She was born in Celje to Slovenian parents, her father Jakob was a retired major in the Austro-Hungarian army, and her mother Vilibalda, née Miheljak, was a teacher at a German girls' school in Celje. Due to health problems, she attended elementary school irregularly, and due to her mother's obsession with decency, she also had to undergo strenuous orthopedic treatment. At the age of eleven, she discovered a talent for foreign languages, and at eighteen she passed the state exam in French, and a year later in English - which enabled her to teach both languages independently.
A provincial town embroiled in national conflicts was too narrow a framework for her openness and natural curiosity, so she moved to London in the autumn of 1908. She got a job in a translation office, and while working, she got to know Asian cultures and also learned Spanish, Italian, Russian, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, and crowned her private study of these languages with eight diplomas from the Royal Society of Arts in 1914. At the outbreak of World War I, as an Austrian citizen, she did not feel well in London, so she retreated to Norway and Sweden, and in the spring of 1918 she returned to Celje. She opened a language school and prepared for a trip around the world, which she had decided to do during her stay in Scandinavia.
Other sources:
http://www.almakarlin.si/
https://www.pokmuz-ce.si/alma3d/index.php
http://sl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_Maksimiljana_Karlin
http://www.teozofija.info/Biografija_Karlin.htm