Articles


National Geographic Traveler of the Year – a win for language learning tourism

written by Benny Lewis

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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Reading time: 2 minutes

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My Japanese Skype Call After One Week

My Japanese Skype Call After One Week

written by Benny Lewis

In a change from my initial plan to wait a month before uploading conversations, here is my 10-day update in Japanese. This video is entirely in Japanese, and absolutely and utterly non-scripted (apart from the intro). I messaged my Facebook page, targetting just those in Japan, and Junpei offered to let me record a chat […]

What’s your 3 month language project?

written by Benny Lewis

One thing I love about this blog is that when people see me struggle as a beginner learner, it reminds them that I’m not in this to present myself as a “guru” or language ninja, but that it’s all about trying to get people to be OK with struggling themselves. If an experienced language learner […]


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Reading time: 5 minutes

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Japanese project: Reach fluency in 3 months… in Spain [INTRO VIDEO]

written by Benny Lewis

While proving that “virtual immersion” is indeed possible, and while I do genuinely hope to inspire language learners over the coming months, no matter what language you are learning, what will be motivating me to keep going on a day to day basis will be the fact that I’m going to travel Japan next year.


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Reading time: 13 minutes

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World’s most useful language learning t-shirt: Let everyone know what language you are learning!

written by Benny Lewis

Now, I knew everyone wouldn’t want it to say “Cunning Linguist”!! That’s just too cheeky for a lot of people (if you don’t get the joke, then say it quickly and you’ll notice it sounds like something else…), especially since a linguist isn’t the same as a language lover. Despite this, I have to say that in some places, especially in English speaking countries where people get the joke, I’ve had so many complete strangers come up to me and compliment me on the hilarious play on words.

But since that may be too risqué for many, I made sure that the options “Language Lover” (generally more understandable) and “Polyglot” (more specific and accurate, even if a less known word in English.. for the moment 😉 ) were available instead, also in the same dialogue world bubble.


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Reading time: 7 minutes

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My summer on the Pacific Coastal Highway - a European on an American road trip!

My summer on the Pacific Coastal Highway – a European on an American road trip!

written by Benny Lewis

Next week, I’ll announce my next huge 3 month project in the email list (sign up on the top-right of the site to find out before I announce it on the blog or elsewhere), and you’ll see plenty of language learning updates as I start from scratch, share my struggling progress, and hopefully reach my […]


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Reading time: 18 minutes

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