Danica Cedilnik from Ljubljana

Proposers: Dušica Kunaver, Hermina Krajnc, Urša Gruden

Whoever is committed to the culture of learning does not reject it even when freed from all external pressure. Advancing yourself and others, even after retirement? For Danica Cedilnik there was absolutely no doubt! Her love of the Slovenian culture and language on the one hand and her need for self-discovery and personal growth on the other hand would not let her stop. Everything is changing and Danica Cedilnik would like to discover herself and language in this process of change. She does not get angry when she realises that it is no longer the way it was. She is aware that language is a living organism that "experiences rises and falls, a period of flourishing and a period of decline." As a teacher of Slovenian she would like to contribute to preserving its nobility, including in government offices where the use of language is most soulless. For this reason she and her colleague Magda Juvan planned a special programme of training For better Slovenian in the work place, which they present in the form of seminars and workshops throughout the country. "Often people say that Europe is threatening our language, but in truth it is only we that can threaten it," she asserts. Indeed good use of language shows "beauty and strength, while officialese, commercial, journalistic, political and sometimes also professional language often reflect the ignorance and negligence of those writing." If we can threaten our language, we can also help it to attain a higher quality, and it is to this that Danica Cedilnik devotes all her professional zeal. In her seminars she has often been convinced that many people really want to improve their knowledge of the language, to enrich their word power and to acquire skills in oral and written communication. To these people she devotes articles in printed publications, and she has also written books, such as Thumbing through the Orthography (Cikcak po pravopisu) in 1995. And someone that finds joy in life in the wealth its many forms and shapes cannot be satisfied solely by language exploration. What curiosity is aroused just by exploring oneself? Danica Cedilnik is also active in this area. For a number of years she has been running a workshop entitled Conscious Woman (Ozaveščena ženska), whereby she attempts to encourage participants to live a more creative, freer life and to have a better self-image.