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5 Reasons to Learn an Endangered Language

written by Guest Author

When I tell people that I am trying to learn Iñupiaq, the native language of my hometown in Northern Alaska, invariably I hear a long, drawn-out, “Whyyyy?” “Not many people speak the language, so what’s the use of learning it?” “Almost all the people who can speak English anyways, right?” “I thought you were a white guy?”

All these questions are of course ridiculous and to prove all the naysayers wrong, here are 5 reasons why learning an endangered language is not only a supremely gratifying endeavor, but it’s one that can be done more easily than you think! I have experienced this by attempting to learn Iñupiaq, but these reasons can apply to any endangered language!

Valencia, Spain: My new home for the next language project!

written by Benny Lewis

Those of you who know my story from TEDx talks or blog revelations, will remember that ten years ago I had graduated university in engineering and moved to Valencia Spain, and after six months of the English-speaking-expat lifestyle changed my ways and started my first language learning project of Spanish and then things really took […]

Travels through/along the length of the Nile in Egypt: Aswan to Alexandria

written by Benny Lewis

When you leave the chaos of Cairo, you are instantly hit by how peaceful Aswan is. No constant horns and no polluted skyline. As you can see in the start of the video, you also get the more typical view of the Nile we expect with huge sand dunes right by the bank of the river.

While in Aswan, I got to learn about Nubian culture, as most of those I would speak to were Nubians. This included the Felucca boat and sailor that I hired for the day through a local company. The captain picked me up and brought me as far downstream as we could go for the first half of the day before we turned back.

Solving specific problems rather than trying to learn everything: My first ever video in Arabic (reading)

written by Benny Lewis

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.

How to start learning a language: Full account of day 1 of my #Fi3M mission

written by Benny Lewis

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 […]

Video in ASL: Gallaudet university, city of American Sign Language and Deaf culture

written by Benny Lewis

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.

Language leveling up: Moses and Benny speak a dozen languages in Columbus Ohio

written by Benny Lewis

I met up with fellow Youtube polyglot, Moses McCormick (see his Youtube channel) in Columbus, Ohio and the two of us went to a mall simply to walk up to complete strangers and practise a bunch of languages with them.

How to write non-intrusive multilingual updates in Google Plus (& Facebook/twitter) + video hangout!

written by Benny Lewis

In this post I want to outline how I am writing multilingual updates in the new social network Google plus that only those who want to see them (natives and people learning the language) will. I’ll also say how I’m doing the same thing in Facebook and twitter, and invite you to a video “hangout” […]

Girls vs guys and the dancing-monkey reason to learn a language

written by Benny Lewis

There are many wholesome reasons to learn and use languages. Mine are cultural to enhance my travel and social experiences. Some people learn to understand their heritage, to be able to better appreciate music and literature, and some are passionate simply about languages in themselves and what makes them up and how they work. Others […]

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