E-magazine | April 2019
Slovenian stories from home and abroad
SLOVENIANS OUTSIDE SLOVENIA
Awards for papers on the diaspora conferred CULTURE
Five new book issues by Lev Detela SLOVENIANS OUTSIDE SLOVENIA
Sodja gets Gold Merit Badge from Austria
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Welcome Home 2019 This year, the traditional Welcome Home will take place in Radovljica on 6 June. Compatriots living in neighbouring countries and around the world are invited to join us that day. Together we will create a diverse and rich cultural and sport programme. The event will be organised by the following associations under the sponsorship of the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad: the Slovenska Izseljenska Matica association of expatriates, the Slovenian World Congress, the Slovenia in the World association of expatriates and the Rafaelova Družba association. It will feature performances by musical and folk dance groups and choirs, exhibitions, meetings of young researchers, presentation of award-winning diplomas and masters' theses and football matches. Trips around Radovljica will be organised as well. To participate as a performer or just to visit, submit your application by 5 May to the e-mail addresses listed below, where you can also get all other information related to Welcome Home. sim@zdruzenje-sim.si; jasmina.ilic@zdruzenje-sim.si Contact person: Jasmina Ilič Draković, mobile: 00386 40 150518 We are looking forward to meeting you!
// FROM THIS ISSUE
SLOVENIANS OUTSIDE SLOVENIA
AWARDS FOR PAPERS ON THE DIASPORA CONFERRED
CULTURE
FIVE NEW BOOK ISSUES BY LEV DETELA
SLOVENIANS OUTSIDE SLOVENIA SODJA GETS GOLD MERIT BADGE FROM AUSTRIA
Moja Slovenija www.slovenci.si PUBLISHER
The Office of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians Abroad EDITORIAL BOARD, ADDRESS
Erjavčeva 15, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Miha Prapotnik
TRANSLATED BY
STA DESIGN AND LAYOUT
STA PHOTO ON THE COVER
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CONTACTS
+386 1 230 80 00 info@slovenci.si FOLLOW US ON
// CULTURE
Five new book issues by Lev Detela Author Lev Detela, who recently turned 80, moved to Vienna as a young man and graduated in Slavic studies with the help of a US scholarship for talented writers. Literature has remained in the focus of his life ever since. In 2010, he was honoured by the President of Austria Heinz Fischer with the honorary title of professor. On his 80th birthday, the Klagenfurt-based publisher Fran issued a collection of poems by Detela written between 1964 and 2018, entitled »Night Ride to Jerusalem«. In addition to characteristic and partly reworked older works, the collection features new, spiritual poetry from 2017 and 2018 (fifteen poems from the Italian Journey cycle and ten longer poems from the Jerusalem cycle, which gave the book its name). Almost at the same time, the Klagenfurt-based publisher Mohorjeva Založba published Detela's German novel »Die kahl geschlagene Welt« (Slovenian: Do golega posekani svet), about the horrors of the First World War in which millions of victims were exploited for military purposes. Events from the period taking place in the Soča Valley and Kras are described in an original way. The author has an unusual narrative technique: he uses an ironically portrayed research of the tragic events in a present-day university institute and frictions between macho men and women who refuse to be subjugated, to bring to life the fates of the main protagonists of the events - the Sarajevo assassin Gavrilo Princip, his victim, the Austro-Hungarian heir presumptive Franz Ferdinand, and the last two emperors of Austria, Franz Joseph I and Charles I.
Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, which grows into an enchanted centre of the fateful world history. Detela is currently working on a Slovenian version of the novel originally written in German. As part of its Frontier series, the Maribor Culture Centre has announced a Detela memoir entitled Dissident, edited by its director Dušan Hedl. In addition to original fiction which covers an array of negative social phenomena, the book will also feature an extensive biography of Detela, with a bibliography of all publications issued so far, and photographs from individual phases of the author's life. Austrian-German writer and translator Herbert Kuhner has prepared a trilingual collection of poetry and short stories by Detela for the Vienna-based publisher PROverbis together with the Theodor Kramer association. In addition to Kuhner's translation into English, the book, entitled »The Body Severed from the Soul«, features Detela's critical and ironic original Slovenian texts and the author's German versions of the same texts. A selection of the author's experimental texts will also be released as the 32nd edition of LOG - BUCH, an imprint of the literary magazine LOG which has been edited by Detela and Wolfgang Mayer-König for more than 40 years. The first collection of critical poetry by Detela was issued in the same series a few years ago under the title LOG - BUCH 29. Novice.at
The focal point, and the thread running throughout the diverse novel, which has numerous sub-plots, is the
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Exhibition by Maruša Štibelj in Zenica As part of the international cultural event Zenica Spring 2019, an exhibition by Slovenian painter Maruša Štibelj opened at the City Museum Zenica on 10 April, the result of a collaboration with the the Encijan association of citizens of Slovenian descent in Zenica. The event was addressed by the museum director Adnadin Jašarević, while an analysis of the author's work was presented by Gragan Gačnik, the president of the association and a painter himself. The exhibition was officially opened by Zorica Bukinac, the ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Maruša Štibelj presented a selection of collages, while a review of the exhibition was written by art historians Melita Ažman and Sonja Švec Španjol.
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// CULTURE
Vlatko Zimmer, a painter from Tuzla: Coming from a true Habsburg mixture Many Slovenians live in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but it is not widely known that they started coming there at the beginning of the 20th century, mostly as miners in the mines around Tuzla. One of their descendants is Vlatko Zimmer, a painter from Tuzla, who is very active in the Slovenian community in the city, where he headed a fine arts workshop for a long time. He wanted to become a painter from a very young age, with his secondary school professor, the famous Bosnian sculptor Franjo Leder, a strong influence. »He gave us the opportunity to paint, and he invited those whose paintings he liked to come to his studio, including me. This was when I got addicted to painting,« he remembers. When he was young, he used to paint in his yard, but he failed to preserve these paintings. His parents disapproved of him pursuing a career in art. »You know, Leder was a true bohemian and was nor really a person my parents would want to be a role model for me.« Fortunately, Zimmer was good in mathematics, which is why he studied mechanical engineering and enrolled in a college in Novi Sad to become a work organisation expert. This was his job until retirement. He rediscovered painting in retirement and became a true self-taught painter, as he never attended a painting
school. During the Bosnian War, when he faced shortage of material, he used to mix eggs with tempera. »These were not the usual colours,« he laughs. When he became a member of an association of fine artists of the Tuzla Canton, the colleagues persuaded him to exhibit his paintings. He held his first exhibition in 1996 to launch what is now a very active painting career. He quickly connected with the Slovenian Community Tuzla, which was established in 1993. The local association of Slovenians has a rich cultural programme, including the women's choir Slovenčice, which is very successfully performing around Bosnia-Herzegovina. The association also hosts a Slovenian language course and a fine arts school, which Zimmer headed between 2001 and 2014. »A lot of talented children went through the school, which was very famous in Tuzla. Some of the former students have become painters or architects.« Every summer it organises a fine arts workshop called Slovenians in Tuzla, which features around a dozen painters on average. Most of them are Slovenians living abroad. Zimmer also attends the annual fine arts workshop for Slovenian painters abroad hosted in Most na Soči. »I made some sculptures there,« he says.
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He has a small studio in his apartment on the 13th floor of a building overlooking the entire city, where he currently mostly works with acrylic paint. »At the moment, I mostly paint flowers. I used to paint butterflies a lot, and I also like to make abstract paintings. I only use lines,« he said as he presented his colourful paintings. Smells like Habsburg Monarchy The association of Slovenians in Tuzla happily accepts anyone who is of Slovenian descent at least three generations back. Belonging to this group is Zimmer, whose family story reads like the history of the Habsburg Monarchy. When the monarchy annexed Bosnia, a lot of workers, mostly miners, went there. His father came from Rijeka. His paternal great grandfather was married to a Czech woman from Vojvodina, and his grandmother was married to a Hungarian. It was a true Habsburg mixture. »I know that the Zimmers came here in the times of the Maria Theresa, when four brothers bought a lot of land between Ruma in Serbia and Tuzla. There are a lot of Zimmers today in South America,« he described the history of his family. He is Slovenian on his mother's side; she belonged to a second generation of Slovenians in Tuzla. »She was born in Tuzla. My grandfather, who originates from Šentrupert pri Mirni, settled in Tuzla in 1904 after coming from Romania,« he explains his Slovenian roots. His grandfather was a miner and he first worked in a mine in Romania, before moving together with five Slovenian families to Tuzla. Some of these families still live there today. »Only the grandfather returned to Slovenia during the First World War, while a part of the family stayed in Tuzla. They all reunited in Bosnia after the war.«
is no right solution for that.« He added that Tuzla was now a very special city, where nationalist ideas are not accepted, because the city has been a mixture of different nations for a very long time. »A festival of national minorities was held a few weeks ago and members of 20 different ethnicities were there. There were probably even more ethnicities in the city before the war. There were also more Slovenians before the war, almost 1,500 families, of which around 250 have stayed,« he explained. Zimmer does not know his relatives in Slovenia. His grandfather's name was Johan Miklavčič and his great grandmother was Gertruda Mitkovšek from Trbovlje. His grandmother was also born in Trbovlje with the family name Predovnik. »There are three Miklavčič families in Tuzla, and we were related to one of them. I was asking people on Facebook whether some of them knew anything about my Slovenian relatives, but I didn't get any useful answers,« says Zimmer, who calls himself an artist by ethnicity. Mateja Hrastar, Dnevnik Personal archive
Slovenians in Tuzla have always been strongly connected with the local history. One of them, Fran Maselj, wrote one of the first Bosnian novels, Gospodin Franjo. Slovenians also participated in the Husino rebellion, a large strike of miners in 1920. The leader of the protest was a Slovenian - Karlo Železnik from Zagorje. Tuzla, a city of a hundred ethnicities Zimmer's family spoke Slovenian when he was a child. »Until I was seven, I spoke Slovenian better than Serbo-Croat, which is why I had big problems in school.« He later forgot Slovenian and revived his knowledge of the language only when the association of Slovenians organised a Slovenian language course. But as he says, it did not matter what ethnicity you were before the Bosnian War. »Don't ask me about Bosnian politics, because there
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Vlatko Zimmer is a self-taught painter. Vlatko Zimmer’s personal archive
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Nadia Molek De Jager, from Argentina to Ljubljana: Descendants of Slovenians searching for their roots Nadia Molek De Jager is an Argentinian Slovenian born in Buenos Aires who has lived in Ljubljana for three years. Her family moved to Slovenia for the first time when she was a child, and now, when she has a child herself, she and her husband realised that Slovenia is a good country to raise children, and decided to live in Europe. But Nadia is still closely connected with Argentina, including professionally, as she is writing a doctoral dissertation about Slovenians in Argentina as a junior researcher at the Institute of Anthropology Studies of the University of Buenos Aires. How Slovenians in Argentina feel Slovenian culture? »The hypothesis of my doctoral dissertation are various forms of the awareness of Slovenian culture connected with the immigration flows. When Slovenians in Argentina are seen from Slovenia, the first thought that comes to mind is that they emigrated after the Second World War. But Slovenians connected with the post-war emigration are not the only Slovenians living in Argentina. I don't think Slovenian identity is dying out with new generations either, it is merely being reshaped. There is an increasing number of descendants who are looking for their roots and rediscovering their origins. Some of them even come and try to live here. What happens frequently is that they build a Slovenian myth in Argentina, and when they come to Slovenia, they realise that the life is different from the myth and they return to Argentina.« You said that Slovenians in Argentina have a myth about Slovenian culture. What is this myth? »There are various myths about Slovenian culture in Argentina. There is a general myth about Slovenia as the
most idyllic land on Earth, a space without evil and negativity, a heaven on Earth with the most beautiful nature and friendly people. Another strong myth is the myth about the return to Slovenia, which was particularly widespread in the post-war community. These people came to Argentina as refugees, thinking that they will stay only for a short time, because they believed that the socialist Yugoslavia will soon fall apart. When it comes to Slovenian culture, it usually takes the shape of traditional folklore outside the territory of Slovenia. What is also emphasised is food, which usually remains a point of identification for several generations. They are connected to the national costume, national symbols, such as the flag, and music. The post-war immigrants gather around church-related events and are an exceptionally strongly connected community of Slovenian-speaking people. All of them idealise the image of Slovenia, in particular the landscape, and celebrate the image of Mt Triglav, for example. But sometimes this myth of Sloveneness is what turns off young generations. In my research, I was also interested in how youths who might be tired of these traditional patterns of Slovenian culture and who therefore hybridise Slovenian culture through rock music, for example, get involved in that. It is interesting that in such cases the community gives them a break, because it finds the possibility of the young leaving more dangerous than staying and expressing their affiliation their own way.« What values do immigrants in Argentina understand as Slovenian values? »Working hard, being fair, keeping promises. Christian val-
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ues are also important for some of them. They juxtapose Slovenian values with Argentinians, whom they consider to be unfair and not hard-working people.« Is there a big difference between Argentinian Slovenians from the different immigration waves? »There are big differences. Slovenians who moved there at the end of the 19th century usually lived outside cities. Back then, Argentina needed people who would farm the land and push the native people back. Argentina is based on the myth that the country was empty before the arrival of Argentinians. This is why the first Slovenian immigrants went to Formosa in the north of the country, which is covered in jungle and which was probably a big shock for them. For this reason they decided for more habitable areas, such as Entre Rios. Some of the descendants of the first and of the post-war immigrants have been strongly marked by this myth of how Argentina was established and consider themselves a part of the story of the people who established the country. At the time, Argentina needed Argentinians as citizens, which is why expressing a different ethnic affiliation was undesirable. The descendants of the immigrants from the first wave rediscovered their Slovenian identity only with Slovenia gaining independence, and the Slovenian community has also been established now in Entre Rios. The immigrants from the period between the two world wars are a large heterogeneous community, but they are highly assimilated. Their connection with Slovenian culture is mostly expressed through the social memory and relations with ancestors. Some of their descendants still speak Slovenian, mostly a dialect. It was not important for them to preserve Slovenian culture as a legacy. The post-war Slovenian immigrants in Argentina are different. Since they were banished on political basis, for them Slovenian identity meant that they were able to keep what was taken from them, and to face the trauma. This is why in Argentina they rallied around a memorial discourse of sacrifice and martyrdom, which is conveyed through the school system established within the community. Of course, not even this Slovenian community is homogeneous and not everybody from the post-war wave of immigration has such views.« You first came to Slovenia as a child. Back then, in the 1980s, it was unusual for Argentine Slovenians to come to live in Slovenia. »My father is Slovenian and a son of post-war immigrants. Their parents never forced him to be active in a Slovenian association or to speak Slovenian. My grandfather decided that the family does not need Slovenian, because
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it needed to advance in Argentinian society. The grandmother, who was from Primorska, visited Slovenian associations because of contacts, because she missed her family very much. The grandparents almost never spoke Slovenian with each other. During the dictatorship in Argentina in the late 1970s, my parents decided that they will move to Slovenia as a safer country. It was strange for many Slovenians in Argentina that Slovenia could be considered a safe country as part of Yugoslavia, because post-war Argentinian Slovenians supported the dictatorship in general, having understood it as fight against communism. Either way, we came to Slovenia in 1983, when I was three. My father got an offer to study Slovenian so that he could teach Slovenian once he returns to Argentina. We stayed for four years, I went to kindergarten here and started attending primary school.« Would you still move to Ljubljana with your family now if you had not had the experience of living in Slovenia as a child? »I don't know. This is a question I've been really dealing with for quite a while. I probably would not have the same connection with Slovenia as I do now because of the childhood years in Ljubljana. My father never spoke Slovenian with me, neither did my grandmother. For me, Slovenia represents my childhood experience and memories and now also the process of my motherhood and my future. My son was born in the Slovenian environment and Slovenian is the language spoken outside our home. We usually speak Spanish at home. I also talk to my son and read to him in Slovenian, but Slovenian is not my natural native language. If we lived in Argentina, I would certainly speak Slovenian with him at home. Emphasising identities is a matter of context. This can be seen in, for example, very conservative Argentinian Slovenians, who have always spoken Slovenian within their community in Argentina, and who speak Spanish among themselves when they move to Slovenia.« How complicated is national identity really? Are you more Argentinian or Slovenian? »It depends where I am. In Slovenia, I'm more Argentinian and in general I identify more with Argentina, because I was institutionalised in Argentina through school. But I'm more reserved than Argentinians, which makes me more a Slovenian in this sense. On the other hand, I'm more attached to Argentina when it comes to everyday life even now when I live in Ljubljana, because this is where my parents and friends live.« Mateja A. Hrastar, Dnevnik
// SLOVENIANS OUTSIDE SLOVENIA
Sodja gets Gold Merit Badge from Austria The Republic of Austria will decorate music teacher Lovro Sodja with the Gold Merit Badge for his contribution to the strengthening of bilateral relations between Austria and Slovenia. Sodja has been an active member of the managing board of the Association of Slovenian-Austrian Friendship in Ljubljana since 2005, and has presided the association since 2011. In cooperation with the culture forum of the Austrian Embassy in Ljubljana, the association organises the Carinthian Culture Days in Ljubljana as well as excursions in Austria. It cooperates with like-minded associations and clubs from Klagenfurt, Vienna, Graz, Maribor and Ljubljana. Sodja had previously received an award by the Union of Cultural Associations Ljubljana for his exceptional contribution in the field of cultural exchange and strengthening of ties between Slovenia and Austria.
as a correspondent for the Austrian and Slovenian media, including since 2003 as a correspondent of the Klagenfurt-based weekly Novice. ď €  SVSD / slovenci.orf.at
Sodja taught flute in the Slovenian music school in Carinthia between 1978 and 2004, and headed the school between 1986 and 1997. He has received several awards for his work in Austria and has also been prolific in journalism
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Believe in Slovenia: Dušan Petrač The website Believe in Slovenia, which has been created on an initiative of the American Chamber of Commerce - AmCham Slovenia, runs stories about Slovenian »ambassadors of friendship«. This time we present the physicist Dušan Petrač, a long-time employee of the space agency NASA. I was born in 1932 in Kropa na Gorenjskem, near Radovljica and Kranj. I graduated in physics from the University of Ljubljana, and for a few years I taught physics at the Kranj secondary school. After meeting the future president of the University of California, Los Angeles, I got an opportunity to take postgraduate studies at the university, where I earned a PhD in physics in 1971. I stayed in academia for a few more years as a professor of physics at the California State University. For the next 30 years, until my retirement, I worked as a senior research scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. What I would count among my most significant contribution at NASA is my work on a pioneer infrared astronomy satellite, which was build by a US-Dutch-UK consortium. I contributed the key elements, in particular the control of super-fluid helium for the maintenance of temperature of infra-red detectors at -271 degrees Celsius. I also participated in four scientific experiments on a spaceplane at low temperatures and in zero gravity, and in numerous other research projects. I was a consultant to Stanford University, Free University of Berlin and Lockheed Martin. In 1996 and in 1997 I was a visiting scientist at the University of Tsukuba in Japan, and at the national high energy accelerator KEK. In the recent years, I have been cooperating with the Slovenian Min-
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istry of Education, Science and Sport, the pharmaceutical company Krka and the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad. With their support, I have held lectures in primary and secondary schools and universities around Slovenia and taken part in numerous scientific conferences. I have also cooperated with the Slovenian Science Foundation and the VTIS association of Slovenians educated abroad. Slovenia remains my homeland. I was born and raised in Slovenia, I lived here for many years, and there is no replacing that. For me Slovenia is like a pearl; I can see it as our famous poet France Prešeren, who wrote about the beautiful surroundings of Lake Bled. I often return to Slovenia. The homeland has not forgotten me. Kranj, the city where I graduated from secondary school, honoured me with the title of freeman of the city. Slovenia is a land of extraordinary people. Martin Strel swam all major rivers of the world, winter athletes such as Tina Maze, Peter Prevc, Rudy Finžgar, Janez Polda and Davo Karničar are setting records. The architect Jože Plečnik is known all over the world, the US first lady is a Slovenian, and, which I write with special pride, Hermann Potočnik Noordung is one of the pioneers of astronautics. There is no one like Slovenia and Slovenians. www.believeinslovenia.si
// SLOVENIANS OUTSIDE SLOVENIA
Awards for papers on the diaspora conferred
Awards of the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad were announced and conferred at the National Council on 16 April at the conclusion of the 17th competition for best diploma and master's theses and doctoral dissertations about the Slovenian diaspora and Slovenians in the neighbouring countries. The competition aims at encouraging research into the topic and raising awareness of its importance for the preservation of Slovenian identity in the homeland and outside its borders.
Secondary School - Organisational Framework, Integrative Classes and Literature, at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Klagenfurt, co-mentored by Peter Svetina and Vladimir Wakounig.
In the diaspora section, first prize was not conferred, while second prize went to NeĹža Hvale for her master's thesis entitled Migrations of Slovenians to Berlin during the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, under the mentorship of Mateja Habinc of the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. In the Slovenians in the neighbouring countries section, first prize went to Bernarda VolavĹĄek Kurasch for her doctoral dissertation entitled Slovenian Language in the New
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DIASPORA
LARISA PETRIČ, Ljubljana, master's thesis
1st prize: not conferred. 2nd prize:
NEŽA HVALE, Berlin, Ig, master's thesis Migrations of Slovenians to Berlin during the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia University of Ljubljana Mentor: dr. Mateja Habinc 3rd prize (two conferred):
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Domači okusi v novih okoljih: Kako in zakaj jih iščemo? University of Ljubljana Mentor: dr. Bojan Baskar Co-mentor: doc. dr. Mateja Habinc 3rd prize (two conferred): KATJA URBANČIČ, Buenos Aires, bachelor's thesis 56° Dia de la juventud eslovena de San Justo Universidad Nacional de La Matanza Mentor: mag. Miriam A. Giorgetti.
// SLOVENIANS OUTSIDE SLOVENIA
NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES 1st prize:
3rd prize:
BERNARDA VOLAVŠEK KURASCH, Celovec, doctorate Slovenščina v novi srednji šoli – Organizacijski okvir, integrativni pouk in leposlovje Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften Mentor: dr. Peter Svetina Co-mentor: dr. Vladimir Wakounig
TAMARA SULIGOI, Gorica, master's thesis Slovenščina v stiku: primer slovenskih ustanov, društev, zvez in organizacij v Gorici in njeni pokrajini University of Ljubljana Mentor: doc. dr. Tamara Mikolič Južnič
2nd prize:
EVA-MARIA VERHNJAK-PIKALO, Libuče, Pliberk, doctoral dissertation Ein Leben für die Muttersprache – Zur Darstellung der Frau im literarischen Werk der Kärntner Slowenin Milka Hartman (Vse življenje za materinščino – Podoba ženske v literarnem opusu koroške Slovenke Milke Hartman Alpe-Adria Universität Klagenfurt, Institut für Kulturanalyse Mentor: dr. Peter Svetina Co-mentor: dr. Johann Strutz
Outstanding commendation: JANIKA ŠKERL, Nabrežina, bachelor's degree Izpeljava komunikacijskega modela posredovanja
književnosti na podlagi analize pravljice po Proppovih funkcijah v vrtcu s slovenskim učnim jezikom v Italiji Univerza na Primorskem, Pedagoška fakulteta Mentorica: dr. Barbara Baloh Commendation: TINA KRANER, Maribor, master's thesis Dvokulturnost in medkulturnost na avstrijskem Koroškem, s posebnim ozirom na delo Florjana Lipuša University of Maribor Mentor: dr. Silvija Borovnik
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25 years of the Slovenian association in Breza The association of Slovenians from Breza in central Bosnia-Herzegovina marked its 25th anniversary with a ceremony on 14 April. The event featured representatives of the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad, Suzana Martinez and Zvone Ĺ˝igon. The latter handed to the association president Ina Bartula an award from the office upon the anniversary and addressed the visitors, including Slovenian Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina Zorica Bukinac and representatives of a majority of other Slovenian associations in the country. The cultural programme was performed by the adult students of a Slovenian language school headed by teacher Mateja Kregar and the Slovenian choir Ivan Cankar from Sarajevo. ď €  Mateja Kregar
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// NEWS
Website helping Slovenians in Italy to exercise their rights Za Jezik, a legal service for the language rights of Slovenians in Italy initiated last year by the Slovenian Cultural and Economic Union (SKGZ) and the Council of Slovenian Organisations (SSO), recently launched its website - www.zajezik.eu. Established with the help of the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad, the service provides support for individuals and organisations in exercising all their rights provided by the law. It is headed by Livio Semolič and Julijan Čavdek. The website, which was launched at
the beginning of April, provides information, forms and many other things which may help individuals exercise their language rights. The service is also available at the e-mail address info@zajezik.eu and through the offices of both organisations. As the initiators of the legal service have found out, only a very small share of people are aware of these rights and their importance. This is
New Slovenian names from Sistiana to Rabuiese
villages and towns in both languages for several years, with the company updating the incomplete ones. Of course, the words »uscita« (exit) and »ospedale« (hospital) were kept only in Italian, while it was obviously still hard to erase the »non-existent« village Pese ...
If you drove in the past weeks on the motorway between Sistiana (Sesljan) and Padriciano (Padriče), as well as in Ferneti (Fernetiči) and between Lacotisce (Lakotišče) and Rabuiese (Škofijski potok), you might have noticed workers of the road maintenance company Anas replacing road signs above and along the road. From now on, the green and blue signs bear the names of villages and towns both in Italian and Slovenian (or Croatian in the case of Rijeka).
Livio Semolič, the head of the legal service of the Slovenian Cultural and Economic Union (SKGZ), confirmed that it is a continuation of what was agreed two years ago, and was happy to establish »that a sign Trieste - Trst is finally no longer a taboo«. He had two meetings with representatives of the company Anas, who presented a plan to implement the commitment on visual bilinguality in the area covered by the relevant decree of the authorities of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
It is actually not a novelty: a majority of signs have featured the names of
Sara Stenad, Primorski dnevnik SFOTODAMJ@N
why they have issued the following call: »Let's contribute to the promotion of the language rights of Slovenians in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, return our surnames and names into the original Slovenian form and demand that they are written correctly in all documents, ask for bilingual personal documents and certificates, and use Slovenian in relations with the public administration.«
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Summer school of Slovenian in 2019 In cooperation with the National Education Institute, the Centre of School and Outdoor Education will organise in its local branch in Tolmin from 28 July to 9 August a summer school of Slovenian language intended for children and youths of Slovenian descent living outside Slovenia. In the mornings, they will be learning Slovenian in different groups, and in the afternoons they will take part in creative, sport and social activities
in order to socialise and learn about Slovenia and its regions.
The deadline for applications is 10 May.
The summer school is sponsored and co-financed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport.
More information and application documentation is available HERE
Prispevek za taborjenje znaša 170 EUR. Vključuje polni penzion, bivanje, animacijo, pohode, delavnice, prevoze z avtobusom, oglede in vstopnine. Starši oziroma predstavniki društev sami poskrbijo za prihod otrok na mesto tabora. Prijavnice so na voljo na spletni strani slokongres.com. Prijave zbirajo do 20. maja 2019 oz. do zapolnitve prostih mest. Za več informacij sta vam na voljo telefonski številki 00386 1 24 28 552 oz. 011 386
1 24-28-552 (ZDA in Kanada) in e-naslov luka.klopcic@slokongres.com.
23. tabor slovenskih otrok po svetu V Šentpavlu na Dolenjskem, blizu Ivančne Gorice, bo od 27. julija do 3. avgusta 2019 poletni tabor za otroke slovenskega rodu med 10. in 15. letom starosti, ki živijo zunaj Slovenije. Prireja ga Svetovni slovenski kongres s podporo Urada za Slovence v zamejstvu in po svetu, letos sodeluje tudi šola preživetja »Laris Survival School«. Udeleženci v dopoldanskem času bogatijo znanje slovenščine, popoldan pa spoznavajo kulturno in naravno dediščino Slovenije. Podrobnejše informacije najdete TUKAJ
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// NEWS
Pleteršnik Homestead in Pišece inviting Slovenians from abroad The Maks Pleteršnik association for the promotion of the Slovenian language and natural and cultural heritage from Pišece near Brežice will be hosting guests of two programmes for Slovenians from abroad for a fifth year in a row, in cooperation with the Maks Pleteršnik Pišece Primary School and with the financial support of the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad.
from various countries. Two to seven overnight stays will be provided free of charge as part of the programme, usually between 31 August and 30 September. The guests are expected to take part in activities in Pišece, Brežice and in the area where they will be studying. They can attend classes in local schools and improve their knowledge of Slovenian, and take part in various volunteering activities.
As part of the programme called »My House Is Your Home«, intended for families or groups of up to five, guests may apply for at least two and not more than five overnight stays between 15 April and 31 August and between 1 and 15 October. The stay is free of charge, with the organisers asking only for a voluntary contribution. During their stay in Pišece, the guests are expected to attend cultural and other events of their own choice. Children may attend classes in local schools.
In both programmes, each group will be assigned a local volunteer who will take care of the accommodation and keep the guests informed about all events in the area. They will also be on hand for any help they might need.
The second programme, called »Od Maksa do faksa« (From Maks to College), is intended for young people who will start studying in Slovenia in the autumn. In the Pleteršnik Summer House they will spend some time to get accustomed to student life together with Slovenians
Invitation My House Is Your Home
The available and booked dates will be published on the Facebook page Maks Pleteršnik. More information and application forms:
Invitation Od Maksa do faksa
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