Articles


Language Hacking success story: Marcus speaking Portuguese in Brazil

written by Guest Author

There are many people out and travelling the world, and luckily more and more are trying to speak the local language when they see it isn’t so hard. Every day I’m hearing/reading more and more success stories from others, and I thought today’s one was among those worth sharing! This guest post is from Marcus, […]

17 cultural clashes this European had in America

17 cultural clashes this European had in America

written by Benny Lewis

I wrote this article many years ago, but I still feel like this country is exceptionally weird, and that’s even long before any of the current political climate came on the scene. I share my thoughts honestly here, so if you are pissed off easily, don’t read this post. Although plenty of (American) commenters agree […]


Language:

Reading time: 31 minutes

Read More

Frequently asked questions for an experienced language learner

written by Benny Lewis

Last week I shared some FAQs for a long-term traveller, and taking a bunch of questions that readers have been sending me on Facebook, twitter and the LHL email list, now I’ll discuss some language learning issues that people have been wondering about. Note that I discuss FAQs about the website and my missions separately […]


Language:

Reading time: 9 minutes

Read More

Frequently asked questions for a long term traveller

written by Benny Lewis

The post I wrote over the summer about the 29 life lessons learned in 8 years travelling, stirred up a lot of interest (it’s been read by almost a half a million individuals) but it led to a lot of questions. Some I have hinted to in various blog posts, but I’m going to try […]


Language:

Reading time: 10 minutes

Read More

Battle of wits: Nice and nasty ways to win when they want English practice

written by Benny Lewis

Nearly everywhere in the world, and with nearly every culture in the world, when you try to speak their language with them they are so pleased. They will encourage you and compliment you, and be happy to hear more. Your fears are unfounded and you should just make as many mistakes as you can – […]

What will I talk about when my language level is so basic?

written by Benny Lewis

One of the biggest questions I get when I encourage people to just speak, no matter how bad your grammar is and how few words you know, is “What will I talk about?? They’ll just get bored and angry with me!” This attitude is quite strange because it presumes a level of rudeness of foreign […]


Language:

Reading time: 3 minutes

Read More