Thinking of taking two beginner languages for HSC (1 Viewer)

Winterseason

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Currently I am in year 10 and plan to take:

Advanced English
Maths 2u
Chemistry
Biology(maybe instead Physics)
French (at school if a class runs)
Indonesian (distance ed)
Spanish (distance ed)

Has anyone taken two languages for the HSC? Is it difficult or unadvisable? I plan to take French and Indonesian but it if class doesn't run I guess Indonesian and Spanish. I'm not very certain whether two distance ed languages workload is bearable. I hope to achieve a high band 5 or average band 6. Say if I take French and Spanish will I get confused and mixed up?

Thanks
 

Wonder

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Are you studying two languages as electives right now? If not, I'd be inclined to advise against it - you wouldn't be used to it and yes, you can get mixed up (although I suppose it might be easier with languages like French and Indonesian, which are fairly different, compared with French and Spanish, which have similar logistics).
 

Winterseason

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I'm only studying one language now which is Italian. I'll think about this. I hope to score 90+ so it doesn't scale down in both of languages. I know it is a difficult task. I better think of another subject in case I take only one language.
 

laura-jayne14

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I study Italian which I enjoy but I don't know about studying two languages. Although I go well at this subject, it is very hard. You basically have to learn 3 years worth of work in a year and a half. Especially by distance education you can't get as much help of the teacher (I do Italian at school). 5 people have already dropped the subject. But, if you enjoy the subject and will work hard.... Go for it!
 

Winterseason

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That information is insightful laura-jayne14. It will be useful in helping me decide whether to take a language or languages. I never knew it was 3 years worth of work in a year and a half. It is more difficult than expected. All the best in your Italian studies :)
 

laura-jayne14

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That information is insightful laura-jayne14. It will be useful in helping me decide whether to take a language or languages. I never knew it was 3 years worth of work in a year and a half. It is more difficult than expected. All the best in your Italian studies :)
don't let me put you off. I am enjoying it. You just have to remember to constantly revise :) have you ever thought of doing Italian Continuers? I know I did 100hrs in year 10 so I still scrape into the beginners course.
 

Winterseason

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I did 100hrs in Year 9 and this year I asked if I could drop the subject (my elective) but they said no because I wouldn't be credited for the course.
How does that work?
 

simplyinsanity

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Doing two languages is achievable but it is definitely a challenge (one of my friends is doing that right now). You have to truly enjoy languages. From what you have posted here, I would recommend that you select just one language to study in the HSC. This would be because: 1) You're only studying one language at the moment and 2) None of the languages you are considering is what you are studying right now. When you first start a language, that is probably the hardest part when studying. It'll be confusing, particularly when you're not used to the way the grammer works or the wording.

Alternately, you could try doing two languages during the prelim course. Then, for the HSC, you would continue with the language you enjoy more/perform better in.

Good luck :)
 

simplyinsanity

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I did 100hrs in Year 9 and this year I asked if I could drop the subject (my elective) but they said no because I wouldn't be credited for the course.
How does that work?
It might be because you need 2 elective subjects in order to complete year 10 and be eligible for the prelim course.
 

eileend

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one of my friends did two languages with open high school (chinese continuous+ extension and japanese beginners)
and chinese and japanese is very easy to mix up (some characters/pronounciations in chinese are the same/different in japanese)
he got band 6's in chinese and band 5 in jap.

so it is doable and from doing distance education with the open high school i actually enjoyed it:
pros:
- more frees during school times (study your language, go to school later, even have only a 4 day school week)
- freedom
- OHS suprisingly has a high reputation of getting state rankers

cons...
- you might fall behind if you ditch your work (which... i kinda did but its easy to catch up )
 

Winterseason

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It shows that it is achievable to do well in two languages, and with two languages that can be mixed up easily. I'll keep it in mind thanks for the input.
 

kokame

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im in year 10 as well and im doing 3 languages.
japanese, chinese and korean.
i started jap in year 7. chinese in year 9 and im doing accelerated korean course so i could be able to take korean cont. in year 11
and chinese and korean im taking through the open high school (distance ed) and jap is a school elective.

i think its really hard, as all three languages have similar loan words, grammar structures and i get confused... but it's really fun

but im thinking of dropping to two languages...
 

leahh

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A friend did French Beginners in Year 11...I didn't thought she would do well but not only did she get Band 6, she's living the high life in Paris for the past 4 years..working adn studying
 

N-aomi

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one of my friends did two languages with open high school (chinese continuous+ extension and japanese beginners)
and chinese and japanese is very easy to mix up (some characters/pronounciations in chinese are the same/different in japanese)
he got band 6's in chinese and band 5 in jap.

so it is doable and from doing distance education with the open high school i actually enjoyed it:
pros:
- more frees during school times (study your language, go to school later, even have only a 4 day school week)
- freedom
- OHS suprisingly has a high reputation of getting state rankers

cons...
- you might fall behind if you ditch your work (which... i kinda did but its easy to catch up )
I do Heritage Chinese at Open High, and French Beginners at school. Would you say an atar of 90+ is still achievable with two of my subjects scaling very low?
 

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