For Croatians who feel it but can't say it.
Ćakula Café is a slow Croatian podcast for heritage speakers and diaspora adults.
You grew up with Croatian at the edges — at the dinner table, in your grandparents' voices. You understand more than you can say.
Each episode uses slower, clearer Croatian at A2–B1 level. Real topics. Real culture. Not tourist phrases. Not grammar drills.
Hosted by Tihana Klepač, Croatian language teacher and Associate Professor, University of Zagreb.
talktimecro.com | @talktimecro
A Little of This, a Little of That: The Recipe No One Wrote Down | Ćakula Café slow Croatian podcast
You call your grandmother, you have paper and a pen, and you ask how much flour. And she says: well, however much it needs.
This episode of Ćakula Café is about the recipe that can't be written down, because it doesn't live in words but in hands, in one particular cup from her cupboard, and in the feeling in her fingers.
And about why language is exactly the same: word lists and grammar tables exist and they're useful, but Croatian isn't learned from paper, it's learned by standing next to it for a long time.
At the end, one small request involving the camera on your phone.
Slower, clearer Croatian for A2 learners — an episode built around Croatian grandmother recipes and Croatian cooking vocabulary, for heritage speakers and diaspora Croatians who've tried to write down what can only be shown.
Key vocabulary:
recept (REH-tsept) recipe; the thing she genuinely cannot give you
brašno (BRASH-noh) flour
tijesto (TYES-toh) dough
vaga (VA-ga) scales; she does not own one
šalica (SHA-lee-tsa) cup; not any cup, that cup
prsti (PURS-tee) fingers; where the recipe actually lives. Prst in the singular
zapisati (za-PEE-sa-tee) to write down; the thing that does not work here
snimati (SNEE-ma-tee) to record, to film; the thing that does
ispasti (ees-PAS-tee) to turn out. Nije ispalo means it did not work
osjećaj (OS-yeh-chai) feeling, instinct; the goal in the kitchen and in the language
How to use this episode: Listen on Spotify with subtitles on. Find your key words. Look those up. Not every word. Just the key ones. Then listen again. Each time you will understand a little more.
Free masterclass: talktimecro.com/free-masterclass (talktimecro.com/free-masterclass)
Instagram: @talktimecro (https://www.instagram.com/talktimecro/)
Substack: talktimecroatian.substack.com (talktimecroatian.substack.com)
Learn Croatian With a Cultural Twist.
4 Oct 2026
When Someone Dies and You're Far Away: A Funeral on a Small Screen | Ćakula Café slow Croatian podcast
The phone rings at three in the morning, and you know before you even answer. In Croatia the funeral will be in two or three days, and you're on the other side of the world.
This episode of Ćakula Café talks about something rarely said out loud: the funeral watched through a phone a relative holds up at the cemetery, the days around the funeral that turn out to be what you miss most of all, and the grave that someone else tends before Svi Sveti.
In the second half of the episode, you get the sentences many people find themselves missing when it's time to write to the family: moja sućut, pokoj mu duši, laka mu zemlja, mislim na vas.
Slower, clearer Croatian for A2 learners — a look at Croatian funeral customs and Croatian condolences phrases for heritage speakers and diaspora Croatians who've had to grieve from far away.
Key vocabulary:
sprovod (SPROH-vod) funeral
groblje (GROB-lyeh) cemetery
grob (GROB) grave; the one somebody else is tending
svijeća (SVYEH-cha) candle; it counts wherever you light it
sućut (SOO-choot) condolence. Moja sućut is the sentence you have been missing
pokojnik (poh-KOY-neek) the deceased. Pokojnica for a woman
duša (DOO-sha) soul. Pokoj mu duši, peace to his soul
ispratiti (ees-PRA-tee-tee) to see someone off, and also to attend their funeral
javiti se (YA-vee-tee seh) to get in touch, to answer the phone
Svi Sveti (svee SVEH-tee) All Saints, 1 November, when the whole country smells of candles
How to use this episode: Listen on Spotify with subtitles on. Find your key words. Look those up. Not every word. Just the key ones. Then listen again. Each time you will understand a little more.
Free masterclass: talktimecro.com/free-masterclass (talktimecro.com/free-masterclass)
Instagram: @talktimecro (https://www.instagram.com/talktimecro/)
Substack: talktimecroatian.substack.com (talktimecroatian.substack.com)
Learn Croatian With a Cultural Twist.
27 Sept 2026
At Home We Spoke English: The Decision Our Parents Had to Make | Ćakula Café slow Croatian podcast
People write in from Canada, Australia and America, and the same sentence comes up again and again: my parents spoke Croatian to each other, and English to me, and I don't know why.
This episode of Ćakula Café answers that question. It goes back to the sixties and seventies, to a shop where people laughed when someone spoke with a foreign accent, and to a conversation with a teacher who gave parents advice we now know was wrong.
This isn't a story about guilt, but about a decision made with fear and with love. And about why people who grew up that way aren't starting from zero.
Slower, clearer Croatian for A2 learners — an episode on heritage language loss and raising bilingual children in Croatian, for diaspora Croatians and heritage speakers still wondering why their parents made that choice.
Key vocabulary:
odluka (OD-loo-ka) decision. Donijeti odluku is to make one
savjet (SAV-yet) advice; in this story, the wrong kind
zaostati (za-OS-ta-tee) to fall behind; the word that frightened a generation of parents
zaštita (ZASH-tee-ta) protection; what they believed they were giving
naglasak (NA-gla-sak) accent; the thing they did not want you to carry
prepoznati (preh-POZ-na-tee) to recognise; what your ear does before you can explain it
uho (OO-hoh) ear; the advantage you have and did not ask for
nestati (NES-ta-tee) to disappear; the language did not
djetinjstvo (dyeh-TEEN-ystvoh) childhood; where it is still lying quietly
prekasno (preh-KAS-noh) too late; it is not
How to use this episode: Listen on Spotify with subtitles on. Find your key words. Look those up. Not every word. Just the key ones. Then listen again. Each time you will understand a little more.
Free masterclass: talktimecro.com/free-masterclass (https://talktimecro.com/free-masterclass)
Instagram: @talktimecro (https://www.instagram.com/talktimecro/)
Substack: talktimecroatian.substack.com (https://talktimecroatian.substack.com/)
Learn Croatian With a Cultural Twist.
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