Archives for March 18th, 2004

The Slovenian language provides endless enjoyment for schoolchildren.

If you are a foreigner living in Slovenia, you belong to an elite group of the damned. Especially when it comes to learning the language. There you’re faced with two problems: the byzantine difficulty of the language and the fact that once you learn it, hardly anyone else speaks it.

There are currently two million Slovenians (and dropping) and while that may sound like a decent amount, keep in mind that the language has a mind-blowing 32 dialects. These are split even further into 76 sub-groups. And some of these dialects are so different that even Slovenes can’t understand each other.

In other words, the foreigner in Slovenia is faced with a difficult decision: Learn Slovene and break parts of your brain in the process, or take a cyanide capsule and find eternal peace.

Actually, the other option is to just stick with English and the occasional eno kavo prosim. (One coffee, please.)

If that’s not for you, then the first challenge is to find a good place to learn. There are Slovene courses available in Ljubljana, of course, and there are a few (and I mean, really a few) books to help you too. Unfortunately, the books are generally hard to find and usually of a poor quality. (Check the reviews of this currently out-of-print book to get an idea.)

There’s also a web site that can help: Slovenian.com

Although it’s small, it’s nicely divided into various subjects and difficulty. There’s the hellish dual case, tenses, and (especially useful) some exercises.

It could be improved, but it’s certainly better than most other sites. And a lot better than cyanide.