Where can I learn Chinese in Kitchener-Waterloo?

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Renison Continuing Education offers non-credit Chinese language and culture courses so you can build your confidence and deepen connections with your Chinese peers, colleagues, and relatives!

Learning Mandarin may be easier than you think! Only about 3,500 Chinese characters (out of 80,000) are necessary for everyday conversation. 

REGISTRATION AVAILBLE for Private Tutoring - contact cape@uwaterloo.ca.

Winter 2025

Registration Opens on October 11, 2024

Spring 2025 

Registration Opens on February 6, 2025


PLEASE NOTE: 

These courses are not available for UW degree credit.  Our courses are designed for adults.  Students must be a minimum age of 15 to register and participate in a Community and Professional Education Course. If a student is between the ages of 15 and 17, a parent or guardian is required to complete and submit a consent form.

Winter 2025 Course offerings (CL)

Course code and title Dates Day and time

Integrated Chinese 1  - In-person

Prerequisite: none
Course code: CL 115

This course begins training students in all four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) while also introducing everyday Chinese cultural norms and customs. The fundamental rules of learning Chinese script are introduced and the easier forms of basic strokes and character components are studied.

January 22, 2025 to March 26, 2025 Wednesdays, 6:30pm to 8:30pm ET

For more information, please contact: cape@uwaterloo.ca.

Private Tutoring Options

We may be able to offer you one-on-one tutoring with one of our instructors should we not be offering a course that suits your needs this term. The fee for this service is $500.00 CAD (plus HST) for 10-hours of tutoring. For more information, please contact: cape@uwaterloo.ca.

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Fall 2024 Registration

REGULAR REGISTRATION OPENS on July 2, 2024

REGULAR Registration deadline: 9am ET Tuesday, September 10, 2024

LATE Registration continues until 11:59am ET October 10, 2024

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Winter 2025 Registration

Regular Registration OPENS: October 11, 2024

Regular Registration Deadline: 9am ET Monday, January 6, 2025

LATE Registration continues until 11:59am ET January 31, 2025

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Certificate policy for Chinese courses

After the successful completion of the highest level course in a course series (i.e. level 3), along with a minimum of 70% of the classes attended, you will be eligible to receive a certificate of completion.

Tuition fees, discounts, & cancellation, withdrawal, & refund policy

Fees

Tuition: $290.00 CAD (credit-free language and culture courses) + HST

NOTE: As of March 2023, Renison continuing education’s administrative fee has been incorporated into the total tuition price as listed above and will be charged to all registrants.

One-on-One Tutoring: $500.00 CAD (10-hours of private tutoring one-on-one) + HST 

For more information please contact: cape@uwaterloo.ca.


Tuition Discounts

Tuition discounts are no longer offered for language courses.  


Cancellation, Withdrawal, and Refund Policy

  • The administrative fee of $15.00 CAD is non-refundable unless the course is cancelled.  

  • If a course is cancelled, the tuition fee (inclusive of the administrative fee) will be refunded to students in full.   

  • Students cannot defer their payments. 

*The administrative fee applies to all students regardless of whether they have previously taken a Renison continuing education and/or Renison non-credit course previously.

  • Students may withdraw from a course up until 9am ET the Monday before the week classes begin for a full tuition refund, not inclusive of the $15.00 CAD non-refundable administrative fee.  

  • Students may be refunded 80% of their tuition, not inclusive of the $15.00 CAD non-refundable administrative fee after the originally posted registration deadline (the Monday before the first week of classes), up until 9am ET the day before the second class. After this date, refunds will not be issued. 

  • NOTE: registration deadlines may be extended at the discretion of CE staff; the refund and cancelation policy applies to the originally posted registration deadline (9am ET the Monday before the week classes begin). 

Requests to withdraw should be sent in writing over e-mail to cape@uwaterloo.ca


Registration deadline:  9am ET the Monday before the week classes begin  

– WINTER 2025 TERM – before Monday, January 6, 2025 9am ET 

80% refund deadline:  9am ET the day before the second class 

– WINTER 2025 TERM –

Tuesday classes =  

Class 1 is Tuesday, January 21, 2025  

Class 2 is Tuesday, January 28, 2025  

80% refund deadline = before Monday, January 27, 2025 9am ET 

Wednesday classes =  

Class 1 is Wednesday, January 22, 2025 

Class 2 is Wednesday, January 29, 2025 

80% refund deadline = before Tuesday, January 28, 2025 9am ET 

Thursday classes =  

Class 1 is Thursday, January 23, 2025 

Class 2 is Thursday, January 30, 2025 

80% refund deadline = before Wednesday, January 29, 2025 9am ET 

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How to register & How to pay (CL)

How to register

Registrations must be submitted through our student portal. Follow these steps to register for a continuing education course:

  1. Visit the Continuing Education Courses page in portal.
  2. Select ‘Details’ next to your course of interest.
  3. Select ‘Details’ next to the course session you want to register for (if there are no course sessions listed, dates have not yet been confirmed for upcoming classes; please check back later).
  4. Select ‘Add to Cart’; if you are not signed in to or signed up for an account, you will be prompted to do so now.
  5. Once in your shopping cart, select ‘Checkout’.

You will receive confirmation of your registration through e-mail to the e-mail address attached to your account. For questions about your course, please contact cape@uwaterloo.ca.

If you run into issues with registration, signing in/up, or have questions about portal, please contact renison.sace@uwaterloo.ca.

How to pay

Upon checkout in our student portal (see How to register for further instructions), you will be prompted to pay via online credit card payment.

NOTE: alternative payment options may be available, please contact cape@uwaterloo.ca for more information.

Course descriptions (CL)

Conversational Chinese 1

This course is for students who have no previous knowledge of the Chinese (Mandarin) language. The course seeks to develop basic listening and speaking skills in Mandarin by exposing students to basic sentence patterns through engaging in simple dialogue and using a Roman character spelling system that is easier to master.

Prerequisite: none
Course code: CL 110

Term Offered (subject to change without notice): Fall

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Conversational Chinese 2

This course seeks to expand students listening and speaking skills by introducing carefully tailored sentence patterns with grammatical explanation, which will build from simple to complex language points. 

Prerequisite: Conversational Chinese 1 or equivalent
Course code: CL 120

Term Offered (subject to change without notice): Winter

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Conversational Chinese 3

In the third level of Conversational Chinese, students will be introduced to more sentence patterns and vocabulary with a focus daily life and interactions.

Prerequisite: Conversational Chinese 2 or equivalent
Course code: CL 130

Term Offered (subject to change without notice): Spring

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Integrated Chinese 1

This course begins training students in all four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) while also introducing everyday Chinese cultural norms and customs. The fundamental rules of learning Chinese script are introduced and the easier forms of basic strokes and character components are studied.

Prerequisite: none
Course code: CL 115

Term Offered (subject to change without notice): Fall, Winter, Spring

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Integrated Chinese 2

This course further develops students discourse ability in both speaking and writing. The reading content is expanded in order to strengthen the student's reading comprehension.

Prerequisite: Integrated Chinese 1 or equivalent
Course code: CI 125

Term Offered (subject to change without notice): Winter

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Integrated Chinese 3

By the end of this course, students should have mastered four types of simple Chinese sentences, six question types, and four-hundred basic Chinese characters.

Prerequisite: Integrated Chinese 2 or equivalent
Course code: CL 135

Term Offered (subject to change without notice): Spring

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Private Tutoring Options

We may be able to offer you one-on-one tutoring with one of our instructors should we not be offering a course that suits your needs this term. The fee for this service is $500.00 CAD (plus HST) for 10-hours of tutoring. For more information, please contact: cape@uwaterloo.ca.