Unconventional language hacking tips from Benny the Irish polyglot; travelling the world to learn languages to fluency and beyond!

Category: Culture

The month I lost faith in the system, and gained it in humanity

written by Benny Lewis

Today, I want to mention one of the most important points in my life, when my destiny changed and my faith in the traditional system of study hard, get a job, work up the ladder, and retire with as much money as possible, was absolutely shattered and I decided to start over from scratch, and why I’m really glad that I did.

Sorry it’s a little long, but I do want to give the full picture so you have the context of how my philosophy on life evolved dramatically in a very short time.

Language:

Reading time: 16 minutes

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How I learned more Italian in London than in Italy

How I learned more Italian in London than in Italy

written by Guest Author

One of the most prominent myths in language learning is that you have to go to the country to successfully learn it. This is so untrue!! I have always said that it depends on your attitude not your latitude and moving to the country may not help at all in some cases. This topic will […]

Two ways to bring as much as you want on no-frills flights (video of jacket with 14 pockets)

written by Benny Lewis

I’ve showed you before how I take advantage of the loophole that weight doesn’t count when I fly – just put your luggage on your person with an intentionally “destroyed” jacket! But a company that actually makes jackets especially for taking advantage of this loophole got in touch with me and sent me one of their jackets. Jaktogo is the ugliest jacket you’ll see in your life, but is a huge improvement on what I was doing before.

Language:

Reading time: 4 minutes

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Advanced Hiberno English: More on How to speak English like the Irish

written by Benny Lewis

I’m back in the Emerald Isle for the month (currently up in Donegal again, improving my Gaeilge before going back to Cavan for the Fleadh). It’s not just great to be speaking our first national language again, but also our second one; since I don’t have to water down my English to be more understandable, […]

How I Learned Fluent Italian While Working 60 Hours a Week

How I Learned Fluent Italian While Working 60 Hours a Week

written by Benny Lewis

One misunderstanding people have when they arrive on my site is that they need to have precisely my circumstances to learn a language. You don’t. But every day I receive comments from people with their laundry list of reasons why it’s not possible for them, including that they are too old, languages just aren’t their […]

Benny's 1 month level of Mandarin: Lantern festival interviews!

Benny’s 1 month level of Mandarin: Lantern festival interviews!

written by Benny Lewis

[Make sure to enable captions in either English or original traditional Chinese. If Youtube is blocked for you, you can watch the video on Youku] Here it is! My one month point in my 3-month Mandarin mission, shared on video! The first few seconds are me reading a prepared text off camera to practice speaking […]

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