How I Learned to Speak CROATIAN in 6 Steps (The Unconventional Way to Learning a Language)

Many people have asked me recently how I learned to speak Croatian (after seeing a few video clips of me speaking the language). I've been living in Croatia for 9 years already, and had to learn the language from scratch (as I don't have any Croatian roots, and had never heard the language before moving to Zagreb).

I learned Croatian in my own, unconventional way, and I've broken it down into 6 steps. It's NOT grammar-focused, I'll just give you some simple grammar beginnings, and then many helpful ways to increase your vocabulary and get you speaking.

I'll also share some tips to how I improved my written Croatian and worked on my grammar when I was ready.

I hope you find some helpful tips in here and are able to use some tricks to improve your Croatian!

Here's a link to the phrasebook I used:

Here are a few children's books in CROATIAN!

[bluebearyhere]

It makes me really happy seening someone learning my language ☺️

[TaylourwtheHalo]

My boyfriend is Croatian, so i am learning so i can speak to his parents (who don't speak English)
Glad I found your channel 😊

[Niki-HR]

Everyone who tries to learn our language has my respect. We Croats know that our language is hard and difficult...the grammar drives even us sometimes insane :P So we feel the pain and there is no reason to be mean to foreigners if they say something incorrect.
Everyone who learnt one or two languages knows how difficult it can be and if it is nothing similar to your native language it can be even harder. Well English is def easier than croatian but till this day there are words that are hard for me to pronounce.

Also your croatian sounds pretty amazing.
Svaka čast :D

[jimschutz]

I met for Croation language lessons every Monday evening for 3 years at Sacred Heart Chruch im Milwaukee from 2013 to 2016. After seeing this video...."hvala vam vrlo". I have hope in 2021 to learn more!!!

[ivantrgovac]

I really like the method. Hahaha. It is very unique and effective way to learn Croatian. Ja sam iz Hrvatske i mogu reći da ste odlično svladali naš težak jezik :)

[kristinadesireelovrek]

Your Croatian is amazing!! I’m really impressed, like most of the viewers here. 😃 I’m from Slovenia, but I don’t have a clue about the Croatian language (spent my early childhood in Germany). I understand 80% of it, however I’m not able to put a proper sentence together. 🙈

[Livingmybestlifeforever]

THANK YOU!!! I moved to Croatia in 2011 and went right into learning. I spend so much time and enough kuna (enough to build a castle lol) on tutors, books, and courses. I found that just speaking without caring if you made a mistake was very helpful. My friends basically said I spoke CroEnglish LOL.... Right when I started to understand 50% of the conversations my friends were having, I moved to Hungary!!! Now, I am back in Croatia and will use your technique to learn this time. You are so right, Croatians are kind and LOVE it when they hear a foreigner "try" to speak Croatian. HVALA FOR THE MOTIVATION!!!

[nikolavuckovic]

Im happy when someone from other country atleast says ''hi'' in my language, then i can't describe you how am I happy when the person actually learns it like you did :D

[randomnik]

As a Croatian, I can say that this is a really good method that I'd recommend to everyone. Croatian can be difficult to master, but with this method it should be quite easy to become quite conversational. And I fully agree and confirm you shouldn't bother with difficult grammar, it will just hinder your progress. Grammar will come over time.

[mislavjelinic]

Jako mi je drago da si naučila moj jezik. Bravo!
Im so glad that you learned my language. Great!

[emiter]

WOW! You are such a BIG motivation!!!! (im Cro expat in Germany learning German ..OMG!) super super motivation!!! Hvala Sarah!

[Ana-pqdb]

Ako ti nije jos nitko rekao, jako si lijepa!

[heatherivy]

Thank you so much for making these videos. I am also a blonde American girl married to a hrvat!! He is from Otok Krk. We live in Florida now but we visit every year and I have really struggled with the language barrier. I have decent vocabulary and ear for language (I sing in many languages) but I am so embarrassed to string words together and actually speak. I do okay at restaurants or grocery stores... anything around food or drinks lol! Anyway, thank you for your encouragement and tips. It’s so inspiring to see you living there and speaking so beautifully!! I am hoping to do a concert there this summer so maybe we could meet someday. All the best! Cheers/ živjeli 🥂

[jamessmith]

Hvala! As an aspiring Croatian speaker, this is vrlo korisno.

[jackk]

Your approach is awesome sarah- especially when you deemphasize the grammar/cases etc/ to build little at a time/ keep at it/ and you are even a better example as you learned from scratch-

Appreciate all your help and encouragement-

sve naybolje i hvala vam velika/

[josippavelic]

G - in English it sometimes sounds like Đ (gemini), in Croatian it's always G (gas)

[autumntarabocchia]

This is really good advice. As a native English speaker who only speaks English, I am having a very hard time with padezi. My vocabulary isn't extremely developed, and I find it so hard to just jump in and write and speak whilst making mistakes. I feel like everything I say has to be grammatically correct, and that's probably why I haven't progressed as far as I'd hope. I am starting an online Croatian course 3 days a week though, so I am very excited. I just need to learn to be okay making mistakes.

[TomislavMilobara]

And again, Sarah, you make my day so easy when I try to teach my Canadien friends Hrvatski jezik! ! Keep with good job and Good speed !

[matejpecha]

Ono kad gledas tutorijal kako pricati svoj jezik 😂😂

[benoit]

Hi! I'm a Canadian from Quebec and my girlfriend is Croatian Canadian. She really loves your approche to learning Croatian and is so impressed with your prononciation.
Tank you for this helpful guide.
Liked and subscribed 🤗🇭🇷🇨🇦