HSC Japanese Beginners (NSW) common mistakes
HSC Japanese Beginners (NSW) · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Writing hiragana for words the syllabus expects in kanji (e.g., がっこう for 学校, せんせい for 先生, ともだち for 友だち) in the writing task, and so losing marks for script accuracy that the rubric rewards.
Candidates learn vocabulary first in kana and never upgrade their mental spelling to the kanji form; under time pressure they default to whichever form comes to mind fastest, and they do not keep a running list of which words in each topic area are expected in kanji.
What to do instead
Build a topic-by-topic kanji checklist from the syllabus vocabulary (school, family, places, activities) and drill writing those words in kanji in short sentences, not in isolation. In the last five minutes of the writing task, scan the response specifically for kana spellings of known kanji words and convert them.
Producing a script that mixes registers and scripts inappropriately, for example writing a formal email to a host family or teacher entirely in romaji or in casual dictionary form (e.g., いく, たべる) instead of the polite です/ます style taught for this course.
Candidates rehearse the casual forms they hear in class or in anime and never practise sustained polite writing; they also panic about kanji and fall back on romaji, not realising the rubric penalises it.
What to do instead
Practise every writing genre (email, note, diary entry, short message) in です/ます form only, with a fixed opening and closing formula. Keep a one-page bank of polite sentence endings (〜ます, 〜ました, 〜たいです, 〜と思います) and use it as a checklist before submitting.
Answering a Japanese listening or reading question in English, or giving a one-word answer, when the question is in Japanese and asks for a response in Japanese (e.g., なんじですか。→ answering 'seven o'clock' instead of しちじです).
Under exam pressure candidates answer the content of the question and ignore the language of the question stem; beginners also default to English because it feels safer and faster.
What to do instead
Before writing, circle the question word and note the expected answer language. Train with paired drills where the same question is asked in Japanese and the model answer is a full Japanese sentence, and always answer in a complete sentence with the appropriate ending.
Confusing particles that mark grammatical roles, especially は/が, に/で, and を/が, so that a sentence such as 'I study Japanese at school' becomes 学校に日本語を勉強します or 'There is a park in my town' becomes 町で公園があります.
Particles are taught as translations of English prepositions ('in', 'at', 'to'), so candidates map them one-to-one onto English rather than learning the Japanese case structure; に and で both translate as 'in/at' in English, which drives the error.
What to do instead
Learn particles by function with a fixed sentence frame for each: に for destination and existence, で for location of an action and means, を for direct object, が for new information with あります/います. Write ten original sentences per pair using only the frames, and self-check each particle against its function, not its English gloss.
Writing a prepared or memorised response that does not answer the actual prompt, for example producing a generic self-introduction when the task asks about weekend plans, or listing hobbies when asked about future aspirations.
Candidates memorise model paragraphs and try to force them onto any prompt; they skim the Japanese prompt and latch onto one familiar keyword rather than identifying exactly what is being asked (who, what, when, why).
What to do instead
Before writing, underline the task's key nouns and question words and jot a three-point plan (what is asked, what tense, what register). Practise adapting one core paragraph to five different prompts by changing only the content sentences, keeping the grammar frames.
Using the wrong tense or polarity for the time frame in the prompt, e.g., describing a past holiday in the present tense (京都に行きます) or answering a negative question with the wrong yes/no (〜ませんか。→ はい、行きません).
The past tense of adjectives and verbs (〜ました, 〜かったです, 〜でした) is learned later and is less automatised, and negative questions work differently from English, so candidates answer the English logic rather than the Japanese one.
What to do instead
Drill time markers with their matching forms (まいにち→〜ます, きのう/せんしゅう→〜ました, らいしゅう→〜ます/〜つもりです) and practise negative questions as a set, noting that はい agrees with the negative statement. Re-read the finished answer and check every verb ending against its time marker.
Missing or misreading key information in a reading or listening text because the candidate stops at the first unknown word, or because they confuse similar-sounding numbers, counters, and times (e.g., しちじ/いちじ, よんにん/ににん, せんえん/せんえん).
Beginners read word-by-word and treat unknown vocabulary as fatal; katakana loanwords and numbers are decoded slowly, and long vowels and small っ/ゃ/ゅ/ょ are not distinguished by ear or eye.
What to do instead
Practise skimming for the question's keyword first and reading around unknown words for gist. Drill numbers, counters and times aloud in pairs daily, and practise distinguishing minimal pairs (びょういん/びよういん, おばさん/おばあさん) in short dictation exercises.
Writing katakana loanwords incorrectly, with wrong long vowels, missing small ッ or ャ/ュ/ョ, or substituting hiragana (e.g., パーティー written as パーテイ, コンピューター as コンピユター), and misreading them in listening tasks.
Katakana is introduced quickly and revised least; English speakers map English spelling onto katakana rather than the Japanese sound system, and long-vowel marks are treated as decoration.
What to do instead
Keep a loanword list for each topic (food, travel, technology, sport) with the long-vowel mark and small kana highlighted, and copy each word three times aloud with correct mora timing. In listening practice, transcribe katakana words and check the long-vowel marks against the audio.
Giving a thin, single-clause answer to a speaking or writing prompt that requires elaboration, e.g., answering しゅうまつに何をしますか。with only テニスをします instead of adding when, with whom, and why.
Candidates treat the task as a comprehension check rather than a production task and stop at the minimum correct answer; they lack ready-made linking phrases (それから, なぜなら, 〜からです) to extend ideas.
What to do instead
Use a fixed elaboration formula for every answer: statement + detail (when/where/with whom) + reason or opinion. Practise expanding one-line answers into three sentences using memorised connectors, and check the response against the task's mark allocation to see how much detail is expected.
Confusing family and people vocabulary, particularly own-family versus someone else's family terms (母/お母さん, 父/お父さん, 家族/ご家族) and age/relationship counters, producing socially inappropriate references in letters or self-introductions.
The humble/respectful distinction is taught as a vocabulary list rather than as a social rule, and English uses one word for both, so candidates choose whichever term they remember first.
What to do instead
Learn the pairs as a two-column table (own family / other's family) with example sentences for each, and apply the rule 'own family plain, other's family with お/ご' in every writing task. Do a final check of every family term against whose family it refers to.