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Japanese GCSE

This course is suitable for those who have already completed the SEG award in the first year or for those who have already studied Japanese up to the equivalent level (please see Japanese SEG for the topic details.)

As a further guide, before starting this course, you should be able to read and write in Japanese scripts (Hiragana and Katakana) and know roughly 100 out of the 200 kanji required for GCSE.

You should also be familiar with the simple past tense in verbs and adjectives, negative forms and various particles.

Qualifications & Assessments

Exam Board Edexcel
Level Level 2
Qualification GCSE
Assessment Method Examination
Entry Requirements Entry Requirements

This QCA recognised qualification will develop learners’ 4 skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing.

The GCSE course is organised into 5 themes:

  • 1. Identity and Culture (yourself, your town, festivals in Japan and in your country, family etc)
  • 2. Local area, holiday and travel
  • 3. School
  • 4. Future aspirations, work and study
  • 5. International and global dimension (international events and environmental issues)

As well as your lessons with your teacher, you will have a timetabled workshop each week in smaller groups to focus on speaking and listening.

At the end of the course you will take four exams, which will test your listening, reading, writing, translation and speaking skills.

Knowledge of a language as distinctive and different as Japanese will make you stand out over people who can only speak one. It will make students more employable. The service industries, business, manufacturing, banking, finance, law, journalism need people who can speak more than one language.

Students who take the subject can take part in a college trip to Japan. They will visit shrines, temples, high tech centres in Tokyo, the centre for world peace in Hiroshima, and our partner high school in Kyoto, the historic former capital of Japan.

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