From Casual to Heartfelt: Different Ways of Saying Thank You in Greek
Learn different ways of saying thank you in Greek, with casual and formal expressions, pronunciation tips, and examples.
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A girl in every port? An honest account of a long-term traveller’s search for love on the road
Ever since my viral post about the 29 life lessons learned in travelling the world for 8 years (over 2 years ago), I’ve started to get more and more questions about finding love on the road. How can a long term traveller have a girlfriend? What about leaving a wake of broken hearts behind? And […]
Very quick look at Benny’s current Japanese level. Suggestions (with whom, about what) for longer upcoming video updates?
Sorry that this video is so short! Starting next week, I’ll get back into weekly updates until the end of the project with maybe just one break (so that’s six more videos up until the week my 3 months runs out), but I hope this teaser snapshot shows you more or less how I’m doing right now!
The reason the video isn’t longer is because my Skype recording software crashed after 4 minutes, which is a pity because Yuri asked me interesting questions and we had a real exchange (you only hear her say a couple of words in this video), discussing how my parents visited me here in Valencia.
First month learning Japanese: How things are going so far, initial impressions of Japanese, and Burning Questions for Benny
Last week on Wednesday, I reached the one month point of my Japanese project. After an excellent start, I had a little bit of a bumpy final bit of my first month that slowed me down a little, but am back on track now to hopefully make up for lost time by the end of […]
Reflections on learning a language remotely: How polyglot Olly Richards is updating his previous in-country learning method
It was all going smoothly until language number seven came along. This time was different. The “method” that I’d applied so well up until this point was suddenly no use to me. I felt like a fraud. The language: Cantonese (the Chinese dialect of Hong Kong). The place: Doha, Qatar.
English words in Japanese: Music video with Japanese learners
Wednesday was my one month point in the three month Japanese challenge, so to really make my mark I wanted to record one last video with a prepared script before I get into recording spontaneous Skype (or in person) chats for the next two months. To really make it count, I decided to record a music video!
This video is quite an oddity because it is entirely in Japanese… and yet many of you who will have never learned any Japanese will understand quite a lot of it even without reading the lyrics that are edited into the video. And that’s because the video is made up entirely of words Japanese has borrowed from English, but said as closely as possible to the Japanese pronunciation (written in the Katakana script every time).
As a Beginner in Japanese, Don’t Worry About the Formality
I’m quickly approaching my one month point in Japanese, and can give you some updates on how I’m doing there soon! In the mean time, I got this interesting guest post suggestion from William Peregoy. I’m quickly seeing that the scare tactics used on Japanese learners, like in every other language that I’ve come across, […]
Absolutely perfect learning conditions? An unrealistic pipe dream that holds you back
6-8 hours a day of complete focus and efficient learning, for 6 days a week, is the ideal and what I aim for, but so far it hasn’t happened. I’m going to see if I can get a new wind and make this next week the most efficient one yet to balance out the previous week.
While I realize many people think that I have the absolute ideal conditions any language learner could dream of, of “no responsibilities” and an uninterrupted 12 or so weeks of non-stop Japanese learning, the fact is that it will get interrupted. That’s life.
Tour of my home in Japanese after learning it for 2 weeks!
A little tradition I’ve kept up since starting the blog, is to give you a video tour of almost every place I temporarily call home! For instance, in English I showed you my penthouse in Rio, my lovely flat in Medellín, the flat around the corner from the Danube in Budapest, and the beach cottage […]
National Geographic Traveler of the Year – a win for language learning tourism
Today I’m very pleased to announce to you that I have been awarded the title of National Geographic’s Traveler of the Year! Check out the full article and interview here. You’ll see it in print in the November edition of the magazine later this month. And no, it won’t look anything like this cheesy image […]
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