Category: Culture


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 […]

Quechua: Quick overview and Benny speaking it with natives

written by Benny Lewis

So here it is! Ending the year on a positive note of another successful language mission completed! 😀 I had only aimed to learn the basics of Quechua in the few weeks I was here, and I think this video shows that I did indeed get something out of my experience with it! Like with […]


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Reading time: 2 minutes

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What does Quechua sound like? Traditional fabric/dyeing presentation in “runasimi”!

written by Benny Lewis

My mission to learn a little Quechua (a.k.a. “Runasimi”, the language of the Incas) has been so fascinating!! From the blog’s origin era (2009–2014) — kept as lived proof of the method. See all the missions. I’ve recorded lots of video footage about my experience here in the Andes, including my four day adventure hike […]


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Reading time: 2 minutes

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Is long-term solo travel… lonely?

written by Benny Lewis

Whether or not I feel lonely in travelling by myself for such a long time is one of the biggest questions I get asked when people hear about my lifestyle of over eight years of solo travel, and something I’ll tell you all about today. What you read may surprise you!


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Reading time: 9 minutes

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17 cultural clashes this European had in America

17 cultural clashes this European had in America

written by Benny Lewis

I wrote this article many years ago, but I still feel like this country is exceptionally weird, and that’s even before you account for everything that has changed since I first landed. I share my thoughts honestly here, so if you’re easily wound up, maybe skip this one. Although plenty of (American) commenters agree with […]


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Reading time: 31 minutes

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Frequently asked questions for a long term traveller

written by Benny Lewis

The post I wrote over the summer about the 29 life lessons learned in 8 years travelling, stirred up a lot of interest (it’s been read by almost a half a million individuals) but it led to a lot of questions. Some I have hinted to in various blog posts, but I’m going to try […]


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Reading time: 10 minutes

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How to travel the world like Indiana Jones

written by Matt Kepnes

While I mostly talk about language learning here on Fi3M, I know a lot of you follow the blog for the travel/culture aspect of it, since travel can indeed be a huge adventure for so many of us. So today’s guest post is from Matt Kepnes, who runs Nomadic Matt’s travel site. I’ve met Matt […]


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Reading time: 7 minutes

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