Unconventional language hacking tips from Benny the Irish polyglot; travelling the world to learn languages to fluency and beyond!
The late and great Steve Jobs was famous for many things, and was arguably one of the most influential contributors to how advanced personal use technology developed over the last few decades. But another thing that he was quite well known for, which definitely contributed a huge amount to how much he achieved, was his […]
One problem with seeing the end-result of any feat, is not understanding the processes that went on to get to that point. As my friend Khatzumoto said to me once; Olympic coverage really ticks me off… you can’t just go up to a person on game day and say how talented they are. So I […]
[Captions in English, Traditional Chinese (native written) & Simplified Chinese (automatic conversion). If you live in China and Youtube is blocked, then check out this video on Youku] As I’ve explained in great detail before, uploading a video of yourself speaking just after you’ve started to learn a language can be very beneficial. So with […]
It’s the end of week 1 of what has definitely been the mission that has stirred up the most interest and discussion since I started the blog! I can confirm that after this initial exposure to the language, I have not quite been “humbled” into saying what I’m attempting is impossible just yet, despite what […]
Note: This mission has ended – I reached a lower intermediate level of Mandarin after 3 months and used it to successfully travel China and interview people! This video shows the level I had just before leaving Asia. As explained in the video, I was in Taipei, Taiwan, and this was day one of my […]
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 […]
My mission to learn a little Quechua (a.k.a. “Runasimi”, the language of the Incas) has been so fascinating!! I’ve recorded lots of video footage about my experience here in the Andes, including my four day adventure hike towards Machu Picchu that I’ll edit to share some time in January, and even footage of me using […]
While many guest posts here are from people I’ve met in my travels or been in touch with online a lot, occasionally I’ll be sent a topic so damn interesting that even if I don’t know the person yet, it’s definitely worth sharing. Today’s is an excellent example of such a topic, which takes a […]
One understandable misconception from people when they first arrive on this site is that I would think it takes exactly three months to learn a language. To me the question and answer “How long does it take to learn a language?” “X months/years/lifetimes” is ludicrous, as it leaves far too much undefined and only caters […]
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