Non-Credit Courses
The 2011-2012 course selection is provided below. Language courses offer 25 hours of instruction. All qualified instructors are from Renison University College and Nanjing University, China.
The Confucius Institute offers students the opportunity to progress their understanding and mastery of the Chinese language by offering a 5 step graduated program from the novice to the advanced level.
This series of courses develop basic listening and speaking skills in Mandarin. On successful completion of level 4, students will be able to communicate in Chinese for daily necessities.
Conversational Chinese 1
Prerequisite: none
Course code: CI 001
This course helps people who have no previous knowledge of the Chinese language to develop basic listening and speaking skills in Mandarin Chinese. Students are exposed to basic sentence patterns by engaging in simple dialogues using a romanized spelling system, which is easy to master.
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Prerequisite: Conversational Chinese 1 or equivalent
Course code: CI 002
This course further expands listening and speaking skills by introducing carefully tailored sentence patterns with grammatical explanations which proceed systematically from the simple to the more difficult and complex language points.
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Conversational Chinese 3
Prerequisite: Conversational Chinese 2 or equivalent
Course code: CI 003
More sentence patterns and vocabulary will be introduced, by talking about life around us.
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Conversational Chinese 4
Prerequisite: Conversational Chinese 3 or equivalent
Course code: CI 004
By the end of this course, students will have been introduced to 40 topics, covering most aspects of daily communication, together with more than 1,000 commonly used words, and 80 essential aspects of Chinese grammar. Students will be able to communicate in Chinese without difficulty.
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This series of courses seeks to train students in listening, speaking, reading and writing Chinese. By the successful conclusion of level 3, students will master 400 basic Chinese characters.
Integrated Chinese 1
Prerequisite: none
Course code: CI 101
This course seeks to train students in all four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) while learning the cultural norms and customs of China closely associated with everyday experiences. The fundamental rules of learning the Chinese script are introduced and the easier forms of basic strokes and character components are studied.
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Integrated Chinese 2
Prerequisite: Integrated Chinese 1 or equivalent
Course code: CI 102
This course further develops the students’ discourse abilities in both speaking and writing. The contents of reading texts are expanded so as to strengthen the students’ reading comprehension.
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Integrated Chinese 3
Prerequisite: Integrated Chinese 2 or equivalent
Course code: CI 103
By the end of this course, students should have mastered 4 kinds of simple Chinese sentences, 6 question types, and 400 basic chinese characters .
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Study in China Summer Program (credit transfer course and non-credit)
Prerequisite:
Course code: CI 200
This course explores Chinese language, culture and society using a “living textbook” to develop an insightful understanding of the history and civilization of the world’s most populous nation. Students take part in 80 hours of classes at a university in China, focusing on Mandarin Chinese, plus lectures on topics including Chinese history, religion, political and economic systems, and comparisons between Chinese and Western cultures. The course also explores Chinese culture and society via cultural excursions to important historical cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Xian.
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In this series of courses, attention is paid to the instruction of grammar, vocabulary and discourse with a gradual increase in difficulty. Contents of reading texts are expanded to strengthen reading comprehension.
Intermediate Chinese 1
Prerequisite: Integrated Chinese 3 or equivalent
Course code: CI 201
Attention is paid to the instruction of grammar, vocabulary and discourse with a gradual increase in difficulty.
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Intermediate Chinese 2
Prerequisite: Intermediate Chinese 1 or equivalent
Course code: CI 202
This course further develops the students' vocabulary while learning the cultural norms and customs of China closely associated with everyday experiences.
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Intermediate Chinese 3
Prerequisite: Intermediate Chinese 2 or equivalent
Course code: CI 203
The contents of reading texts are expanded so as to strengthen the students' reading comprehension, gradually omitting pinyin.
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This series of courses further expand the student's grammatical knowledge and ability to communicate with native speakers.
Advanced Chinese 1
Prerequisite: 150 hours of Chinese and 1,000 word vocabulary
Course code: CI 301
This course further expands the students' grammatical knowledge and ability to communicate with native-speakers.
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Advanced Chinese 2
Prerequisite: Advanced Chinese 1 or equivalent
Course code: CI 302
In this course, each text is an article on a social or cultural theme. Emphasis will be placed on training students to understand complex sentences and passages, identifying more Chinese characters, and expressing opinions on social and cultural problems.
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Advanced Chinese 3
Prerequisite: Advanced Chinese 2 or equivalent
Course code: CI 303
On successful completion of this course, students will be able to express complex ideas in Chinese fluently and demonstrate competence in interaction with native speakers with a vocabulary of 2,000 Chinese words. They will be able to read and write complex sentences and articles as well as achieve H.S.K. Grade 5 or equivalent.
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These courses develop comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing of Mandarin specifically related to the Chinese business environment. Students entering these courses are expected to have finished the Advanced Chinese course series.
Business Chinese 1
Prerequisite: Advanced Chinese 3 or equivalent
Course code: CI 401
Students develop comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Mandarin specifically related to the Chinese business environment.
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Business Chinese 2
Prerequisite: Business Chinese 1
Course code: CI 402
This course is a continuation of Business Chinese 1.
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Business Chinese Workshop
Prerequisite: none
This workshop is designed for professionals in the business community preparing for short term or long term stays in China. In addition to teaching basic conversational Chinese, the focus of the workshops may include seminars on subjects as Chinese law, politics or economics, as well as cross-cultural management and Chinese business culture. Workshops are tailored to meet specific needs and requirements and delivered at a time and in a place to suit the individual group.
Workshops for individuals, businesses and community groups are available on request. Please contact Yan Li, Director of Confucius Institute for more information.
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Basic Tai Chi
Prerequisite: none
Tai Chi is an excellent exercise for building strength and for self protection. It is also very effective in helping to reduce high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis, gastric ulcers, and other chronic diseases. It also contributes to weight loss, stress relief, regular sleep patterns and greatly enhances health and fitness. Tai Chi is increasingly regarded as a sport with health and mental benefits. It is gentle, focusing on fluid, circular movements that are relaxed and slow in tempo. The Yang style is especially popular since it is easy to learn and practice, has graceful movements, and is done in a slow, continuous rhythm with hidden strength.
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Chinese Calligraphy and Painting
Prerequisite: none
Course code: CI 005
This introductory course is intended for those with little or no knowledge of Chinese calligraphy and painting. It offers not only an opportunity to appreciate some standard Chinese calligraphy styles but provides a hands-on experience with Chinese brush writing and painting and the excitement of understanding the wisdom behind the composition of characters. Through a step-by-step approach, students will be able to build up their essential brush painting skills required for the completion of a simple painting and create one-of-a-kind personalized cards.
Renison University College - affiliated with University of Waterloo 240 Westmount Road North - Waterloo - Ontario - Canada - N2L 3G4 Phone: 519.884.4400 Fax: 519.884.5135 |
