At Renison University College, you can take the leap and build connections to a worldwide community of Japanese language and culture enthusiasts!
Whether you are building on a newly sparked interest or want to develop a deeper understanding of Japanese culture and tradition, Renison's credit-free Japanese language and culture courses are the perfect place to start.
REGISTRATION IS OPEN
Registration deadline: January 12, 2024.
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 2024 Course offerings (JL)
| Course code and title | Dates | Day and time |
|---|---|---|
| JL110 Conversational Japanese 1 - HELD IN-PERSON | January 24 - March 27, 2024 |
Wednesday, 6:30pm to 8:30pm ET |
| JL120 Conversational Japanese 2 - HELD IN-PERSON | January 23 - March 26, 2024 |
Tuesday, 6:30pm to 8:30pm ET |
| JL225 Integrated Japanese - HELD VIRTUALLY ONLINE | January 24 - March 27, 2024 |
Wednesday, 6:30pm to 8:30pm ET |
| JL119 Expressing Characters and Words through Japanese Calligraphy (5 classes) - HELD VIRTUALLY ONLINE | January 31, February 7, February 14, February 21, March 13, 2024 |
Wednesday, 7:30pm to 9:00pm ET |
PLEASE NOTE: language classes, JL 110 and JL 120 will be held in-person at Renison University College at the time listed above; calligraphy (JL119) and JL 225 will be held online synchronously at the time listed above.
COURES MATERIALS:
JL110 -
Option #1: Japanese for Busy People Book 1: Romanized: Revised 4th Edition Kodansha USA; 4th edition (September 20, 2022) [ISBN-13 : 978-1568366197]
Option #2: Japanese for Busy People Book 1: Kana: Revised 4th Edition Kodansha USA; Bilingual edition (May 31, 2022) [ISBN-13 : 978-1568366203]
The 4th edition is the latest version of "Japanese for Busy People." You can obtain your textbook through Amazon.ca. There is also a Kindle edition available.
JL120 -
Option #1: Japanese for Busy People Book 1: Romanized: Revised 4th Edition Kodansha USA; 4th edition (September 20, 2022) [ISBN-13 : 978-1568366197]
Option #2: Japanese for Busy People Book 1: Kana: Revised 4th Edition Kodansha USA; Bilingual edition (May 31, 2022) [ISBN-13 : 978-1568366203]
The 4th edition is the latest version of "Japanese for Busy People." You can obtain your textbook through Amazon.ca. There is also a Kindle edition available.
JL225 -
Japanese for Busy People Book 2: Revised 4th Edition Kodansha USA; 4th edition (March 28, 2023) [ISBN-13 : 978-1568366272] There is also a Kindle edition available.
JL119 -
Students are required to prepare their own calligraphy tools. If you are a first timer of calligraphy, please find any blushes and ink at home first to see how Japanese calligraphy is. Later, if you wish to buy calligraphy tools, you can find them online store such as Amazon.jp, or consult with your instructor.
REGISTRATION IS OPEN on November 1, 2023
Registration deadline: January 12, 2024.
Certificate policy for Japanese courses
Tuition Fees & Cancellation, Withdrawal & Refund policy (JL)
Fees
Tuition: $275.00 CAD (language courses); $140.00 CAD (5-week calligraphy course)
+ HST
NOTE: beginning March 2023, Renison continuing education’s administrative fee will be incorporated into the total tuition price as listed above and will be charged to all registrants.
Cancellation, Withdrawal, and Refund Policy
- If a course is cancelled, the full tuition fee (inclusive of the administrative fee) will be refunded to students in full or they may defer their registration to the next term (deferrals can be made once).
- The administrative fee of $15.00 CAD is non-refundable unless the course is cancelled.
*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 the registration deadline for a full tuition refund. After the registration deadline, students may withdraw up until the day before the second class and be refunded 80% of their tuition. After this date, refunds will not be issued.
Requests to withdraw should be sent in writing over e-mail to cape@uwaterloo.ca
How to register & How to pay (JL)
How to register
Registrations must be submitted through our student portal. Follow these steps to register for a continuing education course:
- Visit the Continuing Education Courses page in portal.
- Select ‘Details’ next to your course of interest.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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 (JL)
Based on the language skills acquired in JL 110/115, students will continue to develop integrated skills through online-based instruction. Students will practice producing simple statements and questions in daily-life contexts, with an emphasis on basic grammatical structures and communicative strategies. The katakana writing system will be introduced.
Building on Japanese knowledge and skills acquired previously, students will continue to develop integrated skills by learning grammatical structures and increased vocabulary. This course focuses on building language skills for social activities in various settings. Approximately 50+ basic kanji characters will be introduced.
Expressing Words and Characters through Japanese Calligraphy
This course explores the calligraphy art form while teaching fundamental brush techniques. Students learn to appreciate the history and insight of characters and words through lectures by a renowned Japanese calligraphy artist.
This course is open to students in the novice through advanced levels of calligraphy and native or non-native Japanese-language speakers.
Course code: JL 119
This course is designed for those who have some knowledge of the Japanese language, but less confidence in speaking. The course focuses on pronunciation and developing useful expressions for real-life situations.
Course code: JL 120
The focus of this course is to produce simple statements and questions using basic grammar structures and pronunciation guidelines. By the end of this course, students will be able to carry out simple everyday communication in Japanese. The kanji writing system is also introduced.
Course code: JL 210
In this course, students continue to develop their language skills with an increased emphasis on spoken Japanese. They work on improving grammatical accuracy and vocabulary development while acquiring more knowledge of Japanese culture. The Kanji writing system is further explored with the introduction of 100 additional Kanji.
Course code: JL 220
Learning Japanese through Manga
Aimed at developing students understanding of colloquial Japanese, this course is designed to expose students to authentic materials, especially Manga. Students learn new expressions while reviewing grammatical points of elementary Japanese to enhance their previous knowledge and integrate it into real-life contexts.
Prerequisite: Conversational Japanese Level 4 (JL 220), or equivalent.
Course code: JL 235
The focus of this course is to further enhance vocabulary and expressions. Closer attention is paid to subtleties that are unique to the Japanese language.
Course code: JL 230
In order to address socio-linguistic aspects of the Japanese language, honorific and humble expressions as well as the concept of "uchi (inside)" and "soto (outside)" are introduced. Upon completion of this course, students are expected to be able to deal with conversations in formal settings. Students also learn ways to describe events from different perspectives. By taking the sixth non-credit conversational Japanese course, students will have learned the fundamentals of Japanese grammar.