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Is Extension Jap hard? Should I do it? (1 Viewer)

super-shinobi

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Hi everyone! I was wondering if someone that has done extension Japanese can answer my question... To be frank, I'm quite worried about extension jap. I know its scaling is good and I'd like to do it. But that was before I saw the orals past papers for hsc.

We have to give our educated opinion on 3 political issues and talk for 2 minutes each? Thats freaky.... I dont know if I'll be able to come up with good answers in a ten minute preparation time... I'm quite confident that I can do well in Continuers though. I've been doing Japanese for 4 years and a bit during primary.

However, I've heard this enough from people to know myself. Just because you're really good at a subject, doesn't guarantee you'll do really well in the next level. What if I do really well in Continuers but really bad in Extension?? The Extension Orals really scary me T_T

Plus, my Japanese teacher said that Extension is not really related to Continuers, its a seperate course... if it wasnt for that and the past papers I dont think id be as scared.....

So the question is... should I do Extension in Year 12? I'm definitely doing Continuers though.

Arigatou o(^w^)o
 
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pLuvia

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Extension gives a bit of an edge to doing the continuers course, it exposes you to more things then just family and that crap. You learn more vocabulary which you can use in continuers but it's a whole new level. Instead of writing diary/letters etc you write essays/newspaper articles/speeches etc.

You have to write nearly double the amount of ji then you do in continuers but honestly thats a good thing because you need as much ji as you can.

For the orals, you have to write 2 two minutes speeches in 10 mins so 5 mins for each, then you just talk into a cassette player and that gets marked.

You also study a book in extension which was pretty good in my opinion

I think there's only one topic in continuers that has a bit of relevance to the extension course, it's one of the last topics you learn (environmental issues? something like that)

About the scaling, it scales great really good. I did pretty bad for extension, decent for continuers and it actually counted in my UAI. You don't really have to do that good to get the benefits of the scaling.

But seriously consider doing it, it might be frightening in the first few weeks but that dies down pretty fast. If you don't like it then just drop it, no harm done :)
 

super-shinobi

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pLuvia said:
For the orals, you have to write 2 two minutes speeches in 10 mins so 5 mins for each, then you just talk into a cassette player and that gets marked.
Thanks for the information pLuvia ^^ Its helped alot. But I've checked out the past papers from the board of studies website and there were 3 oral questions? Does that mean we just choose two? And I thought we were getting marked by an examiner for orals? =S Does that mean when we get to the examination venue they just give us 10 minutes preparation and then we have to record it? Hmmm

watatank said:
I heard it was a lot like learning English, but in the Japanese language...is that true?
Probably something like that but I doubt we would be analysing poems and stuff... I think its just alot more vocab and stuff.... lol but I could be wrong since I havent done extension =/
 
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pLuvia

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There are three questions, each one covers each issue, you choose two and write two speeches. You speak into a cassette tape which is supervised by a HSC marker and then that tape gets sent to the marking centre

Extension is sort of like english but in japanese, but much easier
 

super-shinobi

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pLuvia said:
There are three questions, each one covers each issue, you choose two and write two speeches. You speak into a cassette tape which is supervised by a HSC marker and then that tape gets sent to the marking centre

Extension is sort of like english but in japanese, but much easier
本当にありがとうございます!Now I dont have to worry ^^
 

aaronduke

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I'm also deliberating doing extension Japanese or next year.

I really really want to do it, but whether or not I physically can.


I've been topping Jap every year since year 9, and I'm doing continuers this year.

I dunno whether extension is a bit beyond me?


Aaaaa.a.a.a.a
 

super-shinobi

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You should be fine! As you said, you've been topping the year. It really depends on your confidence. Like how are you coping currently with Continuers? If your aceing it already, then you might want to consider Extension.

Its not really my place to say these kinda things really, XD cuz I'm still in Year 10.... but yeah, it also depends how much you enjoy the subject. I really like Japanese so I'm going to see how I do next year and if I do well, I'm doing to do Extension for my HSC course. Because everyone definitely performs their best in subjects they enjoy the most.

The only thing I was worried about was the Japanese Orals... that was scary =/ but its less intimidating if you just record it on a cassette rather than have someone stare at you blankly for 4 minutes while you blab on about political issues... its like you're talking to a wall... except it stares back!!

Anyway, good luck with your Japanese studies ^_^
 

CieL

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I actually liked talking to a person more than a tape..

Every year for 6yrs all my speaking exams have been in front of people.. and when it was the HSC, I was suddenly talking to a tape recorder.. which sucked.. because when you talk to a person you can see a hint through their expression of how good/sucky your speech is.. and if they're nice, you feel encouraged to go on.. the recorder was just plain weird.. it was so awkward when I couldnt think of anything else to say and I was like, "....da toumoimasu... yes... that is all... do I press stop now?" into the mic
 

kkewi90

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i agree with Ciel!! the tape recorder is weird...we practiced with a tape recorder for our half yearlies and the teacher near shoved the thing under my nose.....freaky
 
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aaronduke said:
I'm also deliberating doing extension Japanese or next year.

I really really want to do it, but whether or not I physically can.


I've been topping Jap every year since year 9, and I'm doing continuers this year.

I dunno whether extension is a bit beyond me?


Aaaaa.a.a.a.a
that's a question you've got to find out for yourself really.

extension japanese generally are for people who really love their japanese and have quite a good grasp of it.

topping junior school in japanese doesn't mean anything really. i topped it, struggled to keep up with year 11 work (that's just me, lost a little interest and got lazy) and i ended up last in my continuers course (out of nine) and i never did extension. although that was because i was over japanese by the end of it and i was forced to keep it so i could get a uai.

i mean thats just me, your situation could be quite different. see how you feel at the end of year 11 and then get advice from your teacher and then decide. if you're keeping up with it quite easily and you really like japanese then it would be advisable to do extension.
 
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