Articles


Stop Allowing Excuses to Run Your Life!

Stop Allowing Excuses to Run Your Life!

written by Benny Lewis

In my inbox I see hundreds of people sharing their language learning woes every day, and in person I meet many people everywhere I go who struggle to start a language. There are many reasons they give, some of which are valid, but many times they are just excuses. Nothing reminds us more of this […]


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Reading time: 8 minutes

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Singlish: The Singaporean English creole [video interview]

Singlish: The Singaporean English creole [video interview]

written by Benny Lewis

Singlish When most people think of learning a new language, they tend to imagine official languages of countries. There are of course many languages (like Quechua) that get often neglected by governments, artificial languages and a whole spectrum of many other possibilities. As well as these well defined separate “languages”, I’m also very much interested […]


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Reading time: 2 minutes

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Juggling Languages: The Balancing Act That All Polyglots Must Perform

Juggling Languages: The Balancing Act That All Polyglots Must Perform

written by Benny Lewis

Polyglottery is a bit of a balancing act. Because we only have so many hours in a day, we can’t learn all languages. But when you have the itch for language learning like I and so many other polyglots do, you sometimes can’t help but to take on a new language challenge even though you […]


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Reading time: 6 minutes

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How do you get spoken practice in a less common language, when you can't find native speakers?

How Do You Get Spoken Practice in a Less Common Language?

written by Benny Lewis

How do you get language practise when native speakers are genuinely hard to come by? Simple idea, but very effective: Find other learners My friend Brandon initially had this very issue with his project to learn Icelandic. It’s a country of just 300,000 people, and they are not so likely to be on language learning […]


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Reading time: 4 minutes

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Forget “learning a language.” Focus on forming the habit.

Forget “learning a language.” Focus on forming the habit.

written by Guest Author

Meet Maneesh Sethi. Maneesh is a friend, an inventor, and a fellow language learner (he has been a DJ in Berlin, and spoken on stage in Italian, among other things) with a very particular passion… For years, he has been obsessed with solving the problem of maintaining motivation that we all face in trying to […]


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Reading time: 16 minutes

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Will learning new languages help you pick up girls?

Will learning new languages help you pick up girls?

written by Benny Lewis

Last summer, a huge publication asked if I would write an article for them about How learning languages will help you chat up girls. … As nice as it would have been to be in that big magazine, I said no thanks. Then, since it was just before the World Cup, they made me a […]


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Reading time: 8 minutes

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8 Lessons Learned from Visiting Every Country in the World

8 Lessons Learned from Visiting Every Country in the World

written by Guest Author

One of the most popular posts on this blog is my 29 life lessons learned in travelling the world (for 8 years straight). I’ve personally been to a couple of dozen countries, but then there are people like my friend Chris Guillebeau. He has been to every single country on earth! I’ve met Chris on […]


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Reading time: 9 minutes

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The Unglamorous Side of Being a World Traveler

The Unglamorous Side of Being a World Traveler

written by Benny Lewis

“I wish I could travel all the time – it seems like a dream come true!“ I read something along these lines on Quora the other day, and all I could think while reading it is that while travel is one of the most worthwhile things I’ve done in my life, travelling ALL THE TIME is […]


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Reading time: 16 minutes

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