​What do we do?  We learn language in small class settings. Then we practice language by cooking, dancing, singing, playing sports, hiking, and making arts and crafts. We sit by language to eat our meals and we sleep in cabins by language. In the evening we share culture from all the languages through campfires, games and special guests.  The week culminates on Saturday morning with breakfast and the final class for parents and friends.

Read the FAQs section to find out additional information about how we operate.

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June 6-12, 2021

​Languages:  Arabic, Chinese, Russian

Cost:    FREE

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​Who: Anyone entering grades 3-8 or just graduating from grade 8

​Levels: Novice for true beginners & Novice-Mid for returning campers

Where: at Templed Hills Camp  5734 Durbin Rd, Bellville, OH 44813   (Directions here.)

History of Camp OFLA

Camp OFLA is 16 Years Old

Camp OFLA began in 2005 as the Ohio Foreign Language Association’s (the state’s professional world language teacher’s organization) response to the national Discovering Languages campaign.  Camp OFLA was created for elementary students in grades 3-6. It was directed by Cheryl Ames, French and gifted teacher from Middleton and the OFLA Early Language Committee chairperson, and Lori Winne, elementary German and Spanish teacher from Toledo. Camp OFLA was a one-week residential camp and campers could select Spanish, French or Japanese for the week. The evenings were multicultural and multilingual so that campers learned and experienced more than one language throughout the week with activities such as dance, crafts, movies or PowerPoint shows, and treasure hunts. High school counselors were selected from around the state, promised to speak in their target language and often discovered they had more to learn in their everyday vocabulary in order to lead a conversation at the lunch table, walk with their campers through the woods to class, or read a story at bedtime. Campers were encouraged to use their new language all week and rewarded with euros or yen which they could spend at the Camp OFLA store on Friday.

Changes Throughout the Years

Camp OFLA experienced a number of changes over the next fifteen years. Eventually, campers had more choices in languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. Campers wanted to continue beyond 6th grade, so now students entering the 3rd grade or just graduating from the 8th grade may apply. CITs (Counselor in Training) were added for 9th and 10th graders to keep them involved before they could qualify for a H.S. Counselor position. H.S. counselors are usually 11th and 12th graders who have studied the language in their home schools for 3-5 years. Camp OFLA  has added a position of Assistant Teacher to give university students experience before they do their student teaching.

Campers often become CITs, then H.S. counselors. They have an opportunity to communicate all year long through Facebook. Parents watch the www.campofla.org website, especially during camp week, as pictures and videos are posted daily. 

New for Camp OFLA 2021
OFLA is committed to world language study beginning in the primary grades, so that every learner, from early childhood through adult, acquires a high level of communicative and intercultural competence. That mission is represented very well within the week of Camp OFLA and it is a mission for world language learners of all languages.

In February. 2021, Camp OFLA was awarded a STARTALK grant. STARTALK’s mission is to increase the number of U.S. citizens learning, speaking, and teaching critical need foreign languages.  OFLA chose to offer Arabic, Chinese and Russian as they are three critical need languages that have been previously offered at Camp OFLA.