ploomyblue Posted March 17, 2015 Report Share Posted March 17, 2015 Hey! I'm thinking of self-studying Japanese B SL because although I took Spanish ab initio this year, I found myself really missing having Japanese. Like, really. I've never missed a class that much in my life. So I wanted to take the matter into my own hands. My school doesn't offer Japanese B as a class (not enough people), so I want to self-study it. I would have to do the SL course in one year, mostly on my own, so I was wondering if anyone knows just how difficult it is. If you can put it into JLPT terms, that would be awesome! It's so much easier to find JLPT resources online than IB.... I speak Mandarin, so the part that trips up a lot of Japanese students, the kanji, I'll be able to muddle through semi-effectively even if I've never learned the kanji before. Because of this, I feel like I'll do fine self-studying. I've never taken JLPT either. My best estimate is that if I put in a couple of months of work, I'll pass N4. If anyone can give me anything concrete in terms of what exactly I would need to be able to do, that would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibprincess Posted March 17, 2015 Report Share Posted March 17, 2015 its really hard but the part i struggle most with is kanji so if you can make do with kanji you're already most of the way there. look at some past parers and see how if you can read the paper 1's and answer the paper 2's. i think the course is defiantly above jlpt n4. i know almost all the kanji for n5 and n4 and paper 1 is a complete mystery to me because there are so many kanji i still can't read and then those kanji are in combination with another kanji you can't read then your'e sitting there like ????????maybe ab initio gets you to n4 but i would definitly put Jap b sl at n3ish since you're already halfway through spanish, you could just work towards jlpt N4 for CAS and continue studying spanish in the course?? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucia Malpense Posted May 16, 2015 Report Share Posted May 16, 2015 (edited) Mmm, it really depends on how much effort you're willing to put into it. As far as I can tell, the Japanese B SL curriculum is pretty laughable from what I see on the Paper 2- the kanji is all pretty straightforward Gr. 1- Gr. 2 kanji, and the ones that might be tougher all have furigana. There's even spaces between the words! If you don't have any knowledge of Japanese at the moment, I wouldn't recommend it, but if you've taken a Japanese course in Gr. 8 to Gr. 10., I don't see how you couldn't pull it off. You'd have to actively put in the effort to study a lot orally, aurally, and in your writing however. My honest opinion is that you should stick with Spanish, however. Your situation is kinda similar to mine back when I was deciding what language I should take. I was deciding between Japanese and French, and as I'm fluent in Japanese (I could probably pass N1 with a bit of study), I decided to take French since "Hey, it'd be boring to take a course where I already know everything!" Fast-forward to my exams this month, I sincerely regret that decision. Trust me, come your exams in 2016, you will want to minimize your workload. Edited May 16, 2015 by Lucia Malpense Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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