Good question. Answer is yes. Just about everyone under 50 speaks some degree of English. While it might be hard to find English speakers in the mountains and among the elderly who did not have the opportunity to learn English under communism, it is almost a second language here. Slovenian is a unique language. It is spoken only by Slovenians. Croatians, next country, don't necessarily understand it. A Polish friend who speaks Polish, Ukrainian, English, and German said she cannot understand it and finds it difficult to make the sounds. Every time I've gone to a shop, bar, or restaurant in LJ there is no problem with English. When I first got here and asked, "govorite Angleško" the reply was oftentimes 'of course.' While it sounded a bit arrogant at first I realized it was the equivalent of the French, "mais oui," but of course.

Tourists need not be at all concerned about not being able to communicate. Many of the courses at the university are taught in English because of the large number of students from all over Europe who study here but don't speak Slovenian. And of course all medical workers understand and speak English.

One of the interesting facts about Slovenia is that even though tiny with a population of 2 million, there are multiple dialects of Slovenian, some of which are mutually unintelligible. The superior told me after I met his grandfather that if he spoke to me in Slovenian I would not understand a word. A few students pointed out something similar at a roadside stop on the way home from Hungary. The woman behind the counter was speaking a dialect they couldn't understand.