Learn Croatian

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Mondly Croatian App

Best Alternative to Duolingo or Babbel

The Mondly App lets you learn the Croatian language in a playful way with a series of interactive exercises.

There are over 1000 lessons in total and 5000 Croatian words spoken by native speakers in the vocabulary trainer.

You can freely choose which of the 40 topics you want to learn and in what order, including Croatian grammar and verb conjugations.

In addition, there is a Croatian conversation trainer (speech recognition) for the most common types of conversations in everyday life.

Mondly has around 45 million users worldwide. This language course has the advantage of having 41 source languages and 41 target languages.

Summary: Mondly is very similar to the Babbel and Duolingo apps and is just as good in terms of quality (Babbel does not have a Croatian course).

Link: Mondly Croatian App and Online Course

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Croatian Basic Course

From 17 Minute Languages

Systems: Online Access (PC, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS)

Suitable for: Beginners and Advanced Learners, Students, Professionals

Content: 1300 words (basic course), 5200 words (complete course), grammar, verb conjugations, exercises

Prices: USD 29,95 (Basic Course), USD 97 (Complete Course)

Overall Value:

The Croatian Basic Course consists of a vocabulary trainer for the Croatian basics (1300 words) with native-speaker audio, as well as grammar explanations and various exercises.

The vocabulary trainer works with a long-term memory method, in which the new vocabulary is checked at increasing intervals.

You can choose between text input, multiple choice or simply confirming whether you knew a word or not.

The exercises include text comprehension questions, filling in word gaps or just vocabulary lists where the English or Croatian side is covered.

The basic course corresponds to the official language levels A1 and A2 (explanation of CEFR language levels).

The Complete Course contains:

• Basic course for beginners (basic vocabulary with 1300 words)
• Intermediate course (1800 more words)
• Advanced course for experts (2100 words)
• Additional specialized vocabulary
• Covers the official CEFR language levels A1 to C2

Summary: Much cheaper and even better than the famous Rosetta Stone. There is a free demo version available and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Link: Croatian Basic Course and Complete Course

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Strokes Learning Software

Language Course for Download or on CD

Systems: PC and Mac

Suitable for: Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Learners, Professionals

Content: Vocabulary trainer with native-speaker audio and speech recognition, exercises, grammar

Prices:
USD   49 (Croatian 1 for Beginners)
USD   49 (Croatian 2 for Advanced)
USD   80 (Croatian 1 + 2)

Overall Value:

The Strokes Learning Software consists of two parts:

• Croatian 1: The Beginners Course (A1, A2, B1)
• Croatian 2: The Intermediate Course (A2, B1, B2)

These language courses do not cover the advanced levels C1 and C2.

These two Croatian courses each have 100 lessons, grammar explanations, a vocabulary trainer and a dictionary with 4500 spoken words.

A particularly good feature of this learning software is the pronunciation and conversation trainer with speech recognition.

This software language course is available for download or on CD/DVD.

Summary: Solid, traditional language course without playful exercises. The pronunciation trainer with speech recognition is very helpful.

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Glossika Croatian App

Croatian for Advanced Learners

Systems: iPhone App, Online Version

Suitable for: Intermediate and advanced learners

Content: Croatian advanced exercises

Prices: USD 17 (1 month and 1 language), USD 31 (1 month and all 64 languages)

Overall Value:

The Glossika app is for people who already have some basic proficiency in Croatian or already know a similar language.

The app has an entry test to determine your Croatian proficiency level. You can start from A1 to B2 (beginners and intermediate).

Glossika works with whole sentences instead of single Croatian words. You can choose which topics you want to learn.

This app has intentionally no "gamification" like Mondly or Duolingo. The only exercises are reading, listening, typing the sentences and speaking into the microphone.

There are also no grammar explanations. You are supposed to understand Croatian grammar from the context, like in Rosetta Stone.

You can try the complete app with all 64 languages for 7 days for free (without providing payment information).

Summary: Effective exercises for advanced learners, but somewhat higher price and not much variety.

Link: Glossika Croatian Language Course App

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Memrise Croatian App

App with User-Generated Lessons

Systems: Android App, iPhone App, Online-Version (PC and Mac)

Content: Croatian lessons and vocabulary trainer with native speaker audio, grammar

Prices: USD 8,99 (1 month), USD 60 (12 months), USD 110 (unlimited)

Overall Value:

With the Memrise App you can learn over 90 languages.

This includes even very small languages - however, in such cases the language courses are often limited to just a few lessons.

One special feature of the Memrise learning app is the large number of lessons created by users (native speakers).

However, the quality of these lessons varies greatly. For example, only the basic forms of verbs are usually taught, without the conjugations. Some languages also do not have an audio recording of the words at all.

Another good idea of the Memrise app are the user-generated tips and mnemonics for each word to help you memorize them.

Summary: User-generated lessons are a good idea. In practice, the quality of the lessons leaves a lot be desired.

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Mango Croatian App

Includes Grammar

Systems: Android and iOS Apps, Online Version

Content: Croatian lessons with native speaker audio, grammar, culture

Prices: USD 7.99 (1 month), USD 80 (1 year),
USD 18 (1 month and 70 languages), USD 180
(1 year and 70 languages)

Overall Value:

The Mango Languages App offers 70 languages, including Croatian.

This app also has some grammar lessons and cultural explanations. The explanations in English are all recorded and well done.

However, the number of lessons for learning Croatian is quite small, which means that this app is only suitable for absolute beginners.

There are no exercises, except for the repeated vocabulary tests.

You can also record your own pronunciation in the app and compare it with the recording of a native speaker.

Summary: Good quality, but not much vocabulary. Only for absolute Croatian beginners.

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Bluebird Croatian App

Croatian Lessons and Exercises

Systems: Android and iPhone apps, online version (PC and Mac)

Content: Croatian exercises with native speaker audio and speech recognition

Prices: USD 9.99 (1 month), USD 100 (12 months), USD 200 (unlimited), USD 400 (163 languages)

Overall Value:

The Bluebird App offers 146 source languages and 163 target languages and dialects, including Croatian.

The Croatian language course in this app includes the following:

• Daily video lessons in three difficulty levels
• Basic Croatian vocabulary on several dozen topics
• Common Croatian verbs with conjugations
• Analysis of your own pronunciation (with speech recognition)
• Tests: listening comprehension, filling in word gaps, vocabulary quizzes

There are about 500 video lessons for learning Croatian, each 5 to 60 minutes long. The interface of the app is similar to Mondly, Duolingo or Babbel.

The Bluebird app has no grammar lessons. Instead, you are supposed to understand the grammar "implicitly" from the examples, like in Rosetta Stone.

Summary: The video lessons and the interface take some getting used to, but the exercises are quite varied. Especially for smaller languages, this app is a viable alternative.

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Drops Croatian App

Alternative to Babbel and Duolingo

Systems: Android App, iPhone App, Online Version (PC and Mac)

Content: Croatian lessons with native speaker audio, vocabulary trainer

Prices: USD 13.30 (1 month), USD 72 (12 months),
USD 164 (unlimited)

Overall Value:

The Language Drops app is most notable for having 47 target languages and 40 source languages, similar to Mondly.

You can learn about 3000 Croatian words and phrases with this app. However, there are hardly any exercises, except for introducing new Croatian words and matching these words to pictures.

You can choose from which topics you want to learn new Croatian words and at what skill level you want to learn (whether you know the language somewhat).

If you want to try the app for free for two weeks you have to provide your payment information and then cancel it.

The "deal" you get in the app is more than 3 times as expensive as when you click "Get Premium" on the website (USD 38 per month instead of USD 13.30 per month).

Summary: No variety, no grammar and only 3000 words. Does not justify the higher price, even if you get access to all languages.

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Lingo Croatian App

Playful Croatian Learning

Systems: Android and iPhone Apps, Online Version (PC and Mac)

Content: Croatian lessons and exercises

Prices: USD 19.99 (1 month), USD 40 (3 months), USD 60 (6 months)

Overall Value:

The Lingo Play App offers language courses for 70 languages. It offers "gamified learning", which means learning vocabulary in a playful way.

Each Croatian lesson offers the following exercises:

• Presentation of new words with translation and image
• Decide whether a Croatian word matches the image
• Select one of four pictures that matches a word
• Type in the Croatian word for a picture
• Correctly type in a spoken Croatian word

In the full version this app offers up to 5000 Croatian words. The interface of the app is similar to Babbel, Duolingo or Mondly.

There is also a multiplayer mode and competitions where you can test your Croatian skills against other people.

Summary: Overpriced Croatian course that does offer some good exercises, but is not better than other similar apps.

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Pimsleur Croatian App

Beginner Course for a Premium Price

Systems: PC and Mac (incl. Mobile App)

Suitabe for: Beginners, students, travel vocabulary

Content: Croatian vocabulary, lessons with native-speaker audio and voice recognition

Price: USD 120 (Beginner course download)

Overall Value:

The Pimsleur App is very similar to Rosetta Stone (Rosetta Stone does not have a Croatian course) in that it does not give grammar explanations, verb conjugation tables, etc.

Instead, the Pimsleur method is supposed to let you learn the Croatian language intuitively, just like your native language - by combining pictures, reading and speaking (speech recognition).

This Croatian learning course for PCs and Macs also includes a mobile app for Android and iOS systems.

Summary: The most expensive Croatian basics course, even though it is unlikely that learning with it is much better than with the cheaper apps.

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Overview of the Croatian Learning Apps:

Learning App	Subscrip- tion?	Price	Systems	Value
17 Minutes (Basics)	No	$29	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
17 Minutes (Complete)	No	$97	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Strokes (Basics)	No	$49	PC, Mac
Strokes (Complete)	No	$107	PC, Mac
Mondly	Yes (1 month)	$10	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Mondly	Yes (12 months)	$48	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Mondly	No	$99	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Glossika (only Croatian)	Yes (1 month)	$17	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Glossika (64 languages)	Yes (1 month)	$31	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Memrise	Yes (1 month)	$9	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Memrise	Yes (12 months)	$60	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Memrise	No	$110	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Bluebird	No	$200	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Bluebird	Yes (1 month)	$10	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Bluebird	Yes (12 months)	$100	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Mango	Yes (1 month)	$8	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Mango	Yes (12 months)	$80	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Drops	No	$164	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Drops	Yes (1 month)	$13	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Drops	Yes (12 months)	$72	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Lingo Play	Yes (1 month)	$20	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Lingo Play	Yes (6 months)	$60	PC, Mac, Android, iOS
Pimsleur (Basics)	No	$120	PC, Mac, Android, iOS