Chinese

Since offering its first Chinese language courses in 1957-1958, the Chinese language program in the Department of Asian Studies receives over 2000 individual registrations annually, making it the largest, most comprehensive program for Chinese Studies in North America.

Curriculum

The Chinese language program offers courses in traditional and simplified Chinese as well as in Chinese Literature. A key strength of the intensive program is its division into two tracks, one for heritage learners and the other for non-heritage learners. This allows our faculty and staff to better accommodate to each students’ academic needs.

Our heritage track is designed for students with a strong background in understanding spoken Chinese but who have weaker reading and writing skills. Our non-heritage track is for foreign language learners with no prior exposure to the Chinese language and therefore need to develop four key skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Placement Tests

Please note the following:

ALL incoming students who wish to take ANY CHIN, CNTO, or CLCH-titled courses are required to complete an “On-Line Placement Questionnaire” on https://placement.asia.ubc.ca/ to obtain a placement approval for registration. Students without the approval will be removed from the class. To get your placement approval, please go to the website above.

If you have any concerns about your placement result, please email Chinese.Placement@ubc.ca or sign up for in-person placement interview.

For email, your email title should include FULL NAME and # STUDENT NUMBER, e.g. Robert Smith, #12345678. If you are concerned about your eligibility for a certain course, add the course number at the end, e.g. Robert Smith, #12345678 CHIN233. You can expect to hear back within 48 hours during regular teaching days. During peak registration days, please allow up to 5 days before sending in another email with the same inquiry. You may experience delays if email title convention is not followed.

Please note if your question is specifically about CNTO courses, please email Mr. Pai directly at raymond.pai@ubc.ca

For in-person placement interview, please see the upcoming interview dates and times below. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, all in-person placement interviews will take place digitally through Collaborate Ultra  . Please sign up for a time slot at https://chinesebooking.arts.ubc.ca

An advisor will place you into an appropriate level/course directly based on your background and proficiency level by the end of your interview. However, after class starts, a course instructor has the right to move the student to a different level/course upon further review. A student can also request to be placed at a different level/course after class starts should he/she finds the course to be inappropriate for his/her level.

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