Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Japanese GCSE (Edexcel): oral exam + which textbooks?

Hi. I'm studying with a view to taking GCSE Japanese (Edexcel) exams next June. I'll be sitting them as a private candidate and so have to teach myself the course. I've been learning on-and-off for a few years, dipping in and out of various textbooks, but my knowledge is pretty disparate.

Most textbooks cover roughly the same stuff, but at different levels of depth and difficulty, and I'm aware it's quite possible I could fail the GCSE simply from using a textbook that fails to cover a crucial area because it's focusing more on business-Japanese, or something. I don't really know how much material the GCSE covers, either, or which kanji i'm expected to be able to read/write at this level. Past papers I've seen have some in, but I don't know how extensively. Textbooks are all different; Book 1 of Japanese for Busy People, for example, uses none, whereas Genki expects you to read quite a lot from the start, but not to write them, and provides the furigana throughout in case you're lazy. Separate kanji books cherry-pick the 'first 100', and it varies hugely depending on the authors. Kanji don't come easily to me, and I'm afraid of wasting hours learning ones I don't need yet. I don't know if I'd lose marks for being able to write kanji they don't expect me to know but not the ones they do, etc.. I'm very very lost ' :smile:

I'm also confused about plain/polite styles of speech, and when in the exams I'll be using each. JfBP would have you believe the plain style doesn't exist for most of the first volume, making verb conjugation needlessly confusing, whereas Genki throws you right in with both at the start.

Can anyone who's actually on a taught version of the course recommend the textbooks their tutors have given them? Or any general guidance they've been given in this area? I know it won't hurt to use several books, but it'd be good to have some reassurance, or a warning what *not* to use.

Also, can anyone who's taken the GCSE as a private candidate talk about their experience arranging the oral exam? I'm having a lot of trouble organising a tutor to take me through it, and the college is not being at all helpful T_T

Sorry for long post. Many thanks.

Reply 1

Mani Katti

Hey! I sat GCSE Japanese privately 2 years ago, I've just finished my A-level and all being well I'm off to do a degree in it in September. I can't help you much with the oral exam because it wasn't compulsory when I did it, but I can hopefully provide some insight into what you're expected to know.

The specification contains all of the Kanji/grammatical points you'll be tested on. They also have a very extensive vocabulary list of useful words to know, but I didn't know nearly as many when I sat my exam and I still did fairly well.

http://www.edexcel.com/migrationdocuments/GCSE%20New%20GCSE/Edexcel%20GCSE%20Japanese%20-%20Spec.pdf

Plain form vs polite form: most students of Japanese start learning Japanese in polite form. Thus unless a grammatical point requires use of plain, you're generally okay to write in polite form. 本だと思います for example requires the plain form "da" after "hon" because that's grammatically correct, but "omoi-masu" would be how most people finish the sentence, rather than simply "omou". You will find the listening/reading exams in polite form, unless that's changed.

Text book wised, I used "Japanese for Young People I" in year 10 and tbh I ditched textbooks in year 11: you can never get one which uses the right Kanji, vocab etc and my teacher just gave me a course pack with exercises instead. If you teach yourself the Kanji, particles and grammar in the specification, then you probably won't need a textbook, as as you said, there isn't one developed specifically for GCSE so many miss out bits or include unecessary bits. A good assessment of your ability would be to look at some past papers: http://www.edexcel.com/i-am-a/student/Pages/Pastpapers.aspx contains papers for both the current session and the previous one (2009 and 2001, it's worth looking at them all, although the 2001 and beyond ones are generally a bit harder and you're more likely to have ones in the post 2009 style). If you feel comfortable doing them, then you'll be fine, if not, then identify what the weakest area is: is it Kanji? Listening? And from there you'll know where you need to work on the most.

With regards to the writing exam, I don't think they expect a whole lot from you tbh (unlike at A-level ;___; ). Generally they like you to use at least 10 or so different Kanji per essay, and a couple of good grammatical points, the favourites being つもりです (I intend), ・・・たいです(I want), 思います (I think)、・・・たり・・・たりする (I do x and y)、ながら (whilst doing x...). Have a look through the specification and see what you can do already and what you can't do, and work from there. Listening/reading wise is generally box ticking and such so although you should be able to recognise the 200 Kanji in the list, you don't necessarily need to be able to write all of them.

If you've got any further questions, then do drop me a PM, I'll do my best to answer ^_^