HSC Japanese Extension case studies
HSC Japanese Extension · Put your knowledge to work in context.
HSC Japanese Extension is the fourth stage of the New South Wales Japanese pathway, taken alongside Japanese Continuers by students in their final years of secondary school. It suits learners who are already comfortable reading and writing extended Japanese and who want to engage with a prescribed issue in depth rather than accumulate more vocabulary. Work is assessed in four ways: a monologue delivered in Japanese, analysis of and response to Japanese texts, and two extended responses - one written in Japanese, one in English - on the prescribed issue. Because the syllabus is set by the NSW Education Standards Authority, the issue under study rotates, so check the current prescribed issue before planning your year. The HSC Japanese Extension case studies are 4 cases and about 1,639 words.
1The 90-Second Monologue: Deciding What to Cut
You have drafted a monologue of about 420 characters on the topic of moving from Osaka to a regional town for university. The task sheet says: speak for 90 seconds, and your draft must convey one clear stance plus one supporting episode.
429 words, about 2 min2Reading a Blog Post for Implied Stance
You are given a short blog post by a Japanese university student about part-time work. Key sentences: 「バイトを始めた当初は、時給のためだと言い聞かせていた。」 Later: 「店長はいつも『学生の本分は勉強だ』と言う。その言葉に、今は少し違和感がある。」 The post ends: 「来月からシフトを減らすことにした。理由は、もう説明しなくていい気がする。」 The question asks you to identify the writer's attitude toward the job and support it with textual evidence.
416 words, about 2 min3Structuring the Extended Response on the Prescribed Issue
The prescribed issue concerns the relationship between individual identity and group belonging. You have 40 minutes and must write 400–500 characters in Japanese.
356 words, about 2 min4Writing the English Response Without Losing the Japanese Evidence
You must write 300 words in English on the prescribed issue, referring to a Japanese source text you have studied. The source contains the phrase 「空気を読む」 used twice: once approvingly by an older character and once critically by a younger one.
438 words, about 2 min