WANNABEAFREAK Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong cantonese.hk Joined 6811 days ago 144 posts - 185 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, Cantonese Studies: French
| Message 1 of 38 22 April 2010 at 5:07pm | IP Logged |
Is Croatian any harder than Russian or English?
I'm wondering if people actually found Croatian hard to learn or is it as easy to learn as Cantonese?
Edited by WANNABEAFREAK on 22 April 2010 at 5:08pm
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Smart Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5323 days ago 352 posts - 398 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French Studies: German
| Message 2 of 38 22 April 2010 at 7:56pm | IP Logged |
From what I have heard, the lower Slavonic languages are easier than Russian.
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ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5465 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew
| Message 3 of 38 22 April 2010 at 8:08pm | IP Logged |
I actually found that Croatian was a bit easier than Russian. In my opinion, it is also easier than Serbian or Bosnian
(even though they are exactly the same). The only differences I found between Croatian and BSM, was the pitch
accent. I don't really think Croatian has a pitch accent like the others.
But yes, due to its rarity, its association with Yugoslavia, and the most awesome country of Croatia, it is hardcore.
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Delodephius Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 5387 days ago 342 posts - 501 votes Speaks: Slovak*, Serbo-Croatian*, EnglishC1, Czech Studies: Russian, Japanese
| Message 4 of 38 23 April 2010 at 1:09am | IP Logged |
Croatia has the same accent system Serbian and Bosnian. They just use it a bit differently.
Also, Croatian is written only in Latin (and a bit of Glagolitic in the coast, mostly for decoration) unlike Russian, so it might be easier for a Westerner to learn.
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ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5465 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew
| Message 5 of 38 23 April 2010 at 7:07am | IP Logged |
Russian is considered hardcore because everyone knows about it, and people who try to learn it fail at it. Croatian's
reputation isn't described as "hard", simply because not enough people learn it. I think that Croatian can definitely
be considered harder than Russian, although Russian's reputation will give a more "hardcore" look to your linguistic
escapades, mainly due to the fact that it's more well known.
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bushwick Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6228 days ago 407 posts - 443 votes Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese
| Message 6 of 38 23 April 2010 at 9:17am | IP Logged |
croatian has the same a difficult grammatical case system, but I think for a non-Slavic language speaker the sounds of Croatian might be more easily reproduced.
although, I'm not too familiar with Russian, and less so with Cantonese :D
ruskivyetr wrote:
it is also easier than Serbian or Bosnian
(even though they are exactly the same) |
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no they are pretty much completely the same. some Croatian dialects are more different than Serbian (I'd say most of them). it's not any easier basically, and when you learn Croatian you'd be understanding Bosnian for sure, and with Serbian you would have to learn some minor vocabulary differences (which in the area everyone is familiar with, as Croatian still uses a lot of Serbian words although they might not be official)
goood luck
PS: for motivation's sake; I met a Korean girl this summer who I managed to learn Croatian in about 2 or 3 months living here. now it wasn't perfect Croatian, far from it, but she could very well communicate, if not complicated topics, but have at least a basic conversation with several people around her. it was so nice to see, and I'm sure yur efforts of Croatian will pay of in Croatia (and anywhere else in the area).
(note though, I think she spent the time on some really intensive course, but still!)
Edited by bushwick on 23 April 2010 at 9:21am
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ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5465 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew
| Message 7 of 38 23 April 2010 at 3:59pm | IP Logged |
bushwick wrote:
ruskivyetr wrote:
it is also easier than Serbian or Bosnian
(even though they are exactly the same) |
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no they are pretty much completely the same. some Croatian dialects are more different than Serbian (I'd say
most of them). it's not any easier basically, and when you learn Croatian you'd be understanding Bosnian for
sure, and with Serbian you would have to learn some minor vocabulary differences (which in the area everyone is
familiar with, as Croatian still uses a lot of Serbian words although they might not be official)
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I'm sorry that I didn't clarify my meanings when I said that.
Croatian to ME seemed easier because the obstacle of the Cyrillic alphabet wasn't in the way (also the Serbian
Cyrillic alphabet is different than the Russian variation, and I did not know the Cyrillic alphabet at all before I had
studied Croatian). Most of the resources for Serbian (that I could find) were in the Cyrillic alphabet, so I just stuck
with Croatian resources. Bosnian, although it can be written in either or, I couldn't find any resources for it.
Croatian resources were in the Latin alphabet and were easy to find.
Yes, they are exactly the same. Unlike the Scandi languages, or the differences between Scots and Standard
English, they have no differences whatsoever, except for the occasional word. Even in America we have different
words for different regions, even though the accent may be the same. So it just goes to show how lucky the
Croatians, Bosniacs, and the Serbs are to have such similar languages, even though their countries may have their
political disputes.
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bushwick Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6228 days ago 407 posts - 443 votes Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese
| Message 8 of 38 24 April 2010 at 10:41am | IP Logged |
well, not EXACTLY the same, that's why I said pretty much.
it's like different standardized dialects.
here, found an example on wikipedia (could have made one myself, but let's be sure)
"I want to know whether I'll start working"
Želim da znam da li ću da počnem da radim. (Serbian)
Želim znati hoću li početi raditi. (Croatian)
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