Taking part in this spring’s semester were ten students from around the world (Argentina, Hungary, the Netherlands, Australia, the USA, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Qatar), six of which were recipients of financial assistance provided through the State Office for Croats Abroad.
The latest round of the HiT-1 online Internet course for Croatian as a foreign language saw its successful conclusion with the final examination on Sunday the 31st of May 2020. Taking part in this spring’s semester were ten students from around the world (Argentina, Hungary, the Netherlands, Australia, the United States of America, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Qatar), six of which were recipients of financial assistance provided through the State Office for Croats Abroad.
The programme began back in 2008 when the Croatian Heritage Foundation, working with the University of Zagreb and its SRCE computing centre, and with the support of the science and education ministry, gave the initiative for the creation of the first ever Internet course teaching Croatian as a foreign language. The HiT-1 programme began operations in March of 2011. The value of the HiT course was later recognised by the State Office for Croats Abroad, which in 2015 supported the course by providing financial assistance on a per-semester basis for participants. HiT-1 is staged twice each year (spring and autumn semesters) and consists of seven instructional units that participants are required to master over a twelve-week period. In this they are ably assisted by accomplished instructors and specialists in teaching Croatian as a foreign language Marija Bošnjak BA, Maša Musulin PhD and Zrinka Kolaković PhD. The course is conducted by way of an e-learning system and includes a mandatory twenty-four hours of online instruction using the Skype application, when participants are able to work directly with their e-instructors, all native speakers of Croatian.
It is the live online sessions and the fascinating and diverse content in the e-system used by the participants in their independent work that make this course special and unique. Up to the spring of 2020 the course has seen twenty semesters, with instructions provided for 210 participants from forty-eight countries around the world.
The very positive participants evaluations demonstrate that the HiT-1 course has met the expectations of people that seek this form of instruction. As the participants point out, the fascinating and diverse content in the e-system and, above all, the live online sessions that provide for an individualised approach and adaptation of the content to the needs and aptitude of every individual, make this course both special and unique. Furthermore, the new situation created by the pandemic coronavirus scare, when institutions of learning saw the carrying out of activities in their normal form significantly impaired, once again demonstrated the advantages of this form of instruction.
The organisers have announced that the upcoming autumn course will be staged from the 7th of September through to the 29th of November of 2020 (with application submissions accepted through to the 28th of August), with a spring course to be held from the 8th of March through to the 30th of May of 2021 (with application submissions accepted through to the 26th of February 2021). More detailed information can be found at the Internet address: https://matis.hr/programi/hit-9-ozujka-31-svibnja-2020/. For information regarding possible financial assistant (scholarships) please contact us at: tecaj-hrvatskog-jezika@hrvatiizvanrh.hr.
By: Lada Kanajet Šimić