Articles


Hitting a brick wall in your language progress

written by Benny Lewis

You can call it a brick-wall or a plateau, but if you work on a language long enough you may eventually hit it; a point where you simply aren’t making any progress. This has happened several times for me in the past in other languages, especially after sprinting into it in the initial stages and […]


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Reading time: 8 minutes

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How to become a location-independent freelance translator

How to become a location-independent freelance translator

written by Benny Lewis

In the previous post I explained my background (and need) to become a freelance translator. In this post I will go into more detail about how I got work, what that work involves and why it’s not as easy as you think!! Finding translation work I was in a pretty bad situation a few years […]


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Reading time: 10 minutes

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My background before becoming a location-independent freelance translator

written by Benny Lewis

Unlike most of my posts, this one is not a general “how to” that I think everyone can also follow. It’s my random story of the path I took to get to a great job; for those curious 🙂 This post does not have any useful information about finding work as a translator etc. It […]


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Reading time: 5 minutes

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Do you need to be rich to travel the world?

Do you need to be rich to travel the world?

written by Benny Lewis

A lot of people have been asking me how I fund my language-learning travels – did I win the lottery? Do I have really rich parents that pay for everything? Maybe I donate a lot of plasma, sell property or invest in the stock market? Actually, for many of my travels, I had quite normal jobs […]


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Reading time: 6 minutes

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Summary of month 2: on the final dash to see if I make it to fluency!

written by Benny Lewis

Today’s post is just a summary to keep you updated on my progress in this summer’s experiment 🙂 (No language learning tips today, sorry!!) I have been in Prague for a total of 2 months now, in my experiment to see if it is possible to become fluent in a language starting from scratch in […]


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Reading time: 6 minutes

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Couchsurfing: How to practise with a native without even needing to leave your home

written by Benny Lewis

Edit: This post was so well appreciated by people that I’ve rewritten it and added it to lots of other unconventional tips, in the Language Hacking Guide. I recently shared my most important decision ever that started me on the path to becoming a polyglot, but it lead to a lot of questions that some […]


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Reading time: 10 minutes

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How your computer and the Internet can correct your grammar and spelling (for free)

written by Benny Lewis

In an ideal world, you would have a native beside you every time you spoke or wrote something, so that they could help and correct you. This is not possible for many of us! Luckily, thanks to modern technology and the Internet, you can have your grammar and spelling corrected immediately and automatically, in any […]


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Reading time: 8 minutes

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Does drinking help you speak a foreign language?

Does drinking help you speak a foreign language?

written by Benny Lewis

So here I am, a lad from Ireland (a country famous for its drink and its drinkers) in the Czech Republic (ditto). The nightlife in Prague is great, but of course a lot of party-goers take advantage of the cheap beer! From the armies of 3-day tourists to the local 20-somethings, and of course to […]


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Reading time: 8 minutes

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Combining learning languages with your hobbies: My first video in Czech!

written by Benny Lewis

I promised to make a video in Czech at the end of my stay here, but I am going to break that promise and deliver one right now! I’m still far from fluent, but I also believe that we should never wait until we are “ready” before trying something with languages, since that day may never arrive if you put “ready” on an ever rising pedestal…