Unconventional language hacking tips from Benny the Irish polyglot; travelling the world to learn languages to fluency and beyond!
There are many wholesome reasons to learn and use languages. Mine are cultural to enhance my travel and social experiences. Some people learn to understand their heritage, to be able to better appreciate music and literature, and some are passionate simply about languages in themselves and what makes them up and how they work. Others […]
A lot of people are a bit fuzzy about this so I want to make it absolutely clear: If you move to a country for a few months (or even years) it’s very possible you will NOT learn the language. Out of all the advice I give on this blog, based on my lifestyle you […]
A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that I am not really that passionate about languages. It’s unlikely you’ll see me ever studying a language like Latin or ancient Greek, or picking a language based on integrate grammar points or because its phonemes or particular tones could be a “fun challenge”. There […]
Kids are great! I was an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher for several years in several countries, teaching mostly children, and I could see how quick they were at learning a second language. Of course, who of us doesn’t want to go back to our childhood, when things were simpler and the world […]
This detailed post describes how my first week in Amsterdam went. As requested, I’ll be giving regular updates on how I’ve been adjusting to a new culture and learning a new language. In future I’ll send this update (which will likely be much shorter and include occasional videos) to the Language Hacking League, so sign […]
Obviously, writing a language learning blog means that I get asked the question all the time about the best language learning course or materials to invest in. Since I can’t really say that any purchasable material particularly impresses me as a “must” for language learning, I like to try several ones on for size to […]
It’s time for a new language mission! DUTCH! I’ve just arrived in Amsterdam, and I plan to speak fluent Dutch by May 31st (so technically not even 2 months; actually in 8 weeks). There’s many ways to define fluency and I’m very precise about mine. There are some obvious advantages I’ll have and some big […]
[Before I put April Fools’ in the title of this post, quite a lot of people were falling for it! Rest assured that nothing here is true 🙂 ] I am writing this post with a heavy heart, but the lies must end. I can’t do this any longer – the guilt is tearing me […]
Quick note: In case you missed the announcement for what my next language mission is in the e-mail list, don’t forget to “like” Fluent in 3 months to see it in your Facebook stream tomorrow! I’ll also announce it on twitter tomorrow. On Saturday I went to the Deaf Night Out here in Austin, where […]
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