Fluent in 3 Months Language Missions (2009–2017)

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Between 2009 and 2017, I documented a series of Fluent in 3 Months language missions. Each one gave me, or another member of the team, a concrete goal and a limited stretch of time to work on it.

These reports show what we tried, what worked and where we struggled. Some missions took place where the language was spoken; others involved learning Arabic in Brazil or Japanese in Spain.

This page is an archive of those early projects. Their original headlines and targets are preserved below, including the ambitious ones, but they aren't a promise that every learner will get the same result.

More recent projects tend to appear on the Fluent in 3 Months YouTube channel and Instagram.

Jump to a year: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013–2014, 2016 and 2017.

A note from the Fluent in 3 Months team before we get started: You can chat away with a native speaker for at least 15 minutes with the “Fluent in 3 Months” method. All it takes is 90 days. Tap this link to find out more.

Benny's Czech Mission (2009)

• Is it possible to become fluent in a language in 3 months?
• Combining learning languages with your hobbies: My first video in Czech!
• Hitting a brick wall in your language progress
• Why Czech isn’t as hard to learn as you think

Benny's “Become Brazilian” Mission (2009)

• My next mission: Become Brazilian in 3 months!
• Summary of month 1 in the mission to become Brazilian
• Summary of month 2 in mission to become Brazilian
• Mission complete! Partial success – What will Benny’s next mission be?

Benny's Hungarian Mission (2010)

• Mission: Conversational Hungarian in 3 months
• My first weeks in Budapest: Hungarian mission update
• Why Hungarian is easy
• Speaking with mistakes quickly is better than speaking “perfectly” slowly

Benny's Thai Mission (2010)

• Mission: Read and speak Thai in 8 weeks
• Any phonetic script can be learned in just a few hours
• Reading Thai and its tones isn’t as hard as you think
• Don’t just stand there… Say something!
• Getting along with other learners & conclusions of Thai mission

Benny's Advanced German Mission (2010)

• German 3 month mission: Sit C2 exam
• First Week in Germany, No English. Here’s How I Did It
• First month in Berlin & 8 language 6 dialect tour of my flat
• I’m Fluent in German! Exam Results and Analysis
• Are Germans Rude? Killing the Stereotypes
• Is it True that German is Hard to Learn?

Benny's Tagalog Mission (2011)

• New Language Mission: Speak Tagalog (Filipino) in 2 months
• Tagalog: a fun language to learn in the Philippines!
• Challenges in the Philippines + video in Tagalog

Benny's American Sign Language Mission (2011)

• Next mission: American Sign Language!
• Settling in, first impressions of American Sign Language & video tour of my house
• American Sign Language: It’s not all in the hands
• Video in ASL: Gallaudet university, city of American Sign Language and Deaf culture
• 6 languages, 1 singer, 1 signer

Benny's Dutch Mission (2011)

• Fluent in TWO months: The Dutch mission!
• 25 Speed Dates in Dutch
• Dutch vs. German: What’s the Difference?

Benny's Klingon Mission (2011)

• New mission: Speak Klingon in time for the Star Trek convention
• Tour of my home… in Klingon!

Benny's Turkish Mission (2011)

• New mission: Speak Turkish in two months!
• First week in Istanbul, where I live & first (video) attempt at Turkish!
• Getting by a few weeks into learning a language: my Turkish haircut (& ear burning) experience
• Why Turkish isn’t as hard as you think!
• Istanbul not Constantinople, Benny’s music video in Turkish

Benny's Mandarin Mission (2012)

• Benny travels China: the real point of the mission to speak Mandarin as quickly as possible
• Language Mission: Mandarin in 3 months!
• Benny’s first video attempt in Mandarin: 2 weeks after starting
• The only way to get far quickly is to get out of your comfort zone (my typical day learning Mandarin)
• Progress report: Thoughts on one month of learning Mandarin & some FAQs
• Benny’s 1 month level of Mandarin: Lantern festival interviews!
• The underestimated usefulness of pre-fluency (My 2 month Mandarin video)
• The simple guide to adding captions/subtitles to Youtube videos: My 2.5 month Mandarin video
• Interview in Mandarin with TV presenter and Chinese teacher Yangyang

Benny's 10-Language Mission (2012)

• My Polyglot Summer mission: Improve TEN languages to the next level (with lots of videos)
  Two polyglots speak a dozen languages in a mall in Ohio: Benny and Moses level up!
• Fluent in 3 months: 11 language polyglot overview of the website

Benny's Arabic Mission (2012)

• Learning Egyptian Arabic to fluency in 3 months… in Brazil! Benny’s new language mission!
• How to start learning a language: Full account of day 1 of my #Fi3M mission
• Solving specific problems rather than trying to learn everything: My first ever video in Arabic (reading)
• The most important skill a traditional learning approach will never teach you (+2 month Arabic video)
• How I learned to speak Arabic while living in Brazil
• Standard Arabic or Local Dialect – Which Should You Learn First?
• Typical day learning Arabic for the Irish polyglot
• Watch Benny Speaking in Arabic

Benny's Polish in 5 Hours Mission (2013)

• Mission Impossible? Polish in 5 Hours
• My Conversation in Polish After One Hour’s Learning

Benny's Japanese Mission (2013)

• Japanese project: Reach fluency in 3 months… in Spain [INTRO VIDEO]
• English words in Japanese: Music video with Japanese learners
• First month learning Japanese: How things are going so far, initial impressions of Japanese, and Burning Questions for Benny
• Very quick look at Benny’s current Japanese level
• Benny’s Japanese: Skype conversation over the half-way point [+ new language discussion channel]
• Benny’s first time speaking Japanese in person? Not quite!
• Japanese project conclusion: Wrapping up the learning part & getting ready to travel

Benny's American Accent Mission (2013)

• The American Accent mission: Learning about phonetics and sentence rhythm in English to help with OTHER language projects!
• The American accent mission: Singing Sinatra, and getting phonemes corrected

Scott and Vat's “Year Without English” Mission (2013-2014)

• A fluent in 3 months mission from the outside: Scott and Vat’s first week speaking only Spanish
• A Year Without Speaking English

Holly's Portuguese Mission (2016)

• New Mission: Introducing Holly’s Portuguese in 3 Months Mission
• Portuguese in 3 Months Mission: Day 0 Video
• Portuguese in 3 Months Mission: 1 Month Update
• Portuguese in 3 Months Mission: 2 Month Update
• How I Learned Portuguese in 3 Months (Mission Complete!)

James's Month Without English (2017)

• New Mission: One Month Without English!
• Nerves, Tears and a Breakthrough: 2 Weeks Without Speaking English
• The Amazing Moment Speaking German Finally Clicked [Mission Complete!]