Living In Slovenia My Thoughts 

The struggle is real 😩 Yep I always look for the youngsters in the store, saves me time trying to gesture what I need 😂😊

pro trick : you can watch series on flixzone. Me and my gf have been using them for watching lots of of movies during the lockdown.

Hi. I'm very curious to know your experience as a POC. I'm thinking of relocating there from the States.

Hey, What would you like to know?

Yup, the benefits of living In the city 😅 👍🏼😊

Hahahaha

Awwh that is sweet, appreciate it 😊👍🏼

Hey, thanks for sharing 😊, I agree they probs shy although I live outside of Celje, so it really does vary. Especially when I have to call the bank or administration offices, then it's a struggle. I do ask them in Slovene if they speak English and if not then if someone could help me. But it has happened just the other day calling the tax office (as one does) the lady spoke Slovene and I asked if she spoke English beforehand, she continued to reply in Slovene and I told her in Slovene I don't understand and then I said alright goodbye. Then all of a sudden she said she spoke a little English and actually she was really helpful and her English was great xd Also my Scottish accent went along time ago haha, I have more of a fast bham accent now 😊😁

Oh the phone is the worst, haha! I teach English, mostly adults, and for many, answering the phone and someone speaking English on the other side of the line?? The horror! 🤪 I've had ppl confess they just dodge calls when they see a foreign number on caller ID and there you go sneaking up on them calling from (I assume) a Slovenian number! Lol!

@@cybermom77 I know they probs like where did she come from xd I start off with Slovene and then BAM in English 😂 I guess they will remember me as their foreign customer for the day 😁

Thanks Sis

yuppppp :D

Also I moved here because my (at the time) Brazilian wife couldn't get a job in Slovenia. While most Slovenians do have at least basic English, there's very little job opportunity based solely on the fact that you're a native English speaker

How do you find living there? :)

@@Jo_thi i’m loving it, i’m in a semi-rural town in south wales, very much similar to my hometown. felt like it since the moment i landed in cardiff the first time. the only thing i CANNOT deal with, is constant wind and the ever-changing weather

Oh awesome, I have family in Wales and it's truly beautiful there 😊

Haha awhh thank you so much! I'm just enjoying motherhood atm but will be back some day 😅 Wishing you and your family an awesome new year 😁🎉✨👌🏼

Are you one of those Americans that do not know that English language actually originates from England?

Hey I used to use Sloline :)

:D hehe, well now let's learn how to structure a sentence in the correct tense and context :p Hmm, honestly I preferred to stay in the EU as it would of made life easier travelling ( for my family to visit), but it's done now, so I can't argue with that. I just hope we are allowed to live with the same rights once we have our permanent residency. But who knows! How about you?

I have my basic "go to" sentences, and the rest I'm trying to memorize. 😌🤣 I agree tbh! But thank you for the welcome 😁👍🏼

@@Jo_thi That's hard 😁. I think brexit was a mistake, but time will tell. Great to see you back. 💯 🤫 😁

@Maks haha yo

Hey, thank you for sharing. I agree that mentality could be a factor and tbh I have adapted to living in the countryside. It's mostly to do with familiarity, such as hearing someone speak English so I know what Is happening in my surroundings, or if someone speaks to me who doesn't know English I could understand ( I know that's to do with me learning Slovene, and I'm working on it 😁) Not to mention I miss the diversity in FOOD haha I'm a big foodie. But yes I do miss those things the most. I actually enjoy the peacefulness of the countryside now and feel safer than in crowded areas as I was used to. It's funny how we adapt. But I guess there is the expat loneliness that accures randomly, especially when it is family events and we are unable to see each other. But yes Scotland is wonderful, lots to see ☺️👍🏼

@@Jo_thi My coworker is Dutch (Netherlands), he is married to Slovenian and lives here for about 5 years now. He learnt a lot of words and simple (although grammatically incorrect) sentences. As virtually all Dutches, English is his second language. Maybe it's wrong but at our company we all speak English with him cuz that way the working process runs smoother. Maybe we should force him by speaking Slovenian to learn more. Tbh, I use this situation to maintain my English🙂. He has a wife that can learn him Slovenian after all😄.

Haha I am in the same boat, I know a variety of words but as they each have different variations depending on the situation my sentences sound funky! I mean family teaching for me doesn't help as everytime I do try to speak they say that's wrong it's this way I eventually get frustrated and say I'm not speaking lol it's better to have a teacher. But that's great your company accompany him like that I bet he appreciates it :)

@@Jo_thi Slovenian is indeed one of the most difficult languages to learn, even for other Slavic speakers it's not easy, yet alone for a non-Slavic speaker. Don't give up but at the same time don't be too harsh to yourself and a lot of our people don't keep in mind how hard and complex our language is. But it's good if they correct you, that's how you learn, just hope they don't do it in rude or mocking manner.

Thank you for understanding and yeah I appreciate correction, it's just dishearting if every sentence has 5 mistakes lol I know it's the challenge of learning so I will keep at it 😁

Hey, I actually write Slovene games online and it's usually the first one in the search. Or you can download the Ling app which is also really good, but you have to pay for the pro version :)

Actually I'm not but I do watch her videos :)

And Hungary & Austria is the next Borders after Croatia haha!

I agree, I also speak slowly as I am naturally a fast speaker 😅

Bruahhh....closed economy to Ex Yugo ,Down there are almost poor and are not comparable to Slovenia economy at all!!!.. Slovenia is closed economy to Italy or Spain and for instance wages are higher in Slovenia now than in Italy .... for example a waiter earns from 1400 EUR upwards ... in Trieste 1400 EUR you can dream of them, not to mention southern Italy you earn a pittance .... the roles have reversed ... once Italy had much higher salaries unfortunately this is no longer the case .... and I can testify as I live on the border between Italy and Slovenia....BTW in Slovenia are very well educated and almost everyone speaks English, Younger population almost perfect...let me tell you Greece and Portugal for instance they can hide with everything compared with Slovenia, economy as well....

Thank you :) You can call me Jo :D

@@Jo_thi thanks jo D

Don't be sorry. I guess Slovenia doesn't come up in conversations in day to day life. Majority of the time if anyone around me spoke about holiday's it was mainly to Croatia or Italy. Not to mention Slovenia Is such a small country making it a hidden gem :) I'm also rubbish at geography 😅

Hey so I never actually said everyone. I'm aware in the capital most people speak English. I live outside Celje and many people I have encountered do not speak English. It's majority of the time older people working in the offices, such as the upravna enota. If I go to the bank, the post office even the grocery store I have to search for someone who speaks English, or take my husband for more official things. This is just my experience, and thanks for the welcome. 😊👍🏼

@@Jo_thi While it's true that most of the young people could do some English, there's quite rare to find a 40+ old person fluent in English. We like to believe we're a nation of polyglots but that's not the case really.

I honestly don't expect the older generation to be fluent but I am sure they could speak better English than my Slovene xd or at least show some compassion when I ask if they could speak a little. For example I went with my daughter to her doctors routine check up, the women who can speak English decided not to at that moment and went on giving me a list of what my daughter could eat and other bits and bobs. I asked if she could translate some parts I couldn't figure out and she flat out said No and another mother stepped in to translate. I mean there is a time and place to teach me Slovene just not then - _-

@@Jo_thi i feel you and from what you described to simply stumbled upon some shitbags. this happened to me a lot in the czech republic, a lot. go there to see what level of jerks exist in this world. regarding the older generation speaking better english than your slovenian, i can't agree. i mean i don't know your slovenian enough to judge, however i can say something for sure. back in the day the people learned english which didn't even exist, it wasn't like today. that's one. it was bad to know languages since you quickly got under suspicion of being a spy or something. keep in mind we were and for the most part still are a socialist craphole. close to nobody needed english a few decades ago, so those over 50 don't know it and it's ok. even not so long ago, when i was in high school, most of the teachers weren't able to say 3 intelligent sentences outside of the curriculum, they knew shit of the language. they only knew what was prescribed t oteach to prepare for the bac exams. that's it. it was here like it still is today in much bigger countries, say, italy, spain, where there's lots of people who have never been outside or if they go they can somehow survive with their own languages. things are changing tho both there and here.

@@Jo_thi Yeah, that was just rude, no excuses.

I mainly mean the elderly that work at places, such as the bank or the stores. Not all people ofc. 😊

SLAVA YUGOSLAVIJA!

Yes, but it's different outside of the capital :)

The most people in West Slovenija speak English/Italian/Croatian & in East Slovenija more Hungarian & German Austrian haha!