Articles


Next mission: American Sign Language!

written by Benny Lewis

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, […]


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Reading time: 4 minutes

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Tagalog: a fun language to learn in the Philippines!

written by Benny Lewis

In this post, I’d like to give a summary about some cool features of Tagalog and my impressions of it for those of you curious! Best news: Encouraging locals When describing features of a language if you leave out context of how it’s spoken and who’s speaking it and focus just on grammar and vocabulary, […]

Why my destiny was to never speak Spanish and how I did it anyway

Why my destiny was to never speak Spanish and how I did it anyway

written by Benny Lewis

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 […]


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Reading time: 10 minutes

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The most important thing to think about before doing something important or nerve-wrecking

written by Benny Lewis

You see the native speaker of your target language, that girl/boy you like, an important person you admire or you could be moments away from clicking “send” on an important e-mail or job application, or pressing that last digit to make an important phonecall. And then it starts: the self-doubt, the reasons you’ll fail and […]


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Reading time: 3 minutes

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The importance of experimentation over blind faith

written by Benny Lewis

As an engineer with a scientific background, I am quite sceptical to wild claims, in life, explaining how the universe works, and in language learning. Even in the days of ebooks and smartphones we still apply backward centuries-old thinking to concepts that should have died out long ago. While some would call it closed mindedness, […]


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Reading time: 12 minutes

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Music and TV for homework? Really? Yes. Sí. Oui. Да. نعم

written by Guest Author

This is a guest post by the author of Language is Music: Over 70 Fun & Easy Tips to Learn Foreign Languages, by Susanna Zaraysky. She speaks seven languages (Russian, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Serbo-Croatian) with perfect or almost perfect accents because she used music, TV, radio and movies to supplement her language […]


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Reading time: 13 minutes

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Learning Brazilian Portuguese if you already speak Spanish

Learning Brazilian Portuguese if you already speak Spanish

written by Benny Lewis

I had the chance to attend one of the world’s most famous parties; Brazil’s Carnival. While most visitors would check it out in Rio, which I have lived in, my experience of the Carnival in Olinda in the Northeast was incredible! Some ‘gringos’ (note: in Brazil that word is used affectionately, not derogatively, and describes […]

Introducing the best language learning system in the world: HB 2.0

written by Benny Lewis

What’s the best language learning system? So many people keep asking me this question, so I want to settle it once and for all. It’s not Rosetta Stone, it’s not Pimsleur, it’s not LingQ, it’s not any book you can find in your local library, or any podcast that you can download. If you have […]


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Reading time: 3 minutes

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First weeks in the Philippines & video tour of my beach cottage

written by Benny Lewis

Time for a mission update! Last time I updated was after a few days in Manila when I had decided to go down south. I made it to Cebu, and went straight to the very south of that island (around Moalboal) to get some time by the sea (I hadn’t been by the sea for […]


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Reading time: 8 minutes

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