Unconventional language hacking tips from Benny the Irish polyglot; travelling the world to learn languages to fluency and beyond!
Back in 2008, I made a video about a very interesting event that takes place in the desert in Nevada, which you can view at the bottom of this post (you can also listen to the commentary, with subtitles for the interviews, in French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Irish and Esperanto.) Now, this is where I’m […]
My time in Istanbul is officially over – for the next two weeks I’ll be with my family in Ireland before hitting the road again. (To find out where I’m going and clues of what the next language will be, see Facebook) But to wrap up my time in Istanbul, I’d like to share this […]
About six weeks into learning Dutch I was ready to go on 25 speed dates entirely in the language. It’s not quite the same thing for me now five weeks into my Turkish mission! Due to some annoying health problems and some frustrating travel related issues I’ll mention soon enough (that have nothing to do […]
This post was originally part of my introduction e-mails for the Language Hacking League (which you can sign up for on the right to get similar tips or links twice a month in your inbox after an introduction series). Considering how I use Turkish as an example (but you can apply this tip to all […]
Making a video in a foreign language is incredibly easy, even if you have just started to learn it. I made a minute long segment of my video entirely in Turkish this week just a few days after starting to learn it and have been getting great feedback and encouragement from people once they had […]
This detailed post describes how my first week in Amsterdam went. As requested, I’ll be giving regular updates on how I’ve been adjusting to a new culture and learning a new language. In future I’ll send this update (which will likely be much shorter and include occasional videos) to the Language Hacking League, so sign […]
Hello from Austin, Texas! 😀 It may seem like there aren’t that many options for an English (and Spanish) speaking Irish guy to learn a new language in the United States of America, but I see opportunity everywhere and here is no exception 😉 You can always learn a language no matter where you are, […]
It’s easy to look at someone who already speaks a second language and just think that it comes naturally to them. Perhaps if you see something like the video of me sharing my salsa learning experience in pretty good Spanish, you might think that speaking Spanish was just my destiny. I’m “naturally talented” with languages […]
For most people, the grammar issue is a huge question. So you may be surprised to see I haven’t written many posts about it despite running this blog for over 5 years about languages and related topics. The reason is simple: there is no one-size-fits-all solution. I have my method, and someone else will tell […]
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