Sanja is a 23 year old student from Rijeka, Croatia. She studies English at the Pedagogical Faculty in Maribor, Slovenia.
Before I came here, I heard people talking about other people and countries: the Spanish have money problems, the Polish are very proud and they love their country, the Slovenes don't like Croatians. I listened to those opinions, but that didn't stop me from coming to Slovenia to study here. And I did the right thing – people here are friendly and willing to help if I ask them, and the professors are nice, too. The only problem is the language – there aren't many Slovenian language courses for foreigners here so I occasionally have difficulties understanding something. Not at the faculty, where everyone speaks English, but when I go shopping, for example. The good thing is that in most shops I can communicate in English and there are quite a lot of people here that understand Croatian, too. I like living in Slovenia, when I finish my studies I might even get a job here.
Katharina, 25, Graz, Austria is a special needs student.
I live in Graz and commute to Maribor every day. I'm an Erasmus student. I chose to take a semester in Slovenia because I wanted to learn another language and understanding Slovene is a real benefit in my future job. Also, Slovenia is our neighbouring country and I would like to know it better. Of course, I heard some stereotypes about Slovenes before I got here, for example: Slovenes can speak German quite well, a lot of people from Slovenia commute to Austria on a daily basis, they don't like Austrians. I don't like such stereotypes, because they judge people. I find Slovenes easy to talk to even though not all of them speak English or German well. I have some language problems, specially in my sports class. So I just do whatever the other students are doing. The worst thing that happened to me here was when I wasn't able to park my car because all the parking spots were taken. But this happens in Graz, too.
Ruben, 26, Burgos, Spain
When deciding on studying abroad, my first choice was France. But in France I'd have to study in French and I wanted to improve my English so I chose Slovenia. I have heard of Slovenia before, but not much, except that it is a very traditional country. On the train from Ljubljana to Maribor I was impressed how green everything was – I've never seen so much green. One of the things I like most about Maribor is that it's just the right size – you don't have to depend on public transport. I live 5 min walk from the city centre, 5 min away from everything – really nice. People here are friendly and open to new cultures and they always make you feel welcome, which is not true for some other nations. As for the food, I miss my mum's paella, but I really love kranjska klobasa, čevapčiči, kajmak and ajvar. And, Slovenian girls are very beautiful, specially my girlfriend Tjaša. The funniest thing that happened to me was the very first day of my stay in Maribor. As I was leaving my flat, my landlord said 'Adijo'. I didn't hear him well and thought that people here spoke Spanish. It was later that I realised he said 'Adijo', not 'Adijos', which is the Spanish word for 'Adijo' – goodbye.
