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Getting rid of your English accent when speaking a foreign language

Getting rid of your English accent when speaking a foreign language

written by Benny Lewis

Right, let’s get down to business! If you want to sound like a local, you need to work on many things and your foreigner accent is one of them. When I speak in English I’ve got a lovely wee (slightly watered down) Irish accent. However, when trying to speak my first foreign language I had […]

How to become a location-independent freelance translator

How to become a location-independent freelance translator

written by Benny Lewis

In the previous post I explained my background (and need) to become a freelance translator. In this post I will go into more detail about how I got work, what that work involves and why it’s not as easy as you think!! Finding translation work I was in a pretty bad situation a few years […]


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Reading time: 10 minutes

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Do you need to be rich to travel the world?

Do you need to be rich to travel the world?

written by Benny Lewis

A lot of people have been asking me how I fund my language-learning travels – did I win the lottery? Do I have really rich parents that pay for everything? Maybe I donate a lot of plasma, sell property or invest in the stock market? Actually, for many of my travels, I had quite normal jobs […]


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Reading time: 6 minutes

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Couchsurfing: How to practise with a native without even needing to leave your home

written by Benny Lewis

Edit: This post was so well appreciated by people that I’ve rewritten it and added it to lots of other unconventional tips, in the Language Hacking Guide. I recently shared my most important decision ever that started me on the path to becoming a polyglot, but it lead to a lot of questions that some […]


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Reading time: 10 minutes

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The smartest decision you will ever make to achieve fluency

The smartest decision you will ever make to achieve fluency

written by Benny Lewis

Today I’m going to share the most important decision I have ever made in learning languages. This choice changed me from a hopeless “I’m not talented with languages” person to eventually become the polyglot that I am today.


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Reading time: 9 minutes

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Defining fluency in order to achieve fluency!

Defining fluency in order to achieve fluency!

written by Benny Lewis

Continuing from my previous two posts about focussing on specifying your motivations and minigoals, it’s important to have a clear idea of the end-goal. i.e. FLUENCY (for many people). You will find this hard to achieve if you don’t know what you are aiming for, so today I am going to attempt to define this […]


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Reading time: 6 minutes

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Travel phrasebooks: a serious language learner’s best first book to study

written by Benny Lewis

Please note: this article was written in June 2009. Those who know me, are aware that I can actually take a lot with me on cheap flights, but I still have to decide what is and what isn’t coming with me for my next 6 months on the road! (Czech Republic, then likely somewhere in […]


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Reading time: 4 minutes

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