A first step into Slovene and life in Slovenia
Before my Erasmus+ semester in Ljubljana, I completed an intensive Slovene course. Its certificate marks a personal milestone and the start of a longer journey.
From 31 August to 18 September 2026, just before the start of my Erasmus+ semester at the University of Ljubljana School of Economics and Business, I took the Intensive Course of Slovene for Erasmus+ Students at the University of Ljubljana’s Centre for Slovene as a Second and Foreign Language. It was a lovely experience and a chance to begin my time in Slovenia with more than a few memorised phrases.
The course gave me 60 classroom hours of structured learning. My Slovene course certificate records completion of Level I with a local grade of 10, an ECTS grade of A, and 3 ECTS credits. It is a record of this course, not a claim that I have already reached professional fluency or a particular CEFR level.
A language that makes a place feel closer
I chose to learn Slovene for personal reasons. As I prepared to study in Ljubljana, I wanted to be better equipped not only for academic life, but also for the everyday encounters that make an exchange feel like living somewhere rather than simply passing through. Learning the language is a way to meet people on their own terms and to understand more of the society around me.
Slovene is spoken by only a few million people, but that is part of what makes learning it so meaningful to me. I find it a beautiful language. It also opens a small door towards the wider Slavic language family: recognising a word or a pattern in another language is not the same as understanding that language, but it makes me more curious about the cultures and places of the wider Balkan region.
Receiving a formal record for this new language feels like a joyful milestone. I can finally call myself a polyglot, at least on paper! More importantly, the certificate marks a beginning, not a finish line. I want to keep learning until Slovene becomes something I can use comfortably in daily life and, eventually, in professional life too.
My hope is to grow from being an Erasmus+ student in Slovenia into an active participant in its society. This course is one meaningful first step on that longer journey. You can also see where Slovene now sits alongside my other languages in my CV.