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Post by mambo on Jul 18, 2008 14:40:28 GMT 1
Polako,
Italy has bureaucracy, that is true and they love paperwork over there, it is amazing, but at least the rules and regulations are clear and that is something we cannot say from Croatia.
And about the English ?
Well, here in Croatia there are not a lot of people who speak English, only a very small number of people speak English, the rest speaks hardly any other language. In fact, in Istria the older ones speak Italian, which makes it possible to speak with them.
The Italians also hardly speak any other language, so learning Italian is basically the only option. Luckily the Italian language is a lot easier than Croatian, which I still find impossible to pronounce and remember.
But setting the language aside, if you look at life itself, how Italians live their life and what Italy has to offer, we can only conclude that it is a world of difference with Croatia. Here you will not find a lot of people on the street in the winter time, basically there is nothing to do, most of them are surviving until next summer season.
Wintertime is when the Italian cities come to live.
And I also know that it is not all perfect in Italy, lived there for 4 years so know that it has its negative parts as well, but still, Italy was the absolute best time of my life, worked hard, long 12 hour days, but afterwards there was always the reward of going out for dinner and parties all over the place. During the days off I was perhaps 1,5 hour away from the ski slopes and in the summer 1 hour from the sea, it doesn't get any better than that.
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Post by Carol on Jul 18, 2008 14:50:55 GMT 1
OK, Polako I won't argue this with you on an open forum (or at all if you wish) but just for clarity I am saying that this was the driving motivation for the change but there are other factors at play regarding how the change is being implemented (as seen in Istria and elsewhere)
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Post by polako on Jul 18, 2008 14:54:40 GMT 1
I think that it's an individual thing where someone feels comfortable. For me personally Croatian is an easier language to learn than Italian- can't get my head around it. But my father who used to live in Rome for about 3-4 years, can speak it like a native. So I feel more at home in Cro than in Italy and I have visited a lot of Italy.
And my little polo with me in it was written off by a mad Italian from Udine driving an articulated lorry in London. Lucky to be alive! When I drove to Salzburg via Udine, he was lucky I did not pay him a visit.......joke joke!
So there may be a lot of reasons why Italy is not number 1 on my list.
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Post by capio on Jul 18, 2008 15:00:01 GMT 1
There's no way if you have had equal exposure to Croatian and Italian and you're a native English speaker than Croatia is easier to learn. After English the romance languages are the easiest languages to pick up. Are you not of Croatian heritage Pol?
I love Italy, it's an amazing country but unquestionably more people speak English in Croatia than in Italy. I'm not sure that's a reason to live there though as many Croat's object to speaking English in 'their backyard'.
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Post by polako on Jul 18, 2008 15:00:48 GMT 1
Guess again Capio......... O.K this is not fair on you lot. But I get mistaken for being Croatian all the time in Cro- Ti si nasa.
I have lived in Uk all my life, but my parents are of Slavic origin and my father lived in Italy after WW2, and then came to the UK as he fought with the British army.
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Post by justapixel on Jul 18, 2008 15:25:29 GMT 1
There's no way in hell Croatian language can be simpler to learn than Italian. Italian grammar is as basic as it gets and words are all Latin which means most of them we already know. OTOH, Croatian grammar is as complicated as our bureaucracy. Speaking of Italy, I suppose it has a lot to offer but it's incredible crime rate, lunatic drivers, political standstill (ok, we have it, too) and constant economic recession drive me away. I believe Spain is better, I'd like to live in Barcelona. Would anyone here sponsor me a small apartment there?  . |
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Post by capio on Jul 18, 2008 15:27:48 GMT 1
Speaking of Italy, I suppose it has a lot to offer but it's incredible crime rate, lunatic drivers, political standstill (ok, we have it, too) and constant economic recession drive me away. I believe Spain is better, I'd like to live in Barcelona. Would anyone here sponsor me a small apartment there? . I'd go with that! Barca is great... although I am probably heading to New York soon... now that is a crazy city |
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Post by capio on Jul 18, 2008 15:30:06 GMT 1
I have lived in Uk all my life, but my parents are of Slavic origin . Ok so if your parents are Slavic I assume you've had some exposure to Slavic words, I have never ever heard a word of Croatian when I first went there... it's not easy, the noises and words sound nothing like I had heard before, the closest I had been was on Rocky 4 when Drago muttered some Russian. Only Hungarian and Albanian sounded more difficult at a first hearing! |
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Post by polako on Jul 18, 2008 15:33:47 GMT 1
justapixel- who said that italian is easier to learn than Cro.
I, as someone who can understand/speak a number of slavic languages as once you know one they are pretty much the same, find it easier to learn Croatian than Italian. Having said that I also learnt French and German and Latin at school and excelled in these languages and have O'Levels in them, but for some reason I have this thing with Italian (which is odd considering I learnt Latin). It could be brain overload, whatever, but I sound like a total "tutti fruttie" speaking it! My father has been mistaken for a native Italian in Italy, so it is personal to me I think.
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Post by capio on Jul 18, 2008 15:47:08 GMT 1
Yes but as I have already pointed out, you had exposure to Slavic languages. If you had not... you wouldn't find it so easy.
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Post by polako on Jul 18, 2008 15:53:27 GMT 1
Yeah, totally agree with you Capio- I would find it very difficult to speak Croatian otherwise. Slavic languages are notoriously difficult. Hungarian is even harder than Croatian and is apparently similar to Finnish, which again is meant to be a really hard language to learn. When I went to Hungary, there was nothing that I could relate the language to.
Now that I have started learning Croatian, I can understand my friend better when he speaks Russian, whereas I could not before. (There are quite a few similarities between Croatian and Russian.) So Capio, you'll have no troubles when you move to Moscow!!
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Post by JudeC on Jul 18, 2008 15:55:04 GMT 1
Barcelona is the only city - or indeed place - that I have ever been mugged, so I won't be moving to Spain any time soon.
My sister finds she can understand bits of Croatian because she did Russian 'O' level at school so I'd agree on the slavic languages point. The fact that after a long weekend in Croatia she probably understands more than I do after 10 visits is obviously neither here nor there! :-(
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Post by Valleycat on Jul 18, 2008 16:32:27 GMT 1
@ Mambo- several of us Istrian dwellers have noticed a distinct change in Istria this year. June was a lot quieter than normal. The normal fruit sellers who are normally there on the side of the road from Porec to Vrsar were not there this year, whereas they are there year in year out. Istria tours has closed down in Funtana. What is happening??? Mambo- did you notice the same thing?? Been coming here for 15plus years. . .Fruit vendors. . . we have fruit trees. . . and this is the first year we our cherry, plum, apple, pear trees have no fruit. . . must be Mother Nature?? The rest of the trees. . . minimal fruit. . . Vegetable garden slow to start. . . planted lst of April.. . again think it was the rain. . . so we all must be in the same boat. .. the fruit you buy at the market. . is not from this area. We did notice that even the regular domestic out of country folks that usually come back are not hear.. . perhaps the drop in the dollar$$ USA . .. that is. . . and the price of plane tickets. Also did notice that the domestic folks are not out and about like they usually are. . . think that is a money issue also. . . |
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Post by capio on Jul 18, 2008 16:33:09 GMT 1
Yeah, totally agree with you Capio- I would find it very difficult to speak Croatian otherwise. Slavic languages are notoriously difficult. Hungarian is even harder than Croatian and is apparently similar to Finnish, which again is meant to be a really hard language to learn. When I went to Hungary, there was nothing that I could relate the language to. Now that I have started learning Croatian, I can understand my friend better when he speaks Russian, whereas I could not before. (There are quite a few similarities between Croatian and Russian.) So Capio, you'll have no troubles when you move to Moscow!! But I speak Croatian like a German tourist! |
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Post by polako on Jul 18, 2008 16:46:05 GMT 1
Valleycat- it's all a conspiracy against foreigners what with Mother nature and the Cro government and the residency laws- haha- it's starting to sound like Capio's thread about Zagreb- whoops better stop.
That explains why my fruit seller is not there. Have you had figs yet???
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