The sun is shining, the tourists are out, and the locals have the ease and peace of a fat and happy cat after it has eaten the mouse. The Slovenes really know how to combine work, relaxation, and new ideas. Their language on the other hand, is something else entirely. It is not really like Serbo-Croat, except in a vague resemblance, and it is by far more difficult. Their quantitative descriptors are a tough one, for example. ‘One fish’ is ‘ena riba’ (reeba); ‘two fish’ is ‘dve ribi’; and ‘three (or more) fish’ is ‘tre ribe’ (reebay). That rule applies to every noun, based on gender, type of thing or place, or what context the noun is used. Serbo-Croat is like a juvenile version of this language. Plus there are many words which are just different. In Croatian ‘po malo’ means ‘slow down’, or ‘Easy Does It’. The same phrase in Slovene is ‘po ?asi’ (po chasi).
I bring this up because I have discovered that the University of Ljubljana has a summer course in immersive Slovene every June for four weeks. That’s 4 classes a day for 6 days a week for four weeks. Plus activities, lectures, etc…and no English is spoken. I think I’m going to look into that for next summer. I’m sure I can transfer credits easily to SUNY.
Tomorrow morning we head to the alps (yes, THE Alps) for the roundup. BTW, it’s only an hour’s drive…
I’m off to the last of my museums for the week, this time the National Gallery to look at some art.
Johnnyboy
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