Category: Fun

English words in Japanese: Music video with Japanese learners

written by Benny Lewis

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).

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.

Top ten lessons learned in travelling the world for ten years

written by Benny Lewis

Today, July 10th, is my 31st birthday! It is also the day that I decided, exactly 10 years ago, to set off on my travels with no definite date to return “home”. Home is now wherever I lay my hat at the end of the day.

To celebrate this “travelversary” I have created a video that I can truly be proud of, to represent those 10 years, which you can see above.

As you can imagine, this is the long-awaited follow up to my 29 life lessons learned in 8 years post, that has been read almost 2 million times, which I wrote 2 years ago at my 8 year travelversary. These 10 lessons are (mostly) different though, so definitely check it out! To make it much more interesting, I had help to edit it professionally and included the absolute best videos and photos from my entire time on the road!

The 23 strangest habits you’ll pick up after living in 23 different countries

written by Benny Lewis

While I usually blog about language learning, I know a lot of you enjoy my travel and cultural updates as much or more. I’ve been travelling the world since 2003, but even forgetting the time involved, I have lived in twenty three countries (and counting); that’s lived as in, spent at least a month (usually […]

Encouraging quotes, Chinese proverbs with original translations, and inspirational thoughts for language learners

written by Benny Lewis

I asked those following my Facebook, twitter and G+ pages what their favourite encouragement quotes or short inspirational ideas were, to inspire language learners and got some real gems! I also did my own research online and tried to include some sayings on this blog that people have really enjoyed. And finally, I searched long and […]

9 of the most unlikely countries to find the language you want to learn

written by Benny Lewis

In the last five months, I have definitely received the most double takes of my life whenever I said that I had been learning all my Egyptian Arabic in Brazil.

It’s just such an unlikely combination! Brazil has never had a huge or even tiny wave of Egyptian immigration. While there, I only managed to meet one single Egyptian in person in my entire 3 months. This was partially the reason I did it – to prove that even if there are no natives nearby, you can learn to speak the language entirely online.

“Skype me maybe” – Inspiring music video sung by 17 polyglots in over 30 languages

written by Benny Lewis

After a LOT of work to prepare the lyrics, round people together, send way too many emails, have contributors pick verses and languages, give them feedback for several different takes, blend it all together, get through the immense task of video and sound editing, and making sure everyone was happy with it… “Skype me maybe” is finally ready for the world! 🙂

As you can see, the storyline is that I’m a hopeless language learner, ready to give up, when 16 of the Internet’s most famous polyglots show up to give me some encouraging words… in the tune of Carla Rae Jepsen’s “Call me maybe” that was popular this year, and inover thirty languages. Yes, it’s as crazy and as good as it sounds! 🙂

Language leveling up: Moses and Benny speak a dozen languages in Columbus Ohio

written by Benny Lewis

I met up with fellow Youtube polyglot, Moses McCormick (see his Youtube channel) in Columbus, Ohio and the two of us went to a mall simply to walk up to complete strangers and practise a bunch of languages with them.

Tour of my home… in Klingon!

written by Benny Lewis

As promised, here is a video of me speaking Klingon 😀 Laugh and enjoy as I give you the most guttural tour of my home I probably ever will… and I do it in costume and in character of course! I only started to learn this a couple of weeks back, and as you can […]

« Previous 1 … 27 28 29 30 Next »