Category: Tool and Resources


The simple guide to adding captions/subtitles to Youtube videos: My 2.5 month Mandarin video

written by Benny Lewis

First thing’s first: This video is my 2.5 month point in Mandarin! Subtitles included in Simplified and Traditional Chinese, as well as English. [Youku version  here] I met up with fellow Youtube polyglot Mike, a.k.a. Glossika and he agreed to bounce some questions off me to demonstrate my progress since the last video. Check out […]

Why your smartphone will NEVER be a universal translator

written by Benny Lewis

Anyone who follows sci-fi will have come across the “universal translator“. To get around use of other languages on the shows that aliens would undoubtedly speak, (other than when part of a plot device, like Klingon or Na’vi), a computer does all the work of understanding other languages so the human explorers don’t have to. […]


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Reading time: 10 minutes

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How to convert PDFs/daily news/anything to ePUB/mobi for your eReader/Kindle

written by Benny Lewis

(Note: The Fluent in 3 Months book has been converted to be read on all devices, using the techniques in this post.) Thanks to ditching dead trees and embracing 21st century technology I have been reading a lot more lately and really enjoying myself. I’ve got the fantastic Amazon Kindle (International free 3G version since I’m […]


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Reading time: 9 minutes

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Pimp out your browser searches for language learning

written by Benny Lewis

This tip is taken from one of the weekly Language Hacking League e-mails. For more free tips like this in your inbox, as well as two free chapters of the Language Hacking Guide, enter your e-mail address on the right of the site. In this post I’d like to share some of the enhancements I’ve […]


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Reading time: 4 minutes

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Books are dead – it’s time to ditch 15th century technology

written by Benny Lewis

The printing press was invented in 1440. Apart from the Internet, this one invention is probably one of the most incredible things that happened in the last millennium to help spread ideas – books and the ideas they contain have transformed the world. And yet, almost nothing has changed since the 15th century in the […]


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Reading time: 11 minutes

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What is the best language learning course? Looking at the numbers

What is the best language learning course? Looking at the numbers

written by Benny Lewis

Any answer to the question posed in the title of this post will inevitably be loaded with presumptions, bias, personality preference, anecdotal or confused sources of evidence, guesses with no actual experience, irrelevant criteria and many other things that lead it to give an impossible or misleading real answer, because simply, there is just no […]


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Reading time: 10 minutes

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How to download free native-spoken podcasts & MP3s in almost any language

How to download free native-spoken podcasts & MP3s in almost any language

written by Benny Lewis

Every Friday I send out an e-mail to the Language Hacking League with a list of interesting websites to check out, as well as more precise updates regarding my own language missions. This particular tip got a great response from our readers, so I’ll share it on the blog too. It’s very easy, and yet […]


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Reading time: 4 minutes

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