MEET THE LOCALS

Xenophobia is not necessarily seen perjoratively in Ptuj. Many are quite unashamed of it, to the extent they know it exists.

"I am a racist" says a neighbour cheerfully, who invariably intros by belittling my lack of Slovene. She would vote for Slexit. How much time have you spent teaching me Slovene, the Complainant eventually asked, exasperatedly. "Me???!!" the reply.

As far as Slovenians are concerned, Slovene is acquired unseen, like a bacterium. It then grows like a toenail. [80]

During his first three years in Ptuj the Complainant met a lot of people. Universally, these expressed no interest at all in his ability at Slovene, nor did they complain about his lack of it.

It was only after the appearance of www.ptuj.co.uk in 2008 that a certain type of person started to take a very direct but unlikely interest in linguistics. They were disproportionately represented among barflies, jocks, fratboys, the large, the illiterate, the troublemakers, the mentally unbalanced, and the psychotic, who were fed tales by the slightly less stupid ones, and suddenly had a reason to provoke a fight. Example experiences in the spreadsheet:

This became a clan activity, emanating outwards from chicken factory associates. www.ptuj.co.uk is a website about the Town Smell, inhalation of which, the Complainant hoped to convince the town, was not on any tourist's bucket list, nor indicative of a sensitive arts community.

It was, the Complainant suggested, unhealthy for the minds and bodies of the residents unfortunate enough to be within its range, including the Complainant and most of downtown. Realising their dour humour and dire situation, and no longer able to hide behind their language or lying by omission, the Slovenians would quickly accept they were beaten and back down on the necessity for a Town Smell, the Complainant believed.

All the Complainant wanted was fresh air. But Slovenia remained strong and eventually the Complainant was "run out of town", as the language expert from the chicken factory who caused his cerebrovascular damage had promised.

The Complainant thinks he just meant the pubs in town. But was happy to oblige, and stop going out to pay to be attacked for not speaking Slovene while everyone got their free English refresher by pretending the Complainant was the most interesting person they've ever met. Even though he is.

Once established as a meme, this "language campaign" was gradually gentrified to help the less psycho bar flies who are confined with them.

No visit to the upper echelons of the Ptuj Socialno Delo is complete without a hostile warning to speak the official language of Republika Slovenija. Its documents are not what you would call everyman language. Anything you cannot express or comprehend is ignored.

Does entitlement to explanations about unemployment benefits, approaching retirement age, disability pension, vocational rehabilitation, disability allowance, partial compensation and disability allowance for physical impairment legally depend on Slovene ability?

Obviously being denied welfare perfectly complements being not allowed to work, in Slovenia's anti-foreigner plan. No Slovenians will be affected. It's just those pesky human rights getting in the way.

The Complainant thinks the Ptuj office needs guidance on this life-or-death topic in a very professional way. Entitlement depends on it? Yes or no?

To avoid another confrontation, the Complainant returned on 12 October 2022 simply to hand over a letter about the information he wanted, mostly written in Google Slovene. Nobody needed to say a word. But they got angry at the Complainant for not speaking Slovene anyway, just to make sure. A second-class service is guaranteed.

These days, when confronted by Slovenia on language - it is always a confrontation - the Complainant has learned to patiently ask the interlocutor how many hours they have spent teaching foreigners Slovene in the past week.

When they say zero, the Complainant asks them to multiply it by the number of weeks in a year, then by the number of years they have just asked me how long the Complainant is here, by which they hope to assert proof of their superior intellect.

Finally they get to multiply their answer by two million, explaining to themselves why the Complainant doesn't speak Slovene.

They go away to confer about how to modify their criticism. But are stuck like a scratched record.

If the civil service can get a business set up without warning the proprietor, that unless it's a very unusual business, probably operating outside of the country, it will probably be illegal; what is the point of civil servants and what is the purpose of this law, APART FROM the discrimination it achieves, and potential revenue therefrom? The extent to which Slovenia has profited from ZJRS is unknown.