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Studying in Croatia
Until recent decades, learning Croatian was severely repressed. Nowadays, after the founding of the Republic of Croatia, the Croatian language and its study are experiencing a considerable rebirth. Croatia is rapidly growing as one of the finest tourist destination of the Mediterranean with its beautiful beaches, diverse landscapes, and rich culture. The people are very proud of their language, however, so you will be especially welcomed by them for studying Croatian. With 5.5 million speakers, Croatian is the official language of both Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina with recognized minority language status in four other countries.
Croatian can be traced back to the 9th century when Old Church Slavonic was used for religious purposes but then slowly became adopted for everyday use. By the 11th century it had become a language of the people as evidenced by the Baška tablet. Discovered in 1851 in the paving of a church, the tablet is the first instance where the name ‘Croatia’ and the description ‘Croatian’ are written in the Croatian language. As a result, the tablet is of great significance and is referred to as the birth certificate of the Croats.
About Learning Croatian
Learning Croatian has many interesting surprises! There is no past, present or future tense. Instead, Croatian verbs change to signify when something has happened. Subject, verb and object don’t need to be in any particular order as it does in English with various noun endings deciding whether “You visit Croatia” or “Croatia visits you”. If these rules seem complicated you may be glad to know that with a quick lesson in the alphabet you will be able to pronounce all the words you read and write down all the words you can say with no spelling errors! Since Croatian phonemic, meaning each sound has its own letter, there will never be words spelled differently though they sound the same: no ‘two’, ‘too’, ‘to’!
While staying in Croatia you will not be at a loss for places to visit with seven World Heritage sites and eight famous national parks covering its diverse landscape of plains, woodlands and rocky coastlines. The culture is equally rich with several events being named Intangible Cultural Heritages by UNESCO. If at any point you get lost among all these incredible sites your teachers will have you well prepared to ask directions and, as a local may happily tell you, ‘Tko pita, ne skita!” (He who asks, need not wander.) Don’t forget to pick your Dad up a tie as a souvenir, either. They were invented for Croatian soldiers in the 17th century and is where we get the name ‘cravat’.
