How I’m learning Mandarin in 2026: My Daily Routine in Taipei
This is what I'm doing this year to make sure my Mandarin is strong, so I'm better prepared to travel deep through Taiwan
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April Fools’ post – Benny’s Confession
[Before I put April Fools’ in the title of this post, quite a lot of people were falling for it! Rest assured that nothing here is true 🙂 ] I am writing this post with a heavy heart, but the lies must end. I can’t do this any longer – the guilt is tearing me […]
American Sign Language: It’s not all in the hands
Quick note: In case you missed the announcement for what my next language mission is in the e-mail list, don’t forget to “like” Fluent in 3 months to see it in your Facebook stream tomorrow! I’ll also announce it on twitter tomorrow. On Saturday I went to the Deaf Night Out here in Austin, where […]
Cool sign language videos
I’m on the last week of my American Sign Language mission! This has turned out to be one of my most interesting language projects yet! So interesting in fact, that I am pretty sure I’ll come back to the states for another month (after I’ve tackled my fourth language this year) to continue my progress […]
Communicating without words – my fun non-spoken train ride in India
Words. Who needs them? Of course, if you want a really high academic level in a language then learning vocabulary, by whatever way you do it, will get you there. Most exams will test you on your memory capacity for even some obscure words that you’ll never actually need in real life. And some people […]
Perfectionist paralysis
Perfectionism is usually thought of as a desirable quality to have. You can’t get better than “the best”, right? Well, in my opinion perfectionism is among the worst possible attributes a person can have if they really want to achieve anything in life. Yes, high standards are important, and yes, if what you do is […]
Unleash your confidence
People know I feel that confidence is an absolutely crucial part of generally improving your life and especially for being able to speak languages well, but it’s been pointed out that I have a somewhat insensitive way of telling people to be more confident. I feel that the slap-in-the-face approach of telling people not to […]
Settling in, first impressions of American Sign Language & video tour of my house
I’ve been in Austin a few days and I can already see that it’s going to be a fun month here!! I have actually intentionally not been out so much, in order to do some writing and ASL learning in preparation before the city explodes into a social frenzy from next week when the immense […]
Challenges in the Philippines + video in Tagalog
I’ve already settled into Austin and am well into my ASL mission (first impressions & hopefully another video in ASL coming on Saturday!) but I thought I should wrap up the story of my time in the Philippines first! The last time I updated I had just moved into the cottage on White Beach in […]
Next mission: American Sign Language!
Hello from Austin, Texas! 😀 It may seem like there aren’t that many options for an English (and Spanish) speaking Irish guy to learn a new language in the United States of America, but I see opportunity everywhere and here is no exception 😉 You can always learn a language no matter where you are, […]
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