Bosnian Language Lessons As the Mother Tongue of Immigrants and Their Descendants in Slovenia

Chapter 5 Bosnian Language Lessons as the Mother Tongue of Immigrants and their Descendants in Slovenia

Marijanca Ajša Vižintin

1 Introduction

Most of the immigrants that come to Slovenia emigrate from the area of the former Yugoslavia, approximately half arriving from Bosnia-Herzegovina. In total, they have established ten Bosnian cultural societies (in Ljubljana, Je- senice, Kranj, Velenje, Koper, Zagorje ob Savi, and Maribor), nine of which are connected to The Bosnian Cultural Association of Slovenia (bcas), registered in 1997. Since 2010, basic information about the Slovene educational system has been available to everyone who has access to the Internet on the webpage “Information for Foreigners” (2010). The information is available in Slovene, English, French, Spanish, Russian, Bosnian, and Albanian.1 An important part of maintaining one’s identity is his or her mother tongue. Slovenian primary school legislation provides immigrant children the possibility to have lessons on their mother tongue and the culture of the country of origin (hereinafter mother tongue lessons) in Slovenian primary schools. Many theoreticians emphasize the role and importance of the mother tongue in maintaining an individual’s identity and culture, while linguists also emphasize its influence on learning all other languages.2 In this chapter, I first present the starting points in Slovenia regarding support for lessons of the mother tongue lessons for immigrant children who are included in the Slovene educational system. Next, I describe the circumstances in Slovenia at the beginning of the 21st cen- tury related to the organization of the mother tongue lessons. In my opinion,

1 Information for foreigners [Informacije za strance], accessed October 19, 2015, http://www .infotujci.si/index.php?setLang=BA&t=&id=. 2 Nataša Pirih Svetina, [Slovenščina kot tuji jezik] (Domžale: Izolit, 2005). Lucija Čok, [“Poučevanje jezikov v otroštvu – sociološki in medkulturni vidiki”], in [Učenje in poučevanje dodatnih jezikov v otroštvu], ed. Karmen Pižorn (Ljubljana: Zavod Republike Slovenije za šolstvo, 2009), 136–151.

Bosnian Language Lessons as the Mother Tongue of Immigrants 125 the right to mother tongue lessons is strongly related to the development of intercultural dialogue in school).3 The main part of the chapter focuses on the organized Bosnian language and culture lessons, which were organized in 2012 and 2013 by the Bosnian Cultural Association of Slovenia (hereinafter the bcas) via the project “Roots in Bosnia, the tree in Slovenia.”4 The focus of the chapter is also on the teaching mate- rial that was accessible after the end of the project. I researched where and in what way Bosnian language and culture lessons continued in the 2014/2015 school year. Interviews were conducted with Admir Baltić, the secretary of the bcas;5 Goran Popović, the headmaster of the only Slovene primary school where Bosnian language and culture lessons were held in the 2014/2015 school year;6 and Dijana Harčević Batić,7 a Bosnian language and culture teacher, and her pupils.8 In the concluding section, I pose the question of who should fi- nance Bosnian language and culture lessons in Slovenia. Additionally, I present the remedial lessons of Slovene language and culture with an emphasis on the implementation of lessons in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the lectureships and possibilities for studying the Slovene language abroad.9 An interview with Barbara Hanuš, one of the Slovenian language and culture teachers in Bosnia- Herzegovina, was also conducted.10

3 Marijanca Ajša Vižintin, [“Vključevanje otrok priseljencev prve generacije in medkulturni dialog v slovenski osnovni šoli”] (PhD diss., University of Ljubljana, 2013). Marijanca Ajša Vižintin, [“Model medkulturne vzgoje in izobraževanja: za uspešnejše vključevanje otrok priseljencev”], Dve domovini/Two Homelands 40 (2014): 71–89, accessed October 19, 2015, http://twohomelands.zrc-sazu.si/onlinejournal/DD_TH_40.pdf. 4 “The roots in Bosnia, a tree in Slovenia [Korenine v Bosni, drevo v Sloveniji] (2012–2013),” accessed October 19, 2015, http://kbds.bosnjak.si/. 5 Admir Baltić, Interview 2014, a secretary of the Bosnian Cultural Association of Slovenia. Slovenia, Ljubljana, 9th December 2014. 6 Goran Popović, Interview 2014, a headmaster of the Slovene Primary school Livada, Lju- bljana. Slovenia, Ljubljana, 18th December 2014. 7 Dijana Harčević Ćatić, Interview 2014, a teacher of the Bosnian language and culture in Slovenia. Slovenia, Ljubljana, 9th December 2014. 8 The pupils, Interview 2014, attending the Bosnian language and culture lessons, Slovenia, Ljubljana, 9th December 2014. 9 Tatjana Jurkovič, “Information about Slovene lessons for the Slovenes and their descendants abroad” [Informacija o pouku slovenščine za Slovence in njihove potomce v tujini], accessed October 19, 2015, http://www.bern.embassy.si/fileadmin/user_upload/dkp_21_ vbn/PDF_Files/Informacija_o_pouku_slovenscine.pdf. Mojca Nidorfer Šiškovič, “Slovene at foreign universities [Slovenščina na tujih univerzah]”, accessed October 19, 2015, http:// www.centerslo.net/l1.asp?L1_ID=2&LANG=slo. 10 Barbara Hanuš, Interview 2014, a teacher of the Slovenian language and culture in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Banjaluka, 21st November 2014.