a lollipop," just to name a few.

At the risk of sounding stupid,

is it okay to read childrens books (yes the type with lots of illustrations and maybe 3-4 sentences per page?)

Because they are TARGETED to people with simialr abilities? Or is this dumbing yourself down too much?

you will find that children's books are actually beyond the VCE Syllabus and harder than VCE exams (mainly vocab wise). Yes that's how broken it is.

lol thats actually a tad depressing to hear considering ive been learning since yr7

LOTE education in Australia is broken =P

Not quite as broken as English education in Japan though.

hahaha i was an exchange student back in year 10 but im sure my school just exploited me to help teach "conversation" english
but yeah the way they learn english just does not seem to work at all :-/

They learn from reading textbooks?

[*ryan777*]

well yeah, its all textbook based stuff that doesnt seem to have ANY relevace in real life
in japan english is compolsory from about yr7 to yr12 and students spend hours on end doing grammar/vocab type drills that just teach it as a math/science subject rather than a language
after 6 years of learning not a lot of people seem to know how to use it

[kyzoo]

9. Write practice essays on every form (except story, don’t do that)

One question - what's wrong with imaginative? I've been advised against doing it by like 5 people and I want to know why =/

[*ryan777*]

its hard, very very hard
unless your native japanese or something lol