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Articles by:
Benny Lewis


The simple guide to adding captions/subtitles to Youtube videos: My 2.5 month Mandarin video

written by Benny Lewis

First thing’s first: This video is my 2.5 month point in Mandarin! Subtitles included in Simplified and Traditional Chinese, as well as English. [Youku version  here] I met up with fellow Youtube polyglot Mike, a.k.a. Glossika and he agreed to bounce some questions off me to demonstrate my progress since the last video. Check out […]

Free online Irish language learning resources and cool videos

written by Benny Lewis

This weekend is St. Patrick’s Day, the background of which I discussed in this post a year ago (while insisting that Americans do NOT call it “Patty’s day”) Another thing that happens this week is Seachtain na Gaeilge [literally, Irish (language) week] – an awareness initiative aligning with the week leading up to or around […]

Unnecessary elitist standards: get rid of them and fluency is yours for the taking

written by Benny Lewis

When discussing language learning with people who have unrealistic standards for what they must have in their second language before they consider their level good enough, I’m left amazed at the screamingly obvious issues they don’t seem to be aware of: The elitist standards you require are something that we may not even have for […]


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Reading time: 10 minutes

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No pain no gain

written by Benny Lewis

I’ve spent 3 hours today looking like this, and currently have a splitting headache. To contrast with yesterday’s post, where I talk about comfort in the language in the pre-fluency stage, I thought I’d give you another glimpse into the huge amount of discomfort I’m also going through a lot of the time. Since I […]


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Reading time: 4 minutes

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The underestimated usefulness of pre-fluency (My 2 month Mandarin video)

written by Benny Lewis

[Captions in traditional and simplified Chinese, as well as in English. Youku link for those in mainland China] Keeping up with the video-every-two-weeks plan, here is my two month point! After a bumpy start, where I hesitate a bit because of being quite aware of the camera, once I got used to it, you can […]

How I Learned Fluent Italian While Working 60 Hours a Week

How I Learned Fluent Italian While Working 60 Hours a Week

written by Benny Lewis

One misunderstanding people have when they arrive on my site is that they need to have precisely my circumstances to learn a language. You don’t. But every day I receive comments from people with their laundry list of reasons why it’s not possible for them, including that they are too old, languages just aren’t their […]

Are you problem minded or solution minded? My 1.5 month level of Chinese [video]

written by Benny Lewis

Since we are at exactly the half-way point of my three month mission to speak fluent Chinese, it’s time for another video update! This time, it is 100% unprepared, unscripted, and unrehearsed 😉 Check it out: [Subtitles in traditional & simplified Chinese, as well as in English; enable Youtube’s closed captioning to see – mistakes […]

Why impatience is a virtue and taking your time is wasting your time

written by Benny Lewis

It’s about time I discuss one of the biggest questions I get asked by readers: What’s the rush? Not just about my time-restricted objective, but in general – why try to learn a language so fast? Shouldn’t you take a few years to absorb it? I’ve discussed before that my 3-month deadline is not some […]


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Reading time: 15 minutes

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