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Language, culture and context are intertwined

written by Benny Lewis

A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that I am not really that passionate about languages. It’s unlikely you’ll see me ever studying a language like Latin or ancient Greek, or picking a language based on integrate grammar points or because its phonemes or particular tones could be a “fun challenge”. There […]


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Reading time: 5 minutes

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Any language anywhere hack 3: Helping tourists for free language practice

written by Benny Lewis

In my current language mission I’m trying to prove that you can speak any language in the world anywhere in the world. So far I’ve mentioned how you can search social networks for nearby speakers, and take culturally relevant classes in the target language. There are actually infinite ways to practise your target language without […]


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Reading time: 7 minutes

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New mission: Speak any language, anywhere

written by Benny Lewis

Hello from Colombia! I’ve just arrived and am ready for my last language mission of 2010. Since the blog started just over a year ago, I’ve learned pretty good Czech and Hungarian (both in two months), got by in Thai, managed to convince Brazilians that I was one of them, and passed most of the […]


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Reading time: 4 minutes

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Are German's Rude? Killing the Stereotypes

Are Germans Rude? Killing the Stereotypes

written by Benny Lewis

Rather than learning languages for academic or professional reasons, I do it to vastly improve my travel experience by allowing me to socialise almost entirely with residents of the country I am visiting. Even though all the studying I did in for my exam in Berlin prevented me from socialising as much as I would […]


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Reading time: 11 minutes

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The stone of Rosetta & multilingual Language Hacking Guide 2.0

written by Benny Lewis

NOTE: The Language Hacking Guide is now available to be read in its entirety in six languages (seven next week), translated by natives. The stone of Rosetta You might think that this post has something to do with expensive yellow boxes that you can buy at airports with language learning software. Nope. The Rosetta stone […]


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Reading time: 6 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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Non-verbal skills: essential but ignored aspects of foreign language communication

written by Benny Lewis

Can you guess what I’m thinking from looking at my expression in the photo? When I run into some study-focused learners and the discussion turns to languages, sometimes I honestly feel like we are talking about completely different things. A lot of them like talking about subjunctives, past participles, cases and word roots, conjugations, tone […]


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Reading time: 9 minutes

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Ironic post: Why English is all you need to travel the world

written by Benny Lewis

Over the last month, I’ve changed my ways of trying to communicate in the local language, and I’ve been living the life of a typical English-speaking tourist. This is the first time in a long time that I’ve tried this, as I almost always work on linguistic immersion as a means of getting to know […]