Articles


Unnecessary elitist standards: get rid of them and fluency is yours for the taking

written by Benny Lewis

When discussing language learning with people who have unrealistic standards for what they must have in their second language before they consider their level good enough, I’m left amazed at the screamingly obvious issues they don’t seem to be aware of: The elitist standards you require are something that we may not even have for […]


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Reading time: 10 minutes

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How we all benefit when women are multilingual

written by Guest Author

Today’s guest post is from Susanna, author of Language is Music, who speaks seven languages and promotes learning languages with music and the media. Susanna and I made a multilingual video together in San Francisco and she also wrote a previous guest post here about listening techniques and how to use songs to learn languages. […]


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Reading time: 10 minutes

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No pain no gain

written by Benny Lewis

I’ve spent 3 hours today looking like this, and currently have a splitting headache. To contrast with yesterday’s post, where I talk about comfort in the language in the pre-fluency stage, I thought I’d give you another glimpse into the huge amount of discomfort I’m also going through a lot of the time. Since I […]


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Reading time: 4 minutes

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The underestimated usefulness of pre-fluency (My 2 month Mandarin video)

written by Benny Lewis

[Captions in traditional and simplified Chinese, as well as in English. Youku link for those in mainland China] Keeping up with the video-every-two-weeks plan, here is my two month point! After a bumpy start, where I hesitate a bit because of being quite aware of the camera, once I got used to it, you can […]

How I Learned Fluent Italian While Working 60 Hours a Week

How I Learned Fluent Italian While Working 60 Hours a Week

written by Benny Lewis

One misunderstanding people have when they arrive on my site is that they need to have precisely my circumstances to learn a language. You don’t. But every day I receive comments from people with their laundry list of reasons why it’s not possible for them, including that they are too old, languages just aren’t their […]

Spanish: Fluent in 3 Months Using Video Diaries

Spanish: Fluent in 3 Months Using Video Diaries

written by Guest Author

Today’s guest post is from Will Peach, an Englishman journeying around Spain, keeping regular video diaries to make himself accountable for learning the language. Will found my blog shortly before beginning his adventure and continues to apply my tips in the hope that he will reach his defined level of fluency before September of this […]


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Reading time: 10 minutes

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Are you problem minded or solution minded? My 1.5 month level of Chinese [video]

written by Benny Lewis

Since we are at exactly the half-way point of my three month mission to speak fluent Chinese, it’s time for another video update! This time, it is 100% unprepared, unscripted, and unrehearsed 😉 Check it out: [Subtitles in traditional & simplified Chinese, as well as in English; enable Youtube’s closed captioning to see – mistakes […]

Why impatience is a virtue and taking your time is wasting your time

written by Benny Lewis

It’s about time I discuss one of the biggest questions I get asked by readers: What’s the rush? Not just about my time-restricted objective, but in general – why try to learn a language so fast? Shouldn’t you take a few years to absorb it? I’ve discussed before that my 3-month deadline is not some […]


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Reading time: 15 minutes

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