Why didn't you try to learn literary Croatian? Everyone understands when you speak literary Croatian. English also has a million dialects, but literary English is understood by everyone as well.

I’m Croatian and I agree - even I gave up. Literally every part of croatia has their own language. The most difficult one, of course, is MEĐIMURSKI, from MEĐIMURJE. Nobody alive understands what those people are saying… some say you have to be at a certain level of alcohol posioning to understand them.

With all due respect Paul, these are the kind of difficulties which every Croatian is facing whenever he/she travels. You stand the same chance of understanding somebody else's vocabulary as the rest of us. I don't think it should have discouraged you. When Croatians don't understand each other, they simply ask does the word mean.

You have to learn the Štokavian (Štokavski) dialect. It is the original (literary) Croatian language spoken in continental Croatia, especially in Slavonia.

For several years, I vacationed in Jelsa with my wife and children, and I witnessed the strangest early morning conversation: P1: Eee P2: Ee? P1: Aaaa P2: Eaa P1: Aaaa P2: Aa? P1: Aaeee P2: E And then they parted ways. After that, for years we went to Komiža on Vis and now mostly to Murter. The same thing happens all the time, the whole conversation using two letters.

as a native Croat i must say if you learn like book Croatian, everybody will understand u and not just in Croatia, but also in Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro... If you ever hear a person from Međimurje speak, u will understand the meaning of the word dialect, cuz some people say that is an entirely different language (and trust me it is). Its the same like comming to Germany and learning the word Kartoffel (potato) and then come to Austria where they say Eardapfel for the same thing.

I love languages and as a Polyglot I wanted to learn Croatian for a really long time, after years of diligent study and living in Zagreb I met a group of local guys that I started to hang out with regularly, and let me tell you, their slang language is almost entirely different language XD, some call it Šatrovački, they invert all common words and break them in half and also have different names/words for every little thing in their culture, so their slang was one of the strongest I came across and most difficult as it was truly like learning another language with different set of rules, the dictionaries out there really don't do justice on how many synonyms this language actually has.

Every language has dialects. When you start learning one officially (in an institution that can give you some kind of diploma), you learn the oficial language. The oficial language is known by all of the people no matter what dialect they are speaking. But when you start learning a language at home, with people around you, it's a common logic you will learn their dialect because that's what they're using among themselves.

Volio bih vas čuti kako govorite Hrvatski. Vrlo ste simpatičan čovjek. Pozdrav iz Zagreba!

The richness of dialect in Croatian language is incredible. I'm part Dalmatian part Zagorec, educated in Zagreb. I came across at least 10 different dialects. It can literally differ from place to place, like you said. And when you speak Croatian you can hear the subtle difference. I live in a place of 4000 people, town next to us already speaks differently.

Of all the places one could try to learn Croatian, this poor dude landed in Hvar 😅 It's almost like a different language there My whole family is from Split, but my mom had complications during pregnancy so she had to go and stay in a hospital in Zagreb. She always tells me stories about how she had to learn all kinds of new words for objects and stuff

There is a specific dialect of Croatian that is actually protected by UNESCO as a world heritage and is spoken only in and around Bednja in Zagorje. This is the famous Bednjanski govor. This is not understood by anyone xD There's actually a clip on UKposts where a woman is speaking and you have captions written in literal Croatian at the botton so one understands what she's saying. Croatian is beautiful because of these differences ❤️

U Sloveniji sela znaju biti udaljena tek par-sto metara, doslovno I svako ima svoj dijalekt (!)

Man you just need to learn the standard croatian language. The one they will teach you in every class you take in Croatia, i m sure. And then you ll be able to get along even on Hvar i assure you 😁

Man, you got a warped view of our language - islands are very specific, it's like learning English in Ireland, or South Africa, or Hawaii, and being intimidated by many differences from standard British English. These differences can be frustrating, yes, but they're not a reason to stop learning English. Most islanders adapt their speech when talking to Croatians who aren't from their island, and if you can master the neutral TV croatian, you should be able to get around just fine. I think you should reconsider your decision, because speaking with everyone in a country without any trouble is a pretty unreachable and useless goal, and deciding not to put effort in your language learning because of that is just good old perfectionism. As a native speaker of Croatian I can't speak with Istrians, most islanders, and people from Međimurje without them adjusting their accent.

I felt more or less the same with Slovenian, with 2 million inhabitants and more than 50 different dialects, it can be a nightmare to understand people, but at least by speaking standard Slovenian, you're understood everywhere. I don't fint it as difficult in Croatia, but I think it's mainly because I don't go often to the islands and I stay mainly in bigger cities, which makes standard Croatian mostly enough to understand and be understood. But it's true I had also few occasions not to have a clue what I'm being told!

Just learn the so called "književni hrvatski" the one that is spoken on national TV and radio. Everyone will understand you then. I was born in Zagreb but I have difficulties understand all those different dialects and there are way too many of them. Heck, in Zagorje two neighboring villages can't understand each other! It's a mess. 😂

Completely understandable. As an ESL teacher, I imagine that, if I started to learn English in my late 20s or now in my early 30s (compared to when I really started to learn it, which was at the age of 4 or 5 through Cartoon Network), after moving to England, I'd be floored by the differences between cockney, brummie and other English dialects. Don't feel too bad, many Croatians don't understand each other's dialects as soon as they leave their respective villages or regions, but we make fun of it and get by somehow 😅 In my experience, the most common problem non-native Croatian speakers have is learning the 7 noun-cases (padeži). I was somehow expecting you to mention them, but since you speak Russian and German, I suppose you're familiar enough with them.

Well you wouldn't learn English in Yorkshire, would you?

You shouldn't give up on Croatian Language. Don't try to learn every dialect in Croatia because there is so many for such a small Country. Some words are different in dialects but it is easy to explained each "new" word. Good Luck! You are doing very well.

You should learn "official" Croatian language that everybody knows but nobody speaks, and than expand it with local dialect words when needed. Its almoat the same as Serbian, while local dialects have Italian, German or Turkish versions of words depending on the area.

SAT is not "time" but HOUR (...or wristwatch, or clock)

Nemojte odustati od učenja hrvatskog. Trebate otići i boraviti u Slavoniji i onda ćete sve lako naučiti kako treba

Nemojte odustati 👍🏻

Thats true, i feel you. Im from Slavonia, studied in Rijeka and had a lot of friends from Istria. First month I didnt understand them at all 😄 also my cousins from Zadar, they are speaking Dalmatian and sometimes I need to ask them to tell the word on "real Croatian". But thats also one of the things why Croatia is so unique! Greetings and dont stop learning :)

Great video and I totally understand you. But I think it's a shame you gave up on it precisely because of what you experienced - the cultural and historical richness of the language. In my opinion, it's one of the finest treasures we have.

What a great video, thank you! 😊😊 Totally understandeable! All this is similar in some other countries BUT the difference with Croatia is that it is such a small country that u drive 10min away and poof a different dialect ... so its all blended Especially dalmatian and istrian part so many dialects 😊😊🍀🦋 continental part is thankfully much different, there can be some words not the same but us in the continental part dont really have "i have no idea what youre saying" moments 😅 or rarely

Yeah this video just makes sense - even here there are just some dialect words even professors stick with and might not correct you when saying it because it probably also slips their minds. It reminds me of the time I ( A Dalmatian ) went to Zagreb to take care of some business and when I went to the supermarket to buy some pasta and asked the lady working there where they keep their "Manistra" she was as confused as the businessman you talked to.

Dear Paul, Little correction:sat meaning watch, time is to be said vrijeme. Hatts of for your job

Sat is clock, time is vrijeme

In small cities and villages, it is normal to speak in dialect, but the people there will understand you if you speak literary Croatian. The Dalmatian dialect has some similarities with the Istrian dialect, we say also 'miljar' for one thousand :)))

But the way you can counter dialect is by looking at core of the word, because words have logical naming. Now this wont work fully not even to a good degree, but the more you see the connections it can get easier

Interesting video. I agree that spelling is much more logical than in English, but I wouldn't say that there is only a few exceptions regarding the grammar rules in general. It's FULL of exceptions and complex rules. My fiancé is a linguist from Slovakia (who also speaks fluent Czech, Bulgarian and English) and she finds Croatian to be very very difficult. Also, how come you didn't learn the standard Croatian? No matter where a Croat is from - they ditch the dialect and speak in standard Cro when needed.

I was expecting something hard from the grammar like continuous verb pairs or some difficult verb tense, but this... yeah, dialects are often tough to the Croatians as well, so don't feel too bad about having difficulties with them. I live near Zagreb and sometimes have trouble understanding people from Međimurje or Dalmatia. Cheers 👋

And now I've learned a new 'Croatian' word (štipunica) FYI : we on the west coast of Istria call it ŠČAPIN

In my part of Slavonija in Coratia you would say (Kopca) for that laundry thing

great lesson, thank you!- i sent this video to my love in california

Learn štokavian (the basis for the standardised Croatian language) and you'll be understood in the whole country

We talk main croatian language only when we meet people from other regions in Croatia. In every part of Croatia people speak differently with it's own dialect.

Mmh, that does not seem a rational decision to me. There is a standard Croatian, used in the media and understood all over the country, irrespective of dialects. You simply have to learn that. Dialects that are quite different from the standard language probably exist in all languages. You know German. I am a German living in Switzerland. I can sing a song about it, as a German saying goes (ich kann ein Lied davon singen) :-) But although I had a hard time and it took me a few months to understand Swiss-German (or to be precise Berne German) dialect, even in Switzerland the German-speakers all understand standard German, and are able to speak it if necessary. I know Croatia and Croatian a little bit, and I'd say it is the same over there.

I'm Brit living in Slovenia, and I struggle with Slovene. At least Croatians say their numbers the right way round and don't use dual form.

The problem is the way they usually teach Croatian in textbooks and language courses for foreigners - it's always just the stuck up formal standard. No colloquial language. And that's not the way people actually speak. Of course, if you land on an island, you have one more language to learn - the local Čakavian dialect :) Btw. as somebody said below - "štipunica" will not be understood outside of Split (or some parts of Dalmatia), but "štipaljka" and "kvačica" will mostly be understood everywhere. But this is a "house word" that people don't really use much in public. In other cases, people from Zagreb will know a lot of Split words and vice-versa. Or if they don't, they will switch to some kind of standard dialect.

I am from Slavonski Brod and the word for a peg is kvačica 😂 However, in a conversation about clothes, where I have an idea of the context etc I would absolutely understand štipunica even though I have never heard of this word until now. The problem is when you take a word out of the context or the is no context whatsoever. If you just told me to guess what štipunica means without any mention of laundry, chances are I would not know exactly but I would be able to guess it is something that can pinch things.

So true, so true... Once I collected 6 or 7 different words for fork: vilica (area around capital city, I also say that), viljuška (standard croatian), perun, pirun and pirul (at the coast)... I don't remmember the rest. Please, continue... 😆

I have just come back form the 3 months stay in UK. I had very hard time with Scottish dialect and a less hard time in northern England. In UK there are also dialects but I've been unterstood by everyone becuse I tried to speak school (standard) English. Variety of dialects seem to be present eveywhere in the world. When it comes to English, I always like to help myself with the Cambridge dictionary online. The best idea is enrolling in a language course and learning a dialect during pastime hours. :)

I'm from Northern Ireland and we live here. My partner is Croatian (Zagreb) and our 18 months old daughter understands croatian, I try to keep up with what she learns, but will soon need to actively teach myself to get a headstart on her. Of course my daughter will naturally pick up English because of living in Belfast, but I'd still like to be able to talk to her in Croatian as she grows up. Would you have any advice for me? I have found some things in my Croatian text books that my partner doesn't understand or she says it's wrong 😅 So I can see there's discrepancies between what is taught and what is colloquially understood.

LOL, you learned Croatian from Frenki! :) I've not seen that man for 20 years, will stop by and say hi when I visit Hvar. A beautiful human being!

Visited Croatia last year. In my 42 years, I have never experienced so many unfriendly people. Two weeks I will never get back in my life. Then I read somewhere that in the last 15 years somewhere around 500 000 croats have moved abroad looking for better life. Country of a population of 3,5 mill.

Yee i can see it but look If you learn štokavski dialect you are prolly good to go for about 90% of language becouse it is an offical school and goverment dialect ofc there are many variatons of 3 main ones (ćakavski,kajkavski and štokavski) but i dont thats a good reason to give up on it

We Kajkavian CRO learn Croatian from dialectes to standard one all our life. But you shoul'd learn standard one.

2:43 the way he said it

Well TBH in Hvar every town or vilige has a diferente dijalect. So i cant blame you im from Hvasr Hvar Krizna Luka

Understandable ❣️ the repair man came the other day, as he spoke I nodded but have no clue of what he said except the awareness where he's from

I think only Italy has a similar situation with an infinity of dialects and a commonly spoken language that is used by all in order to be able to navigate this mess.

Haha Paul, after learning Hvar dialect you decided to change the environment and went to Varaždin - a former Kajkavski capital: :'))

Great content, sir! Greetings from Belgrade, Serbia.

I have this EXACT problem with Croatian lol. (I dont wosh to give up though). I work in a tech company in Ireland, almost all my peers are from every corner of the world. And over the years, I grew to appreciate all the idiosyncratic ways people speak English as they understand how to self-translate. I've had the softest spot for Croatians, I like how direct and blunt they can be which is refreshing as Irish people tend to be relentlessly polite. I became curious about the language, and as my partner is Croatian with parents that do not speak any English, if I'm ever gonna talk to them it'll have to be in Hrvatski. They're from Benkovac and i need to get used to that dialect. I was fond of the story of how well your daughter could spell Croatian from the sounds of the words. I am a HUGE fan of the fact that all the letters have the same pronunciation in the words they build. It reminds me of Spanish in that way, especially as there's few double consonants and vowels. English is wonderful to speak and eloquently creative but the word pronunciation conventions are so frustrating even in my 30s. For as varied and challenging Croatian can be, I've found it easier to grasp than Irish after spending 12 years trying to learn it. Our dialect differences are about as crazy as theirs lol.

Interesting to see this side of the story as I'm Croatian looking up learning Gaeilge. You're kind of right and kind of wrong at the same time, there are dialectal differences for sure but 90+ percent of the language is the same among most dialects. The odd ones out being from Medjimurje and some islands. The issue you got into was learning in Hvar, which is very different than most of Dalmatia, pretty much all mainland. The further the islands go the more dialectal they become (my grandmother was from Vis which is similar to Hvar in dialect, I understand it but most people don't). So apart from the islands and Medjimurje you can talk to everyone else with small differences in a few words, which you can always ask "what does this mean". When I studied in Zagreb I would ask what I didn't understand but it was minimal, mostly because they have germanisms as opposed to italianisms. As a comparison, I'm fluent in English (native level) but when I moved to Ireland there were a number of irish words and expressions I didn't understand, I learned them over time. Then I would visit a different county and they would use their own local words I didn't understand, dialectal - it's just the beauty of the language, doesn't mean we couldn't communicate just because I didn't understand a word or two. It's a shame you gave up learning Croatian if you liked it, not that I'm a huge fan of Croatian personally but it's nice to be able to speak to everyone you want in their own language. Not everyone knows English. Best of luck to you!

Wow that was very interesting.

Thank you for sharing this. I learnt German in about 4-5 years just by living there and it was good enough to teach children to read in German. I have now lived in Croatia for 7 years and I still can’t hold a decent conversation. I’m starting to wonder what’s wrong with me.

Yes you're so right! Puno Hvala. Having worked in Indonesia, standard Bahasa Indonesian is very similar to standard Hrvatska (yes I'm aware of the inherent danger there!) and in pronunciation follows many of the same rules as in Croatia. Vowels are exactly the same. When I speak my little bits of Bahasa I am often stopped by Indonesians who ask me if I grew up in Indonesia! LOL

I'm 42, borne and raised in Croatia in area around Zagreb; year and half ago, I started to work in Rijeka and i learn new words daily and it's frustrating at moments.😀 So, I can only imagine how it must feel for a brit 😄😁

I laughed so much. Just buy the normal textbooks with audio course for the official Croatian for foreigners. There are also "cluster language" options by Yale University Press called "BCS" (bosnian/croatian/serbian), or British ones BCMS (they accepted to write Montenegrin too lol), or the ones published in Zagreb or Sarajevo also called "BCS for foreigners". There are also Finnish but idk whether they are only in English, or its half in Finnish, I just learned about them, and they also called it BCMS. I've had them before for my students and they are VERY effective to foreigners. I know that most of them provided exact linguistical maps which teach the student which dialect or grammar style is spoken where. Some even introduce a student to some chunks of history. It can be useful for people who tour South Slavic areas. But most importantly, the courses teach official language, with official grammar, not small dialects and localisms, which you will never really need. Actually being from the mainland, I can't understand Hvar localisms. But I'm pretty sure they have easier time understanding the official language when they must have it in school and institutions, and Tv is in official language, afterall. So... It's not a waste of time to learn official language at all. Just refocus on the official language :).

I fact you were learning the most original form of Croatian language by speaking in the island dialect. I'm from the island of Pag, and we speak similar dialect as people from Hvar.

Grandma not knowing what a štipunica is and calling it a štipaljka a moment after is dissapointing to say the least. Because she knew what štipunica is, I know she did. She was just trying to see if you really got it. Sve najbolje Britanac legenda si!!!

As a Croat, even for us it's hard to understand other dialects of our own language sometimes. For example for me it's completely normal to say "katriga" for chair(sjedalica), but my friend had no idea what I was talking about 😆

I learned to speak Serbian and everybody in the Balkans understands me.

In Italy people speak in dialect also, like there is no perfect fiorentino from 13th century. England, the same thing. Spain, also, in many regions. In Catalunya, you have aranes, català and castellano, in Menorca you have dialect! Only France did that crazy centralism thing, that is abnormal situation. But, it is like, if Bosnian guys came all the time in Croatia and can manage, sure could you. That said, any variant of Chakavian dialect is nice, it is my dialect, and it could serve you to if you later want to learn, I don't know veneto or italian also. P.S. Stipunica vs. Stipaljka - not a bit difference, but I bet tiramola is the same. And you get two italian verbs also- tirare and molare, and a verb molat in Chakavian.

My grandfather was from Gorski Kotar in Croatia from a place called Prezid. When he would speak in his dialect it was impossible to tell what he was saying. The dialect is a mix of Croatian ikavica on a čajkavski dialect with mixed words from both Slovenian and Italian. Mind you, I came from a household with mixed dialects - my dad and his family were from the Zadar region, while mum's side, on grandma's side was from Zagorje, and still grandad's dialect was nothing I've ever heard.

I was born and raised in Zagreb (both my parents were born here too so they spoke like typical Zagrebians at home) and I spent my summers near Jelsa on Hvar. And for people to understand me on Hvar I had to kind of learn a new language. Also my boyfriend was born in Zagreb, but his parents are from Bosnia and he grew up learning their mixed dialect so we frequently use different words for the same thing. For example I'd day sauger (from German, typically used in Zagreb) for a vacuum cleaner, he'd say usisivač. And he'd make fun of me for that. At university we had a bunch of people from all parts of the country and sometimes it was impossible for us to understand each other and we'd have to write stuff down or translate it to English to understand. Also if you want to say tomato, in Zagreb we'd say paradajz, on Hvar they'd say pomidori, and in the standard language it's rajčica. So I understand your frustration with it.

Štipunica/Štipaljka, we in Zagreb and the rest of northern area would say "Kvačica" and so far I thought it was an official word, but I'm not sure...

never give up Paul.....one day it'll all make sense....it's the same in English....I always thought think is pronounced think, but it's not, many say fink....

Nemojte odustati!💪💪

Here its Štipavica. Not even a 80km from split haha. As counterweight, we need one Bradbury that grew up in dalmatian Hinterland haha

I live in Croatia now and totally agree !

What dialect they use on the island called Ponistra?

You could do without the background music, sir. I like listening to your voice and what you have to say. Greetings from a fellow expat.

I'm Croatian too and I agree couse even if I live in Slavonija I don't understand some words in Dalmacija or Istra couse it was diferent

I can agree that the dialect things is very confusing. The only reason I learned it was becuase my dad was already speaking a mix of two dialects and my mom spoke a completely different one and I ended up living in zagreb which gave me the most common words. If I was learning Croatia at an older age I would give up.

I am from a small village 25km south of Šibenik and I speak the local dialect. For example : Kukumar, pomidora, kapula, tovar. I know your struggle 😂

Sat is hour or clock depends on the context, vrijeme is time.

I recommend everyone who wants to learn or improve their Standard Croatian to watch HRT documentaries. Try to catch words or phrases and write them down. It's not as easy to understand as everyone believes it to be, though. There are words such as "zdanje", "sebić", "zapozorje" and many other that are either neologisms or just words that the average Croat doesn't use. In any case, this is an excellent way to learn it. I spent a week doing this and my Croatian just sky-rocketed! The phrases, the sentence structures, words make much more sense - and you always learn something new! Croatian is not hard. English is harder since it doesn't rely on logic as much as a phrasal verbs and memory. We just spend much more time learning English due to unlimited content on Internet, and the movies we all grew up on. Enjoy the process! 🙂And for those who think Croatian Standard and Serbian Standard are closer than the dialects, I disagree. Sometimes it sure does sound like the dialects, especially from Zagreb and Split, sound waayy much more similar to Serbian since the CRO Standard. The only difference to my ear is the accent, which is starting to sound evermore like Bosnian.

Just to add to other comments here, most of which i agree with, im sure noone is going to give you a hard time for having issues with dialect words. I think we are happy to see foreignes speak usable language, over time you will learn dialect words of places where you usually stay and should have no issues Im from eastern croatia and though visiting other places always mean little different dialect, its never been a big issue. Have to admit any place on the coast does feel very different, but language is still functional. Visiting zagreb on the other hand feels almost like home, but maybe because i personally like their accent

Yes, but if you learn the standard Croatian you can easily communicate pretty much everywhere in the country as well as surrounding countries like Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia. Most people tend to understand the standard even if they don't necessarily speak it.

When people ask me how do I know English very well, I reply with: "It's a logical language!". Native Croat here. :) Sure it wasn't easy but I soaked up the words as a toddler watching Cartoon Network and just learned it as a daily routine, school didn't teach me much English as TV, internet and meeting native English speakers and talking with them. About the Croatian language it's 100 percent true. I can travel 20 kilometers away from my place in some village and be in a position that I can't understand the locals.

What a splendid experience! But there is still the standard language that everyone understands, so it can be learned though. But somehow I suppose how you must be feelin'...

Seriously, this kind of thing happens in many countries. Maybe all countries. Regional variations are common. I come from county Durham. I bet it wouldn't take me long to say something in English that Paul Bradbury didn't understand.

Greetings from Croatia! Well the easiest dialect would be the Štokavski dialect, it's the easiest to understand.

I'm Croatian(half Zagreb half island Pag), you are funny man and you laughed me so well. Cheers 😇

lol, i am croat, living in croatia, originaly i am from completly different region, i was born and lived for 9 years in region called srijem, then coz of war spent some time in region slavonija, then i was in completly different country, bet when we got back i lived in a region from wich my mum is, and majority of her family and relatives are in that region, that is moslavina. at some point i moved to zagreb, so basicaly as i kid i kinda knew dialects and local speach of few different regions. but i have friends from all over croatia and if we dont speak literar version, we often get lost, if i am with my 2 friends from island of korcula, i need a translator to understand the conversation between 2 of them, i have freidns from regions zagorje and medjiumurje, with zagorje i am ok, we understand each others, but with frineds from medijumrje i have to tell them pls switch to standard coz i dont understand half of the things you are saying. most of times i speak dialect wich is common in zagreb and around zagreb, that local language even my relatives and family in moslavina understand, but when i go to coast or spend some time with my friends from completly different regions we use literar language, coz otherwise we would be completly lost in time and space with each others. north of croatia is having a lot of germanazied words, istria and parts of coast a lot if words wich derivated from italian, slavonija is also different than the rest. sometimes i even need to pin point or ask to explain me what they think off with some friends from bosnia, coz we basicaly understand each others, but there are some words wich are completly different. but with tme you kind alearn how to say certain words in different dialects, like the word stairs, in standard croatian is stepenice, but it also can be ( depending from wich dialect word is coming), stube, štenge, skale, skaline ... croatia in whole was often ruled and dividied by different empires and countries so the dialects often evolved from the language of rulers..

Dont't give up!

Stuff like this has always just endeared me more to a language. My degree is German and Russian and the (relative) uniformity of Russian compared with German, Swiss German, Austrian German and even the accents and dialects just inside of Germany is immense but all part of the fun!

you are great, video is great. you made just one tiny mistake, "sat" is not a "time", "sat" means watch or clock, depends what you prefer :)

Ten years with a Croatian wife. But the challenge for me has been vocabulary. In Zagreb I understand many words with a German root, and as a Muslim many words with an Arabic root. But being almost 50 the first time I came here it was more difficult to learn Slavic vocabulary for the first time.

I feel this. I’m learning serbo-Croatian because my mother is fluent in the language. Truly such a complicated language. It’s so logical that I have a hard time translating it into English sometimes because of how complex every sentence is.

I'm sure this is just a good story for a video or an article, as Paul seems to speak and understand Croatian fluently already (which I would expect from somebody who speaks another slavic language, and also learned the Hvar dialect by themselves). One thing not mentioned in the video that I did notice with a lot of expats is they rarely bother learning more than a couple of phrases, since there's no incentive to do this as most of the population here speaks good or very good English. In my view this is a way to miss out on a lot of culture, but I can understand the convenience it provides people.

Same in Austria and also probably in Slovenia where there are MANY (and often very different) dialects. Try to understand people in Austria (except Vienna) with your knowledge of German, you will end up in despair :D But they all have a "general" language (don't know the English word for it, German like its written in books) which everyone understands and speaks. So if an Austrian realizes that you don't understand him he will switch to that. Don't they have that in Croatia?

Sat is actually clock and vrijeme is time.

I live near to the Zagreb,and I understand "štipaljka"what is,but never heard the another word.

I don't really see a good reason to give up here, to be honest. You could just focus on learning standard Croatian online or with a teacher if you have access to it. It seems your wife is Croatian and you could ask her to teach you the standard. Naturally, you might pick up some local dialectal features and end up inserting them into your standard Croatian, but I think Croats are probably quite used to that (they possibly do so themselves) and you could just clarify what you meant (you could try using different synonyms or looking up the standard term). I have read that standard literary Croatian has some words that are quite different from colloquial varieties, but it's not like they're completely different languages and any language has synonyms. Those two words for clothes peg that you mentioned seem to have a common base, just slightly different suffixation or endings. The dialectal differences are like how some English speakers say "boot" while others call that part of the car a "trunk". Even if you may only use one term, you understand the other through exposure. And as far as I know, British dialects are even more varied. Those dialects should be quite similar to each other (at least ones in the same region). When communicating with people in nearby localities, even if they speak somewhat differently, the dialect you learned where you live could possibly be quite understandable to them. And then you can use the standard for talking with people from places further away with overly different dialects. And it's not like the standard is completely different from the dialects (they should at the very least have fundamental similarities).