Unconventional language hacking tips from Benny the Irish polyglot; travelling the world to learn languages to fluency and beyond!
I get told so many times that someone has been studying Spanish/French/Japanese/etc. for five, ten (or whatever) years. Despite this, in most cases, if they tell me how many years they have been studying it, it’s usually a precursor to “but… I don’t speak it!” This is usually to justify how hard their language is, […]
How long does it take to learn German? Learning German doesn’t have to be hard. Back in 2010, I went from a beginner level to near mastery in German in just 3 months. But I’m not a language genius, or a natural with languages. I’ve revealed the techniques I’ve used to learn German in my in-depth […]
It’s time for a new 3 month language mission! Since I started the blog about a year ago, I’ve learned pretty good Czech in 2 months, convinced some Brazilians that I was a Carioca, got by in Thai, and just recently passed 4/5 of one the hardest formal examinations in German. So now it’s time […]
"Ultralearning" by Scott H. Young promises to teach you how to learn new things. We tried it out, and here's what we found.
Check out this video that explains everything in this post, with airport footage from an actual trip I made with 40kg: Ah, no-frills airlines. How we both love and hate you at the same time! Since quite a lot of us are on a budget nowadays, we try to find ways to pay less as […]
*Note: Written in 2010 Just one week into my latest crazy mission and I am happy to report that I have only been speaking German with Germans since I got here. Apart from with my landlord (who is American) and lunch with a Canadian friend, I have used no English at all outside of the […]
Take Note: I wrote this post while preparing for my German mission in Berlin back in 2010. It’s a good post to read when preparing for your next language mission, so you can see what I take into consideration and how I approach short and long term goals. Enjoy! OK, I’ve had several months of a […]
Is there such a thing as “doing an Irish accent”? Why do the Irish use a “strange grammar”? Here’s your beginner guide to understanding Irish English!
Happy New Year!! 🙂 Four years ago I made a New Year’s resolution to never ever make New Year’s resolutions again, and I have stuck to it! The reason? I almost never kept to the resolution. I’d join the gym, and go just a few times and then get lazy, and stop, or I wouldn’t […]
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