Unconventional language hacking tips from Benny the Irish polyglot; travelling the world to learn languages to fluency and beyond!
My “Learn Egyptian Arabic in Brazil” week 2 project update. Here I have no script to refer to, and I recite the entire seven minute script from memory. There are a LOT of mistakes, but I like to think I am at least coming across as a bit more confident than the previous week.
Here it is – my first ever video in Arabic, a week after starting to learn it! Subtitles are provided in original Arabic, English and Portuguese for all videos of this project. In this video, I read a script written entirely in Arabic (no romanisation) about how I’m in Rio and just starting the mission. To make it more interesting, I’ve thrown in some nice views of the city at various points in the video, but there is no editing out of my pauses and hesitations.
As you all know, I’m attempting to get Fluent in Arabic in 3 months, in a city 500km deep inside Brazil. It’s on! A good start is essential if you want to get the momentum to learn as fast as possible, so this meant that I did as much as I could not related to […]
This may be one of the craziest language projects I’ve ever undertaken! Watch the video for the proper introduction. As you’ll see, I have three months, starting today, to reach fluency (more specifically, high level B2/low C1 on this scale) in (Egyptian) Arabic and I plan to do it… in Brazil!
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 […]
[Quick reminder: the next language mission will be announced in the Language Hacking League email list next week! Enter your email in the top-right of the site to find out in advance of the blog announcement] Check out today’s video interview with Diarmuid Ó Mathúna from Raidió na Life, and don’t forget to click Youtube’s […]
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.
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, […]
I spent a month in Austin (TX) and learned enough ASL to make a multilingual music video in ASL, but not enough to record a video interacting with someone. But then I made it a major focus to improve my ASL to a level where I could interview people to share Deaf culture and more about ASL and how it works with the world. Check out today’s video, entirely in American Sign Language.
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