should i take beginners or continuers? (1 Viewer)

[killyridols]

i'm choosing my subjects for year 11 and i'm contemplating doing italian through open high school. i used to do italian at saturday school, for like a term in year 7. i ended up getting around halfway through the sempre avanti blue book if anyone here is familiar with it. i'm not sure whether to do beginners or continuers. would beginners be too easy for me? i'm half italian and i can understand it, read it, conjugate verbs etc but i don't want to choose continuers if it is going to be incredibly difficult.

 

[Dreamerish*~]

i'm choosing my subjects for year 11 and i'm contemplating doing italian through open high school. i used to do italian at saturday school, for like a term in year 7. i ended up getting around halfway through the sempre avanti blue book if anyone here is familiar with it. i'm not sure whether to do beginners or continuers. would beginners be too easy for me? i'm half italian and i can understand it, read it, conjugate verbs etc but i don't want to choose continuers if it is going to be incredibly difficult.

The Continuers course for language is usually not too difficult. I think you're confusing it with Background Speakers.

If you can understand everyday-sayings and converse quite easily with your family, then you will probably find even Continuers quite easy. You could use this to your advantage and also choose Extension.

I'm speaking from experience of Chinese and German courses. The same difficulty should apply to all language courses.

Take a look at the 2004 Continuers Paper. Specifically the transcript and the comprehension. If you find this a little difficult, don't worry - you do it after the whole HSC course, in which you'll learn quite a lot.

 

[melsc]

I do Italian Beginners and I did Italian for a whole year in year 8, I also do continuers French

You are much better off doing Beginners because what you did in Year 7 you will cover in a few weeks in Year 11, you go much faster in senior school. Also if you take continuers you will be compeating against people who have done italian for 2-3 years. That means they will know a lot more vocab and much more grammar

Take my example, there wasnt enough to make an Italian class in year 9 so I was thrown in the deep end by joining continuers French, I had to catch up myself only having done a term of French in Year 7, they were doing the past tense and I was still learning the present, it took me at least a term to catch up, and I admit my writing is shocking bcoz I missed the basics. I survived but since its your prelim and HSC years you are much better off taking beginners, I think continuers will be way ahead of you, you could do it but it would be to your advantage to take Italian beginners, its a great course and you learn heaps We also have Italian girls in my beginners class, they say its difficult as they speak a dialect

Still I would ask your teacher and its up to you but I think you are better off doing the beginners, you would be eligable for the course and it would be to your advantage
GOOD LUCK and if you'd like to know more abt the course just ask

 

[killyridols]

thanks for the help. i looked at the 2004 continuers papers and it seemed pretty ok and i understood most of it fairly easily. if i do the beginners course it will be really easy for me . . . but if i take the continuers i'll end up being a lot more fluent in another language. does anyone have a course outline for beginners/continuers?

 

[melsc]

the syllabus for beginners is dodgy and I think this year they are revising it, I would talk to the teacher that would be teaching you to find out wats better for you, I dont have the syllabus but if you have any questions I am here

 

[Chieffy]

At our school to be able to study Italian Cont. u have to have studied italian in Yrs 9 and 10. Although there is one person in my small class of 5 that did a bridging course and recived a certifacte for it and she could do Italian Cont. although her nonna lives with her so take this into consideration also.

I think the best thing to do would be to go to see the teacher in charge of Italian or languages at your school and discuss your options with them.

Just keep in mind that if you do Italian Cont and even Italian Beg. the Italian you learn is Standard Italian not the dilect that many of us are used to hearing, learning and writing from home. Whichever you choose is up to you, good luck with it and remeber you must study !!! dont just think oh im italian it will be easy i dont need to study because u already have an advantage over the others in the state that dont have an Italian background so if you study and have that prior knowledge ur headed for a band 5 at least id say. Good luck and "in bocca al lupo".

 

[elektra]

i was in a similar situation to you i never did italian at school in yr 9 and 10 because i was planning on doing begginers for the HSC (easy marks little work!), but believe me when i say if you could understand most of that 2004 exam you will do well in and should concider cont. seriously, especially if you already get the grammar.. i knew no grammer when i started or hardley any and i had to learn it (what everybody else was revising) in like a month. it was pretty hard to start with, but then i'm shit at english grammer so that didn't really help.

MY advise to you is go of it, now i'm glad i did cont. and i wouldn't change it. i've learn't so much more then i could of in begginers... so if you think you can hack it i'm positive you will get more out of it. BUT you do have to be willing to put in extra work .