As a foreigner who just settling in Ljubljana, I asked to chatGPT to formate a list of arguments to help me answering to all my friends who ask me “why slovenia?”. So far I think this is kind of accurate, matching with what I was already saying. what do you think? is it missing ones?

32 comments

  3. >6. Excellent healthcare

    Meanwhile the system is falling apart with tons of people not even having their own doctor. But as I understand Free™ and Universal™ are the labels that shout quality.

  4. >10. Quality education

    Agreed. But if you graduated outside the EU, you have to do it again here. It’ll cost you about 50 euro in total

  5. Beside number 9 I think it is pretty accurate. Healthcare is still quite ahead of many other countries, especially considering the size of our country. You will survive almost every disease and you will not go broke while still receiving excellent care. Yes, primary care is not in the best shape now, but otherwise I would say we are in top 10 in the world.

  6. Cost of living is relatively low only if you compare it to other Alpine countries like Austria or Switzerland.

  9. Some of these are kinda relative. There’s places with healthcare way worse, but there’s places where it’s better as well. It’s fair to say that you will get treatment if you really need it. But if you have a minor thing the waiting line could be so long many people prefer to just pay a private doctor.

    Transport is good in terms that you can get to most places, and it is affordable. But certain connections just take so much time and are infrequent so yeah. There’s certainly places with better transpost but indeed there’s also worse out there.

  11. The healthcare right now is struggling but it seems to be in a lot of places. Corona made a lot of things worse. In a way it’s good because at least some issues that have been growing will finally be addressed.

    The problem is that health care can be excellent or crap depending on your issue and who you see. Right now though the waiting times for specialists and GPs is much too long. Our politicians are supposedly working on it but we’ll see what their solutions will be.

    The friendly people I genuinely don’t get. Most people say that but I don’t get it. I see us as very cynical and we keep to ourselves a lot. It is true that we’re a lot more open when it comes to foreigners so maybe that’s it.

  12. 10 is blatantly false. There is no focus on math and tech in our schools. In fact there won’t be any informatics classes in primary school and 2nd-4th grade of high school for the foreseeable future even though industry needs tech workers.

  14. Everything but the cost of living. It’s relatively HIGH compared to other European countries. I think ChatGPT just figured we were kinda eastern and thought the cost of living is low.

  15. It could as well be a description of any other central or west European country. I strongly disagree with no. 2 as the prices of housing and food are cheaper in Italy than here.

  16. Pretty accurate, but maybe my 5cents on two points there….

    6. Excellent Healthcare -> not at all. Currently a disaster if we’re talking about the PUBLIC healthcare. On the other hand, private healthcare is pretty good and even more affordable than in other European countries
    7. Debatable, depends where you are from. Slovenians have a lot of personal issues (balkan mentality) with some countries/people. But at the end of the day it really depends on the person. In bigger cities, most of the people really don’t care where you’re from. They will probably even treat you better if they see that you’re a foreigner

  17. 1. Is true, 10. depends on the college, and 8. Is becoming less and less true, other thing are false (or at least ppl complain constantly)

  18. 1,2,3 – yes

    4,5 – it’s ok, I’d say at about European average.

    6 – yes if you pay out of your pocket. If you plan to join socialized healthcare (you need to work here) then join the waiting lines, which are typically 6-12 months. ER services are good though.

    7 – friendly and introverted. Don’t expect people to make first move.

    8 – yes absolutely.

    9 – not really. There are slow trains and expensive flights. We usually drive to Venice or Vienna for low-cost flights.

    10 – unfortunately not. Our universities do not rank highly on international lists of best schools (ranked approx 800-1000) and offer only limited courses in english.

  19. Very much true, good points. People living in Slovenia will complain and say elsewhere is better… But they have no living experience from elsewhere. Slovenia certainly offers very much, it’s down to you to make the best of it to your liking.

    Even if in Ljubljana, where some of those points won’t be the same as somewhere more rural, I wish you a nice stay here. It certainly can become a place that’s going to be hard to leave behind.

  23. It will only be fair if you also ask for 10 good reasons NOT TO live in Slovenia. And please update it here. 🙂

  24. I would add some Balkan heritage in cuisine, like Sarma and čevapčiči.. And health care is in crisis, not enough doctors and stuff, but ok, still going, with an effort.

  25. While our healthcare is there, It’s not the best. Good enough though.

    Education is free but I don’t think it’s good. Also depends what you classify as “good education”.

  29. Points 2 6 and 9 are a little sussy, but the rest seems pretty accurate. 4 and 7 might even be a bit questionable, depending on your luck.

  30. 11.) best politician party now, since SDS and JJ have been thrown off their chairs. Only good kind hearted decision makers left

  32. 1stly, depends on from where 🙃

    If comparing to american. Living costs are higher here for sure, but I think general standard is more or less equal. All other points are on point.

    If comparing to other countrys, ex. european, can be argued about 6 and 9.
    6. Health system is good in theory, but its seriusly overstrained. Waiting lines are long, some unurgent operations take years. And in some metropolian emergency clinics you can wait for hours just to be taken in. Not exactly to brag about, few years ago it was close to great, not now.
    9. Bus connections exist, thats it. Train is a bit shity, not cheap, frequent or accurate, 6+h to cross country vs 2-3h with car.

    From one that is born and lives on the coast of Slovenia, that has experienced alot of the world; I realy do think im living on one of most beautiful places on earth, surrounded by one of the nices people of moder society.
    Life here is good 🙂

    Despite some minor mistrust issueses, politics, “uncivilized foregneirs”, other “western” issueses etc…. ofcourse 😄

    Enjoy your stay 🙂

Leave a Reply