A group of young linguists started a free Croatian language online e-learning portal HR4EU.
As reported by HINA on April 26, 2016, a group of young linguists from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb gathered to start a new free e-learning portal for foreigners wishing to learn Croatian. The project was funded by the EU fund for Social projects and along with interactive Croatian lessons includes further development of new and upgrades to existing computer-based resources for the Croatian language.
"There are so many free and fun online courses for various other languages, but not a single one for Croatian. We thought it would be useful to create an e-learning platform because languages are most visible online” Matea Filko, a doctoral student employed on this project stated.
The interactive course which they developed is divided into lessons in which “students” alternates grammar content, exercises and interesting factoids about Croatia to make it more entertaining and interesting.
"We are bringing in cultural elements to make learning fun for the users” Filko added. Besides giving users the opportunity to learn Croatian, this e-learning platform also offers information about Croatian culture, history, and gastronomy as well as practical information that might be of use to foreigners working or studying in Croatia. HR4EU also offers interactive maps and video clips that help you use the portal and other existing computer resources.
The portal offers three difficulty levels, beginners, intermediate and advanced course as well as two additional advanced courses – Croatian for students and Croatian for business people. Three main levels offer 10 lessons each with grammar spelling and vocabulary segments as well as visual and auditory aids.
„There are many “traps” in the Croatian language that each person learning it has to overcome. There’s also the hurdle of too much information in the very beginning, especially if the person learning Croatian is either a native English or Spanish speaker since those languages do not have declinations. That is why the course progresses slowly and it does not give out too much grammar information at once” said Jurica Polančec, also a doctoral student working on the project.
Now there’s no excuse for you not to tackle the basics of the Croatian language and you can get started right here.
