Croatian - Hrvatski

I wanted my first real post to be about the latest language I've just started on, rather than the ones I've been using for years, simply because it's current for me, is first and foremost in my mind right now and I must admit, I'm really enjoying it.

That language is Croatian and I decided I'd start studying it a few months back.

Croatian is going to be the next language to become an official EU language due to Croatia's accession to the European Union on 1 July this year. But that wasn't my only reason for wanting to learn it, it just gave me a bit more impetus.

I choose the languages I will study for a number of reasons; will I get the chance to use it? On holiday or at work? Are there many speakers of it in this city to practise with? Are there many sources for learning material on the Internet? And probably above all others; do I like it and enjoy studying it?

That last one is perhaps the most important one to me personally, in some cases it has justified me learning some more 'obscure' languages.

I've done some work alongside the EU Commission so the fact I could potentially use Croatian for work, added to the fact it's one I really like was the deciding factor for me.

It's a beautiful and rich language, beautifully expressive and more musical than some of it's other siblings and cousins within the Slavic family. It combines some aspects of Latin languages (predominantly Italian) with the grammar and lexicon of the Slavic languages.

It is very closely related to Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin and Slovene, all of them being the languages of the States of the former Yugoslavia. Due to their linguistic closeness, a knowledge of any one of them will give you a base from which to learn the others and by all accounts this is a beautiful part of the world (and this i intend to find out for myself) so well worth learning. It's also related to Polish, Czech and Slovak, though not as closely. Then a little further away on this branch of the family tree is Russian. Croatian is supposedly the easiest of the Slavic languages to learn, from an English speaker's point of view anyway so it is an easily accessible doorway towards learning any of the others I've mentioned, although I'm studying it for it's own merits.

I'm really enjoying learning it and I fully intend to reach fluency pretty quickly, liking it makes this goal somewhat easier to reach.

The chance to use it in an official capacity with the EU Commission is something I'd relish.

Let me sign off by saying I'd like to welcome Croatia into the European Union.

Želio bih pozdraviti Hrvatsku u Europskoj uniji.