Offered by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board on Saturdays at schools throughout the region, this program allows students to maintain or learn a language not otherwise available during regular school. In partnership with community groups, classes are offered in 43 different languages at the elementary level and 22 languages at the secondary level.
For example, at Hopewell Avenue Public School in Old Ottawa South, students are offered a chance to study Finnish, Japanese, Serbian, Spanish, Tamazight (Berber) and Swedish. At Lady Evelyn Public School in Old Ottawa East, courses include Arabic, Bengali, Persian (Farsi) and Somali.
The Ottawa Catholic School Board offers a similar learning program and at nearby Corpus Christi school in the Glebe students can discover Korean, Portuguese, Turkish and Yoruba.