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Ottawa Czech School re-opened in September 2019 after a hiatus of several years. The Ottawa-Carleton School Board offered Czech classes at two locations, for elementary school students at Hopewell Avenue School and for high school students and adults at Glebe Collegiate.

The classes introduce students to Czech traditions and culture and help beginners learn the language and advanced students to improve their grasp of it. We also hold special events to connect with the wider community of Czechs and of those interested in Czech culture and history.

As part of the OCDSB International and Indigenous Languages program, in the 2019-2020 school year we had 27 students. For the 2020-2021 school year, as more children registered, the OCDSB allowed us to offer a third class, splitting the elementary students into two classes with a total of almost 50 students. With the novel coronavirus interfering, this year we offer classes virtually, using Google Meet, each Saturday from 9:30 am to 12:00 pm for elementary students and from 9 am to 12:30 for older students.

Volunteering

If you enjoy working with children or adults and want to be more involved in the Czech community, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We have plenty of ideas but somewhat less resources to make them happen. We welcome your ideas and help.

OUR TEAM

Jaroslava Baconová

About Jaroslava

  • Jaroslava has been teaching Czech as a second language since 1995
  • She has taught in formats -- summer school, college and university level environments, in ex-pat and privately
  • Jaroslava has taught in Prague, Glasgow, New Orleans, Montreal, Sherbrook and Ottawa
  • She founded and managed the Sherbrooke Czech School
  • She translates from Czech and Russian
  • Studied Czech and Russian in Prague and Glasgow
  • Jaroslava co-founded the new Ottawa Czech School

Greeting from Jaroslava

It’s a joy to see adult learners relive their childhood memories and learn or re-learn their mother tongue through my classes. To see teenagers from multilingual families discover their unique roots through age-old traditions and even to recall the stories of their babička or dědeček and hear the beauty of another language. And to see friends of those with Czech roots or simply those interested in Czech culture working hard to make travelling with them or just spending time with them even more rewarding.

Lucie Koďousková

About Lucie

  • Lucie teaches Czech as a second language to children and adults for fun and for work
  • Lucie has degrees in elementary and special needs education
  • She is the secretary of the Czech ans Sloval Association of Canada (CSAC)
  • Co-founded the new Ottawa Czech School

Greeting from Lucie

I have two young children that I’m raising to love the language that I grew up with. In turn I’m able to help other parents with Czech roots to do so. That together with my adventures living and studying abroad have given me insights into the joys and tribulations of raising children in a second language.

I am lucky to be able to continue to speak my mother tongue here and to explore the beauty of the complex language that is Czech. I’m a strong believer in experiential learning and in education that respects nature. I promote the idea that to better understand the world around one must have fun while learning and therefore I make sure my classes are playful and ever-changing.

I use a variety of audiovisual aids, movement and speech and language methods. Helping my young students grow helps me to grow too.

David Beneš

About David

  • David came to Canada as an infant in 1968
  • Spoke only Czech at home with parents, sister and brother
  • Returned to Czechoslovakia after the Velvet Revolution to work eight years as a news editor and translator
  • Canadian public servant since 2009
  • Chair of Ottawa chapter of the Czech and Slovak Association of Canada from 2017

    • Greeting from David

    Although I’m arguably most at home in Canada, from an early age I strove to keep a close connection to my heritage. Not content only to speak my mother tongue at home and on the street, I attended Saturday Czech school from age 5.

    Years later, I returned to Czechoslovakia for the first time as an adult. I was able to explore the Prague of my parent’s childhood with my energetic grandmother as a guide. Then, the Velvet Revolution enticed me to stay longer - and a two-week visit turned into an eight year career.

    When I returned to Canada and started a family, I was thrilled to see my daughter’s interest in Czech song and dance awakened when she started going to Czech class. In 2016 I took on the organizing of our iconic St. Nicholas celebration. I could not be prouder when my daughter began to help with the festivities.

    When attendance at our school grew sufficiently to warrant the opening of a third class, I eagerly accepted the invitation to become a novice teacher where once it all started for me.