Articles


How to speak Portuguese as if you were from Rio

written by Benny Lewis

For those of you who followed my Portuguese mission, I was successful in convincing several Cariocas (residents of Rio de Janeiro) that I was one of them. This involved working on two parts of how I interacted with people; my body language/outward behaviour and my spoken Portuguese. In today’s post I am going to go […]

Mission complete! Partial success – What will Benny’s next mission be?

written by Benny Lewis

4 gold stars for partial success My most recent “mission” has been to try to become Brazilian in 3 months, i.e. reach the stage that several Brazilians would think that I too was Brazilian. And I can say… mission complete!!! 🙂 I have decided to award myself 4 gold stars for my achievements. To achieve […]


Language:

Reading time: 4 minutes

Read More
Instantly Learn Thousands of French Words

Instantly Learn Thousands of French Words

written by Benny Lewis

There’s no such thing as starting from zero Great news! You’re already a polyglot! Seriously, if you can read this post, then you can understand and say (albeit with an accent) words in hundreds of languages! It is impossible to say that you don’t speak anything in a language. Any modern language spoken by a […]


Language:

Reading time: 6 minutes

Read More

Luck of the Irish? Or can anyone can learn to be lucky?

written by Benny Lewis

Hi! I’m Benny – a long-term world-traveller, I speak several languages, work my own hours at a job I like, have many interesting adventures, meet lots of cool people nearly all the time and am a generally happy and positive guy. There’s only one way all of this can be possible, right? I must just […]


Language:

Reading time: 9 minutes

Read More

How to survive as a travelling vegetarian

written by Benny Lewis

I’ve been travelling for about 7 years so far, and have lived in places like beef-crazy Buenos Aires, shrimp-hungry Brazil, fish-famous Donegal, paella filled Spain, and foie-gras-loving France. My own way to get to know the culture of these places involves learning and hacking their languages and spending my time almost entirely with locals, but […]


Language:

Reading time: 11 minutes

Read More

Don’t be scared to meet new people

written by Benny Lewis

What’s the worst that could happen? If you plan on learning a foreign language, and especially if you plan on travelling, you have to meet new people. You can’t avoid this! It’s kind of the whole point of learning a language (unless you are only interested in literature) and travelling (unless you travel only to […]


Language:

Reading time: 7 minutes

Read More
Summary of month 2 in mission to become Brazilian

Summary of month 2 in mission to become Brazilian

written by Benny Lewis

(Mission update; no language/travel tips in this post!) Time flies when you’re having fun, and Brazil is about as much fun as you can have! In less than one month already, I’ll be flying back to Ireland for Christmas! My purpose in Brazil this time has been the ambitious goal of convincing Brazilians that I’m […]


Language:

Reading time: 6 minutes

Read More

How to practise a foreign language for free without travelling

written by Benny Lewis

Those of you who have been following this blog and reading some of my best tips, know that sometimes I focus on advice for those of you already abroad. Even though you don’t have to be rich to be able to travel to another country to learn a language, sometimes it just isn’t desirable or […]


Language:

Reading time: 8 minutes

Read More
How to Tackle Gender Issues in Your Target Language

How to Tackle Gender Issues in Your Target Language

written by Benny Lewis

Masculine or Feminine (or Neuter)? This can be one of the most frustrating things for beginner to intermediate learners; the added information they have to learn of associating a gender with each word. Not only can it seem pointless to assign a gender to inanimate sexless objects (especially for native English speakers who aren’t used […]


Language:

Reading time: 7 minutes

Read More