Category: Culture


Two months in Budapest

written by Benny Lewis

My time in this Amazing city has come to an end! I’m quite happy with the progress I made in Hungarian, and genuinely sad to leave! As this post goes live, I’ll be somewhere over the Atlantic, on my way to Las Vegas to attend the Blogworld conference to meet some blogger friends and make […]


Language:

Reading time: 7 minutes

Read More
Solo travel hacking: How to make new friends using a stethoscope and 200 ear plugs

Solo travel hacking: How to make new friends using a stethoscope and 200 ear plugs

written by Benny Lewis

Ever since I started travelling over nine years ago, I have arrived at each location by myself, many times not having a single contact or friend waiting for me in my destination. This has been essential for my language missions, since I need to immerse myself in the local language. Bringing someone with me to […]


Language:

Reading time: 10 minutes

Read More

My first weeks in Budapest: Hungarian mission update

written by Benny Lewis

It’s been a few weeks since I arrived in Hungary and got my teeth into my latest mission. I had a bumpy start, but got over it and am on schedule towards my end goal! So it’s time for a mission update! 🙂 Starting with grammar: great in theory, but not useful for speaking Since […]

Why ESL teachers are the best teachers and the best learners

written by Benny Lewis

I’ve had many jobs in the last many years on the road but the one that I could always rely on was ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. I worked in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Brazil, and Ireland as an English teacher for non-natives and found it to be very satisfying work. However, what I […]


Language:

Reading time: 6 minutes

Read More
Are German's Rude? Killing the Stereotypes

Are Germans Rude? Killing the Stereotypes

written by Benny Lewis

Rather than learning languages for academic or professional reasons, I do it to vastly improve my travel experience by allowing me to socialise almost entirely with residents of the country I am visiting. Even though all the studying I did in for my exam in Berlin prevented me from socialising as much as I would […]


Language:

Reading time: 11 minutes

Read More
First month in Berlin & 8 language 6 dialect tour of my flat

First month in Berlin & 8 language 6 dialect tour of my flat

written by Benny Lewis

It’s been a month since I arrived in Berlin, so it’s about time for a mission update! To make it more interesting, I’ve decided to include this multilingual video tour of my flat. I also made (just English) videos to show my home in Prague and Rio, since I host Couchsurfers most of the time […]


Language:

Reading time: 6 minutes

Read More

Are you close-minded? How I finally learned how to get along with Parisians

written by Benny Lewis

If you ask someone the question “Are you close-minded?” the answer will almost certainly be a no. I don’t think anyone in the world sees themselves as closed minded. They are always sceptical or simply convinced that the other guy is wrong. The description closed minded is one we tend to reserve for someone else. […]


Language:

Reading time: 10 minutes

Read More

My Thailand experience

written by Benny Lewis

Travel update – no language tips in this (long) post My experience in Thailand has ended and I’m already back in Europe (in Paris for the weekend, Ireland for the next 3 weeks and then starting the next 3-month mission). I’ve learned quite a lot in terms of general life lessons, as well as for […]