Why this Austrian photographer chose to learn Croatian

Finding connection through the lens and beyond

Ursula lives a life split between structure and creativity. By day, she leads an HR department, managing teams and navigating the complexities of personnel management. By evening and weekend, she transforms into a wedding and family photographer, capturing the unscripted moments that make each celebration unique. “I photograph people because I genuinely like people,” she explains simply. It’s this fundamental interest in others that shapes both her professional approach and her personal pursuits.

The Burgenland resident has turned her photography hobby into a thriving side business, documenting everything from surprise wedding parties to brides arriving by boat across alpine lakes. One recent booking saw her appear unannounced at a registry office – the couple’s witnesses had secretly hired her as a gift. “They were so relaxed about it,” Ursula recalls. “They just got on with their day and let me work around them. It turned into a really emotional, beautiful wedding.” Despite photographing countless celebrations, she still has one dream assignment on her wishlist: capturing a Croatian wedding by the sea, where her two passions would meet in a single frame.

A life shaped by movement and discovery

Originally from Upper Austria near the Bavarian border, Ursula now calls Burgenland home – Austria’s easternmost region, where she lives with her husband. Her approach to life balances pragmatism with genuine warmth, whether she’s discussing travel plans or her various pursuits.

Travel features prominently in Ursula’s life. She recently returned from a week in New York with eight friends – a long-held wish finally fulfilled. Her travel wishlist includes Canada for its landscapes, Iceland for photographic opportunities, and Finland in winter now that heated shoe insoles exist to combat her perpetually cold toes. But she consistently returns to Mediterranean shores, particularly Apulia in southern Italy, which she and her husband consider their second home. The region’s mix of countryside, nature reserves, coastline, mountains, and historic towns offers the variety she craves. “When your mind experiences so much that it can’t process it all, a week feels like two or three,” she observes. “It’s a way of extending your holiday.”

When a country captures your attention

Ursula’s path to Croatian began with sailboats and serendipity. She and her husband had been devoted Italy enthusiasts until sailing brought them to Croatian waters. The country simply took hold. “When a country captivates you the way Croatia does at the moment, you want to understand more than just the surface,” she explains. Her interest extends beyond tourist interactions to genuine cultural understanding – how people think, what moves them, what differs from Austrian culture.

Learning basic phrases in any destination language has always been Ursula’s practice – hello, goodbye, thank you, please as baseline courtesy. But Croatia demanded more. She wanted proper conversations, not just functional exchanges. “That’s my way of showing respect for the country,” she says. “Engaging with the language properly, even when it’s difficult.” The challenge of Croatian grammar, with its declensions and cases, hasn’t deterred her. During a recent two-and-a-half-week trip through Croatia in their camper van, she attempted to order in restaurants and ask questions in Croatian. “People are so helpful and warm about it,” she notes. “They get this smile on their faces and help you find the right word or phrase. There’s real heart in those moments.”

Discovering Croatian closer to home

What began as holiday preparation gained unexpected local relevance. Burgenland hosts significant Croatian minority communities – descendants of settlers who arrived during the Turkish Wars when local populations were devastated. These communities still speak Croatian today, though Burgenland Croatian differs from modern standard Croatian rather like medieval German differs from contemporary German. They sometimes lack words for modern inventions, borrowing from German when necessary.

The response when Ursula speaks Croatian in these villages has been overwhelmingly positive. “They’re absolutely delighted that someone’s learning the language without Croatian roots,” she says. Her workplace offers additional practice opportunities – her team includes colleagues from Croatia and Bosnia. While they laugh good-naturedly at her attempts, the fact that their department head is learning their language clearly registers as meaningful recognition. One Croatian team leader told her early on: “Ursula, you’re my hero for learning Croatian.” The comment surprised her – she’s studying for herself, not for them – but it revealed how rarely people choose Croatian as a foreign language. “Almost nobody learns Croatian unless they have family – a grandmother or grandfather from Croatia,” her colleague explained.

The rhythm of regular practice

Ursula initially worried about the pace of the Let’s Learn Croatian courses – “I thought, there’s no break between courses at all!” But she’s come to appreciate the continuous structure. After her New York trip, during which she spoke only English and paused her Croatian completely, she noticed she needed time to re-acclimatise to the language when she caught up with recorded lessons. “I’m not yet deep enough in it for everything to stick automatically,” she admits. Regular homework, while occasionally stressful alongside a full-time job, prevents week-long gaps that would allow too much forgetting when learning a fresh language.

The small group format suits her learning style. Everyone participates actively rather than simply listening, and there’s always time for questions without embarrassment – even if you’re asking about something you’ve heard three times already. “We’re all in the same situation,” she points out. Her initial impression of Croatian as a harsh-sounding language has completely shifted. Certain vocabulary still refuses to lodge in her memory – she keeps a note beside her with “zabavan” (amusing/entertaining) because it simply won’t stick – but the language now sounds softer, more flowing to her ear. She’s grown accustomed to its rhythms.

Her advice to new Croatian learners? Practice patience with yourself. Croatian words don’t embed themselves as quickly as English, French, or Italian vocabulary might – those languages feel familiar from school, while Croatian requires different mental patterns. “You need patience with yourself and the confidence that it will come,” she counsels. “Stay with it.” While learning all the vocabulary from each lesson would be ideal, she acknowledges that working adults can’t always manage it. “At first I felt guilty when I hadn’t learned the words and couldn’t remember them in class. But they repeat. The important ones come up again and again, and eventually you remember them automatically.”