Personal Growth

How have you seen yourself grow and change?

By living, working and socializing in Slovenia, I am taking the next step in becoming the teacher and person I want. Being submerged in a culture and language that I am unfamiliar with has taught me that I am incredibly capable of interacting, communicating and learning in different environments. This is a relief given that I want to spend at least two years living and teaching abroad after my program. Slovenia has taught me that I can be comfortable with travel and experiences that are foreign to me.

What cultural elements in your host country prompted those changes?

I have become quite used to being surrounded by a language that is completely different. I love it! I was talking to Mike about this just the other day. In a way, it has been a nice break from the overstimulation of American English--especially with having 30 kids around me on a regular basis. In America I got very used to tuning things out--or using selective hearing to ignore things that were annoying or useless for my ears. In Slovenia, I do the same, but to cue into rather than tune out conversation. Because I am so intrigued by the language, I listen to every sound people make around me. The difference, of course, is that I have no idea what people are saying in Slovenia!


What frustrations have you faced?

Because Slovenia is so Western, there have been little to no frustrations here. I am in such a nice comfort zone here in Ljubljana. I could definitley live here for an extended period of time! One frustration, though, is that Slovenes are so multilinguil (especially with English, German and Italian) that they have no problem switching languages depending on the ears and languages around them. In fact, I am pretty sure that they have been doing this for centries! As a rsult, I have not needed to learn so much Slovene. I only know a handful of words that I have come into contact with. I would be much better off if I were in a country that spoke limited English. It would also help if I were in that place for longer than 1.5 months!

What fears have you overcome?

I have oversome my fear of lengthy travel and longer homestays. Of course there is always the fear of the unknown, but I have realized that I am quite capable of adapting to my environment. This is a very useful tool given that a future Peace Corps experience will be challenging in this capacity.


What new strengths do you see in yourself?

I think my social skills and especially my communication skills have stregnthened. I have met all different kinds of personalities in Slovenia that I would not have ever met if I stayed in America. It has also been quite nice to commmunicate with the few Slovenes who have very limited English language skills. It has forced me to look at my own langauge in ways I would not have otherwise. A bit of my Spanish has even shown up while I have been here! I must be accessing that same part of the brain or something!