Where is the answer from MoS on the above-made question?

You're all correct, but there is a bit more of a nuance as "shall" is used more frequently in British English. In American English, it is often used as a more polite/formal "should". It's definitely a loaded "question", where the person asking has already made the decision and is merely asking you to accept, come along or get moving.

I absolutely hate the way it is used, it's a disingenuous way to give the illusion that the askee has some sort of a real choice or input.

If anyone wants to improve their English with me then just ask. I speak perfectly seeing how I was born and raised in the Croatian American diaspora (parents from Herceg Bosna :))

Also, if anyone wants to help me speak Croatian better I'd appreciate that. I speak mediocre to decent ( I struggle with grammar the most) I'd appreciate that :)

Ako netko zeli bolje govoriti Engleski onda slobodno me pitaj. Savrseno ga govorim jer sam roden i odgojen u Hrvatsko Americkoj dijaspori ( a roditelji su mi iz HB).

Takoder ako ima koga da mi pomogne s hrvatskim jezikom onda velika hvala. Govorim prosjecno hrvatski ( trudim se s gramatikom).

Thanks braco i sestre, Uvik cu nasim Hrvatima pomoci digod bili.

Did you guys learn English in school?

Good to see you here!

This is a nice opportunity for people wanting to improve their spoken English, in return they can help you with Croatian.

First come - first served!

All young Croatians study English at school, starting from very early age. Typically, they put 4-6 hours weekly into it, this includes 2-3 hours of classes at school and a few hours of homeworks or independent study for exams. English is a mandatory class for all elementary and high/middle schools, in all Croatian cantons in BiH as well in Croatia. Older generations rarely know it. They may speak some German or Russian. Young ppl know English because they all study it at school, they know the grammar (more or less), words, basic expressions, but they don't have many opportunities to speak. They are exposed to American pop culture (movies, music) so they do hear a lot of English, but I think they don't pay much attention to it when there are subtitles in Croatian. They are able to communicate, but they are usually not so fluent. Sometimes they can even get a little scared or shy when they need to speak English to a foreigner, although most of them speak pretty good English.

Many speak German as well. A minority can speak some Italian.

I can also see there's room to improve your Croatian as well.
Unfortunately, Croatian grammar is way more difficult then English grammar, so unless you were born in B&H or Croatia, or had moved to the region as a little kid, you can never get 100% perfect. No foreigner has ever gotten black belt in our language. But you can get nearly perfect. Also, I wish I can say most Croatians are open and won't judge you for your Croatian grammar mistakes - they will most likely laugh at you, but in a cute way.
Unless you are a politician.

http://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/vide ... 64256.aspx

http://hr.n1info.com/a92853/Vijesti/Jav ... atski.html

Thanks for the warm welcome. I was getting worried that my posts would never get approved. lol

I'm always open for some mutual help.




It seems that a lot of young people learn through the internet as well either by participating in English language forums/chats or multiplayer video games that require advanced comprehension of English both for understanding the game and multiplayer communication. I would argue that English is the best second language to learn proficiently because it opens up the most opportunities to excel in the world. English is the lingua franca of the world and until it isn't knowledge of it will always give you an edge over someone that doesn't speak it or doesn't speak it well.

I sort of feel the same way those Croats do about speaking English except the opposite when I speak Croatian. I can be shy sometimes because I don't want to screw it up in front of my Croatian 1st language friends. Often times I realize too late I said something wrongly but I couldn't think of the right way in the moment. People over there (especially in Mostar of all places) have joked about little mistakes I make in Croatian but what every foreign Croat has to understand is to NOT take it personally. Sometimes the teasing can be brutal especially in the beginning when my grammar was a lot worse but as I've improved by speaking/writing and my Croatian is now accepted as normal and maybe above average as far as a foreigner goes but not as proficient as a native since, like you said, mistakes still happen. In other words I don't get as much shit about it anymore :P.

The biggest challenge is translating thoughts into speech or into writing. I think in English which means I think of sentence (recenice) structure in English (specifically American English) and not in Croatian or how it would be natural in Croatian. So I'm always making micro-translations in my mind especially when having higher level complex discussions in Croatian (i.e. politics, history, etc.) or anything that requires knowledge of broader concepts in Croatian. I can and do successfully speak Croatian (everyone understand me even in advanced conversation where I make more mistakes) and I find when I'm there among Croats in our homeland (HR and HB) I begin to think in Croatian after a while which naturally improves my speech. :)

I'd say there's several levels of foreign comprehension of Croatian. I'm definitely not new to Croatian and I've been raised around it all my life (parents, family, friends) and it was actually my first spoken language before I was put into American schools. So I already had a huge advantage over someone that's never spoke it before and it was far less difficult for me to speak/write/understand than someone that's never heard Croatian in their lives. Through our church we went through some Croatian classes but that wasn't any kind of advanced education, haha. I just never went through Croatian formal schooling which is why I'm always going to be near-proficient but not as proficient as a native that's went through the school you guys did. I do act as a translator for fellow Croats here especially that start businesses and need to work their way through the tax codes and what not. My skills are decent enough to navigate them through the laws but not perfect, lol.

And yeah, that's hilarious and brutal with that politician. So embarrassing, haha. I fear that my Croatian would be similar to his but I wont try to be a politician there. :)

PS: Robbie, your English is very good. I notice tiny mistakes but it's not anything major and your posts are completely understandable. I'd even argue you speak English at an advanced level and even better than some Americans (American primary education sucks) which is impressive.

@Becar Stari you can now expect many, many questions about English phrases and words.

You are really welcomed here.

@lider30 , Anytime brother. I've never formally taught English though.

How to say in English?

To follow sports, forums, and politics. :P

How to say in English faliti, nedostajati in the sense that:

He was 3 votes short to win the election.

He was three votes short of winning the election.

This sounds much better, my bad.

What's the way to say in English the next phrases:

How would you say the following phrases in English:

1.) requested to ask a question

2.) give someone a say, give him a say, allow them to speak it'd.

Thank you shodan.

Evo da ozivim malo temu s diskusijom barem jedne pojedinacne rijeci (bolje ista nego nista ), jedna rijec koju nikad nisam koristio:

hurdle

Po svemu sudeci, hurdle je ona precka/prepona u trcanju u atletici, a koristi se i za opis necega sto nam otezava dolazak do cilja, recimo tezi dio gradiva pri ucenju.

Sinonimi su: obstacle, difficulty, problem, barrier, bar, snag, stumbling block, impediment, obstruction, complication

You've passed your first hurdle. By remarking you've never used the word hurdle, you've now used it.

Hurdle is used in horseback riding too. The meaning is similar, an obstacle over which a particular horse jumps. We'd say prepona also.
But as a discipline of horseback riding or "preponsko jahanje" it is called show jumping.

Horseback riding has a posh tech term too. That's equestrianism. Or, in Croatian, konjički sport.
Originally from latin equus. Talking about hard words.

P.S. You are learning Spanish, so I'll say that it too has a similiar word in the same meaning.

Too advanced for my baby Spanish.

Perhaps. But I'm counting on you to catch up things pretty quickly...
Sorry, showing off a bit, but I've always found these words connections interesting.

Easter vocab

Easter (Sunday) Uskrs
Palm Sunday Cvjetnica
Ash Wednesday Pepelnica
Lent korizma

Holy Thursday Veliki četvrtak
Good Friday (Black Friday) Veliki petak (beats me if I know why)
Holy Saturday Velika subota


Happy Easter everybody

This is useful. Palm Sunday and Ash Wednesday are quite new words for me. I already knew the other words.

This previous sentence raised a question - is there any difference between words quite and pretty as adverbs?

You Croatia but you English very nice. Strong.