How to Take a CEFR Language Exam Without a Course
Learn how CEFR-aligned language exams work, which providers issue certificates, and how Benny prepared without taking an exam course.
Category: Language Hacks
How to achieve the impossible
Learn how ambitious goals become manageable when you study people who have done similar things, test assumptions and take practical steps.
Non-Verbal Communication in Language Learning
Learn how tone, gesture, timing and shared context support spoken language, without relying on the misleading 93% communication myth.
Two Weeks of Esperanto: A Language-Learning Experiment
Try a two-week Esperanto experiment with realistic goals, checked phrases, a short conversation and an evidence-based look at what may transfer.
How to Handle Embarrassing Language Mistakes
Learn how to recover from embarrassing language mistakes, respond to corrections and keep speaking without treating every conversation like an exam.
Why Studying Alone Won’t Help You Speak a Language
Studying grammar and vocabulary helps, but it doesn't automatically become conversation. Here's how to turn study into speaking practice.
First Week in Germany, No English. Here’s How I Did It
From the 2010 archive, Benny explains how preparation, context, study triage and willing conversation partners helped him use German from week one.
How I Reconsidered My View of Parisians
Benny revisits a sweeping belief formed after nine lonely months in Paris and explains what a later return taught him.
My Thailand Experience
A candid travel diary from my two months in Thailand in 2010, from Ko Phi Phi and the Full Moon Party to Chiang Mai and Bangkok.
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