Hrvatski, srpski i bosanski jezik na stranim sveučilištima: nekad i danas, a ubuduće?
Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian at Foreign Universities: the Past, the Present – and the Future?

Summary/Abstract: Taking into consideration many years of experience as a foreign language instructor and a visiting lecturer at numerous Slavic Studies in the world, the paper primarily focuses on departments of Croatian language, literature, and culture at foreign universities, but also looks at departments of Serbian, Bosnian, and Slovenian. Given that Slavic paradigms have changed over time, these changes have affected the status of certain departments. We first present the departments of “Yugoslavian languages” at foreign Slavic Studies in former Yugoslavia. At most Slavic Studies, Russian Studies occupied the central position, followed by other Slavic languages, literatures, and cultures, among which were departments of Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, and Macedonian. Tumultuous social and political changes of the 1990s in former Yugoslavia affected the status and the reorganisation of certain departments at foreign Slavic Studies. At the threshold of the millennium, we could talk about a new, as yet undefined Slavic paradigm that is characterised by the closing of Slavic departments and disinterestedness in teaching small Slavic languages. Therefore, in the promotion and affirmation of any language, literature, and culture at foreign universities, foreign language instructors have an important role, and they need to engage in permanent professional development. In spite of the fact that some departments have an established tradition (for example, Croatian and Slovenian), there are still a number of problems related to these departments. The conclusion is that, except for Slovenian, there is no long-term strategy for promoting Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian in the world, and that should be one of the priorities of language policy in each of the countries.

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