Ćakula Café

Tihana Klepač
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Language Learning
  • Updated Weekly

Learn Croatian through culture and slow conversation. Ćakula Café is a Croatian language podcast for heritage speakers and diaspora adults at A2–B1 level. Each episode covers one cultural topic — a market, a season, a word that doesn't translate — spoken slowly in standard Croatian. This is not a grammar lesson. It is ćakula: the art of unhurried conversation, part cultural inheritance, part language immersion. If you are somewhere between understanding and finding the words, this was made for you. talktimecro.com

  1. 1d ago

    Brseč: Croatian vocabulary for old stone towns — slow Croatian podcast for intermediate learners

    Brseč is a small Istrian town where time moves differently, where stone speaks and cats decide what matters. In this episode we walk through narrow lanes, past Glagolitic script on the walls, and arrive at the understanding that some smaller places — and some smaller parts of ourselves — need to be discovered slowly. Ćakula Café is a slow Croatian podcast for diaspora and heritage speakers at A2–B1 level — for those who want not to learn the language, but to recognise it as something that already belongs to them. Sit down, pour a coffee, and go slowly. Hosted by Tihana Klepač, Associate Professor at the University of Zagreb and founder of TalkTime Croatian at talktimecro.com. The Saturday Letter from Zagreb lands in your inbox every weekend — essays on language, culture, and belonging in Croatian. talktimecroatian.substack.com. VOCABULARY LIST miris (MEE-ris) — smell, scent; the sensory memory of a place before you can name itnema žurbe (NEH-mah ZHOO-beh) — there is no rush; one of the core rhythms of Croatian lifeglagoljica (glah-GOH-lee-tsah) — Glagolitic script, the ancient Croatian alphabet, still written on the walls of Istrian townsšterna (SHTER-nah) — town well or cistern; the gathering place around which village life was builttvrdoglavi (tvr-doh-GLAH-vee) — stubborn, obstinate; used here with affection, of a town that refused to disappearbura (BOO-rah) — the fierce northeasterly wind of the Adriatic coastpromatraj (pro-mah-TRAHJ) — observe, watch; an invitation to slow attentionbiti prisutan / prisutna (BEE-tee prees-TOO-ahn / prees-TOOT-nah) — to be present, attentive; a state rather than a taskkale (KAH-leh) — narrow stone lanes in Istrian towns, from the Venetian calle; the word for the street itself, not just its guttersrazumijevanje (rah-zoo-mee-eh-VAHN-yeh) — understanding, comprehension; deeper than merely knowingfjaka (FYAH-kah) — that particular Adriatic state of unhurried being; coastal melancholy that is also peace

    13 min

  2. Jun 4

    Lepoglava: Croatian lace, language, and what we choose to keep — slow Croatian podcast

    In a small Zagorje town, a Pauline monk spent his life writing the first Croatian encyclopaedic dictionary, and women in the same streets were making lace by hand — both acts of the same quiet conviction that some things must not be lost. This episode of Ćakula Café visits Lepoglava to explore what strpljenje — patience as a deliberate act, not passivity — actually looks like when it is passed from hand to hand across five centuries. Along the way, we meet the words for lace-making, for intangible heritage, and for the thread that connects a language to the people who choose to carry it. Slow, clear Croatian for intermediate learners at A2–B1 level. If this kind of Croatian stays with you, there is more at talktimecro.com.

    15 min

  3. Jun 1

    Sunce moje: Croatian grandparents and the words between us — slow Croatian podcast

    My grandmother speaks only Croatian. I speak only English. We sit together and don't know what to say. This episode of Ćakula Café — slow Croatian podcast for diaspora and heritage learners at A2–B1 level — sits with that silence, and with the words that exist on either side of it. You'll hear the regional names for grandparents across Croatia, the diminutives that carry more love than any translation can hold, and the word čežnja — a longing quieter than sadness, and longer-lasting. Hosted by Tihana Klepač, Associate Professor at the University of Zagreb and founder of TalkTime Croatian at talktimecro.com. The Saturday Letter from Zagreb lands in your inbox every weekend — essays on language, culture, and belonging in Croatian. talktimecroatian.substack.com.

    13 min

  4. May 24

    Mirisna kuhinja: Croatian food vocabulary and memory — slow Croatian podcast for heritage speakers

    Learn Croatian through smell — the sense that carries memory further than words. This episode of Ćakula Café, a slow Croatian podcast for A2–B1 heritage speakers and diaspora learners, takes you inside the Croatian kitchen: luk na ulju, češnjak, paprika, fresh bread from the pekara before the city wakes, lovor and ružmarin from a garden by the sea. Many diaspora listeners describe smelling Croatia before they see it. This episode is for them — and for anyone who carries a kitchen in their memory without quite having the words for it. Spoken slowly and clearly in Croatian. No grammar explanations — just the language and the thought, moving together. More about learning Croatian with Tihana Klepač: talktimecro.com

    14 min

  5. May 15

    Tržnica: Croatian market vocabulary — slow Croatian podcast for heritage speakers | A2 B1

    Learn Croatian with this slow Croatian podcast episode for intermediate learners at A2 and B1 level. If you are a heritage speaker, diaspora learner, or anyone reconnecting with the Croatian language and culture, this episode takes you inside the Croatian tržnica — the weekly market. From Zagreb's Dolac to Split's Pazar, we explore essential Croatian vocabulary: svježe, kilogram, koliko košta, prodavačica, pijaca. Slow, clear Croatian narration with no grammar explanations — just the language, the culture, and the smell of fresh earth on a Saturday morning. More about learning Croatian with Tihana Klepač: talktimecro.com

    12 min

  6. May 11

    Sunce i more: Croatian summer vocabulary — slow Croatian podcast

    Learn Croatian through the sounds and rhythms of a Croatian summer. This episode of Ćakula Café — a slow Croatian podcast for A2–B1 heritage speakers and diaspora learners — takes you to the Adriatic coast. In slow, clear Croatian we explore the words that carry a whole season: kupanje, bura, fjaka, sunce, plaža. No grammar drills. Just the language, the stone beaches, and the smell of salt in the air. If you grew up with Croatia in your memory, this episode is for you. Spoken slowly and clearly in Croatian. No grammar explanations — just the language and the thought, moving together. More about learning Croatian with Tihana Klepač: talktimecro.com

    9 min

  7. Apr 21

    Nedjelja: Croatian family traditions and the vocabulary of home — slow Croatian podcast

    Sunday in a Croatian home is not just a day of the week. It is a ritual — the smell of roasting chicken or stuffed peppers, a table set for the whole family, a father who always knew how to make everyone laugh too loudly for a small apartment. This episode for A2 Croatian learners moves slowly through one Croatian Sunday — the food, the table, the conversation, and the particular unhurried feeling of a day that belongs to no one but the family sitting around it. Vocabulary for the home, the meal, and the kind of belonging that doesn't need to be explained. Spoken slowly and clearly in Croatian. No grammar explanations — just a Sunday, and everything it carries. More about learning Croatian with Tihana Klepač: talktimecro.com

    8 min

  8. Apr 21

    Stjepan Miletić: Croatian theatre history and the making of HNK Zagreb — slow Croatian podcast

    There is a name every student of Croatian theatre history must know. Stjepan Miletić — intendant, director, writer, reformer. A man who, in just four seasons between 1894 and 1898, transformed the Croatian National Theatre from a struggling institution into one of the leading theatre houses in Europe. This episode for A2–B1 Croatian learners moves slowly through Miletić's life and legacy — the reforms he introduced, the acting school he founded, the repertoire he built, and the great night of 14 October 1895, when his Slava umjetnosti was performed in the new HNK building before Emperor Franz Joseph I and thousands of Zagrebians. One hundred and thirty years later, the same institution opened a new stage — its first new stage since that evening in 1895. They called the opening Slava umjetnosti 2.0. Some names do not age. Spoken slowly and clearly in Croatian, for heritage speakers and diaspora learners at A2–B1 level. More about learning Croatian: talktimecro.com

    19 min
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About

Learn Croatian through culture and slow conversation. Ćakula Café is a Croatian language podcast for heritage speakers and diaspora adults at A2–B1 level. Each episode covers one cultural topic — a market, a season, a word that doesn't translate — spoken slowly in standard Croatian. This is not a grammar lesson. It is ćakula: the art of unhurried conversation, part cultural inheritance, part language immersion. If you are somewhere between understanding and finding the words, this was made for you. talktimecro.com

Information

  • Creator
    Tihana Klepač
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    20
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Tihana Klepač
  • Show Website
    Ćakula Café

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