My daughter decided to take a Japanese class at our directional university because she didn’t think that the classes at HS were challenging enough. She was able to get the last period off at her HS. When she left her university class on Monday, she told me that already knows almost everything that will be taught in the class. Her whole schedule was set up so that she could take this class. Changing her schedule would be very difficult. The whole point of taking a class at the college level was so that she would be challenged and learn more in Japanese. Furthermore, she applied for a scholarship where she wrote about taking a college level Japanese class.
She requested to have a meeting with her counselor to discuss this. One possibility that we explored was that she could self-study for the AP Japanese class and take the test at the end of the year. However, she wouldn’t receive credit for this and will probably have to take a summer class to be able to catch up on credits. Secondly, she already talked about taking the concurrent enrollment Japanese class in her scholarship essay that has already been submitted.
She is already going to TA in 8th period Japanese when she doesn’t have her college class.
I am torn, because I have to pay for the difference in cost between CC and the Directional U. I had no issue with this if she was actually going to be challenged, but this is not the case.
To further complicate matters, she needs to leave her 7th period class ten minutes early on Mondays to get to class on time. When she asked her teacher about leaving early one day every other week, he said that he would consider it. This would make her 10 minutes late to her university class every other week.
She has until the 28th to drop the university class for a full refund.
I am really torn. Any advice? Any thoughts on the best path?
One possibility is to stay in the U class and self-study for the AP Japanese test, if it is too easy. That way she gets the credits. What is the basis for her saying she will not learn anything? The syllabus or the first day of class? I would assume she picked a class that was said to be at a level at which she would learn something.
The other option is to drop it and take another HS class last period. She can always write to the scholarship committee and explain why she dropped it.
How does she know that she knows everything that will be covered in the Japanese class? Is this based on the syllabus? Has she talked to the professor spefically about this?
Will self-study allow for the conversational/speaking skills necessary in learning another language?
Yes - she picked the class based on the description. However, the description does not match the syllabus that the professor handed out during the first day of class, nor what the professor indicated would be covered during the semester. I do think that the interaction in Japanese will be helpful for the conversational/speaking skills aspect of a language.
Over the summer, my daughter took some italki lessons with a native Japanese speaker. She could continue to do this to supplement her self-study for AP Japanese. The lessons are an hour long and are conducted almost entirely in Japanese.
Maybe, she should just stay in the class. It might be the best solution all around given the time constraint and all other factors.
Yes - she did go up after class to speak with the professor to make sure that she understood the syllabus and to discuss her level of Japanese. The professor told her that the class would probably be “too easy for her”.
Does the college offer a more advanced level Japanese language course at the same time or a time that works with her schedule? Or does any other college nearby (whether CC or university) offer an appropriate level Japanese language course at a time that works with her schedule?
Yes - she will be getting credit if she keeps the class. Unfortunately, the only other class that would be appropriate level wise is at 11:00 in the morning and wouldn’t work with her schedule. Unfortunately, there aren’t very many Japanese classes available. Higher level classes are an even rarer.
Even though the other college students might not be at her level, she could arrange with the prof to do more in depth assignments, better readings, or write short papers, etc. Also, if the school has approved this schedule, she shouldn’t have to negotiate with the teacher to get out early- ideally that have been approved as part of the dual enrollment decision.
After going to her second university class, my daughter has decided to drop the class. It is being taught almost entirely in English and she truly can’t see the benefit. I didn’t try to influence her one way or another. While she recognizes that an easy A in a college level class might look good on her transcript, she just isn’t that kind of kid. She readily acknowledges she wouldn’t have any true homework and could ace the tests, but she wants to learn more Japanese and doesn’t want to go through the motions. She is going to self-study for the AP test and TA 8th period Japanese class. We are going to go in and see if she can get an independent study credit. If not, oh well. She also studied French over the summer and is taking French III this year. So she will fulfill her language credit requirements either way. If the very advanced Japanese class works with her schedule next semester, she will take it.
@gouf78 - I don’t know where the passion comes from. She took online Japanese in 8th grade outside of school and hasn’t looked back. She just loves the Japanese language and culture. We have hosted Japanese students three times. As with most kids it started with reading manga and watching anime. My daughter wants to study in Japan and has applied for a scholarship as the program cost is over $15,000. We are waiting to hear if she made the first cut. In the meantime, she is going to continue her self-study using MIT OpenCourseware, Kanji apps and other online resources. I am going to use the money that I would have spent on her university class on her italki lessons so that she has more experience speaking Japanese with a native Japanese person. Hopefully, that will cover all the basis for the AP Japanese test.
Just a funny side note: The college professor father of D’s friend is of Japanese heritage. His parents are Japanese but he was born in the states. He visits Japan and relatives there every few years with his kids. He looks Japanese. Everyone immediately talks to him there.
But he speaks NO Japanese. He never bothered to learn it. His kids do the translating for him since they decided to study it in school. He said that many times the Japanese think he’s deaf and just speak louder before he can indicate that he doesn’t understand a word they are saying. (his kids do a lot of head shaking and eye rolling…)
