Croatian vocabulary
ADVERTS, SIGNS, LABELS
There is a rich source of Croatian vocabulary available to all of us as we walk around the streets: adverts on billboards, signs in (and on) shop windows, and also tourist signs with instructions and information. Even restaurant menus. And there are event promotions.
And in the home the labels on jars, bottles and boxes give us another place for incidental learning. And even the sayings that we find on T-shirts, mugs and other paraphernalia.
What a store of instructional material.
The trick is to pay attention to them: read them and try to make sense of what they say, rather than treat them like background “noise” and ignore them.
And in the home the labels on jars, bottles and boxes give us another place for incidental learning. And even the sayings that we find on T-shirts, mugs and other paraphernalia.
What a store of instructional material.
The trick is to pay attention to them: read them and try to make sense of what they say, rather than treat them like background “noise” and ignore them.
Other than perhaps Times Square in New York, Croatia is one of the richest places for advertising billboards – especially in the capital city, Zagreb.
Central Zagreb is like most cities internationally, loaded with signs and adverts.
Go to the edge of the city and on the busy streets coming to town, at every possible spot there are huge LED billboards lighting up the area to attract the driver’s attention (but don’t dare look at your phone!). I look at some of these billboards, flashing directly onto, and into, apartment blocks and thank my lucky stars that I don’t live in one of them.
Central Zagreb is like most cities internationally, loaded with signs and adverts.
Go to the edge of the city and on the busy streets coming to town, at every possible spot there are huge LED billboards lighting up the area to attract the driver’s attention (but don’t dare look at your phone!). I look at some of these billboards, flashing directly onto, and into, apartment blocks and thank my lucky stars that I don’t live in one of them.
How would you like this shining through your bedroom window?
|
Some are double-sided to make sure they catch everyone.
|
What lucky people living near this big intersection. And most of the screens are flashing and dynamic. OK if you want to watch the adverts to learn Croatian!
And then there are the arteries going for 10 or 15 kilmetres out of town, past the light industrial areas and on to major shopping centres. You’ve got to be impressed with the wide swathes of greenery on both sides of these roads.
Decide for yourself whether to be impressed or reviled by the endless rows of monster LED billboards along the way. Every 50 metres or so. Flashing crazily, trying to get you to buy.
Decide for yourself whether to be impressed or reviled by the endless rows of monster LED billboards along the way. Every 50 metres or so. Flashing crazily, trying to get you to buy.
Seemingly endless! A good source of income for the city perhaps?
It’s amazing how easy it is to ignore them. But my suggestion is to look at them with intent – not to be sucked in to buy that food or this furniture, or a flash new car, but to make sense of the language.
You need to be aware that many of them use a play on words (as is the wont of marketing psychologists), and perhaps local jargon. You might need to talk with locals about those ones.
And in Zagreb, I have even found a billboard that seems to be designed especially for the purpose of teaching us about the Croatian language …..
You need to be aware that many of them use a play on words (as is the wont of marketing psychologists), and perhaps local jargon. You might need to talk with locals about those ones.
And in Zagreb, I have even found a billboard that seems to be designed especially for the purpose of teaching us about the Croatian language …..
A rather playful statement that, since the word automobile is masculine gender, so is its shortened form, auto, even though it finishes with -o. More about this at Adverts, signs and labels: Miscellaneous.
To explore the meaning of the verb izgovoriti, go to Verb building: 001 GOVORITI verbs.
To explore the meaning of the verb izgovoriti, go to Verb building: 001 GOVORITI verbs.