The Center for Slovene Language and Culture was established in 2007 as an organ- izational unit of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Primorska. Due to an increased number of admissions of foreign students to the University of Primorska, the Centre plays a key role in teaching and giving exams in Slovene as a foreign language.

The Centre’s main activities are:

• Organizing year-round courses and short courses in Slovene for foreign students and exchange students; and
• Organizing summer courses in Slovene on the Slovene coast “Hallo, this the Slovene Mediterranean!” which are presented below.

The two–week summer school of Slovene “Hello, this is the Slovene Mediterranean” was first organized in 1994 and still attracts many students from all over the world. The courses are designed for all who would like to learn the Slovene, both complete beginners and those who already master the basics and wish to further improve their knowledge, so they are organized on different levels of knowledge (initial, interme– diate, and advanced). Morning lectures are complemented by additional afternoon assistance provided by Slovene students. In the evening, a wide variety of workshops are organized for the participants, where they learn more about Slovene culture, literature, cuisine, film etc. An all–day fieldtrip is also organized, where participants visit some beautiful Slovene towns and attractions and learn about cultural heritage. Throughout these years we have successfully combined the pleasant with the useful — learning Slovene while being on a two–week holiday by the sea.

The Center organizes free lectures of Slovene for foreign students studying at the University of Primorska. Lectures are conducted in the form of an accredited course Slovene as a second/foreign language (at levels A1–B1). The implementation of the course Slovene language as a second/foreign language at the UP is extremely important since foreign students registered in study programmes with Slovene as the language of instruction are required to take it in their 2nd year, while students benefiting the Year plus program must reach at least 6 ECTS credits in Slovene language.

From a linguistic point of view, students are divided into language groups (1. Non– Slavic, 2. Macedonians, 3. Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, and Montenegrins — together because of the kinship of their languages). Since low in number, Russians and Ukrainians are joined to the Macedonian group. Content–wise, students are divided according to their faculties, so they are easily acquainted with their study programmes. Erasmus students have a separate group since besides learning Slovene the emphasis is also on comparing the different cultures they come from.