Category: Success Stories


A Year Without Speaking English

A Year Without Speaking English

written by Scott Young

How fast could you learn a language… if you totally avoided speaking English? How difficult would it be to live completely outside your native tongue, starting with just the basics of a brand new language? Could you become reasonably fluent in just three months? There are the questions my friend Vat and I set out […]


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Reading time: 13 minutes

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Stop Allowing Excuses to Run Your Life!

Stop Allowing Excuses to Run Your Life!

written by Benny Lewis

In my inbox I see hundreds of people sharing their language learning woes every day, and in person I meet many people everywhere I go who struggle to start a language. There are many reasons they give, some of which are valid, but many times they are just excuses. Nothing reminds us more of this […]


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Reading time: 8 minutes

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¿Cómo Aprender Inglés Sin Haber Ido Antes a Estados Unidos? (15 divertidos tips para aprender un nuevo idioma)

written by Benny Lewis

Llevo 5 años escribiendo en este blog y todos los artículos son en inglés… hasta hoy. Sé que muchos de mis lectores no son nativos del inglés y que muchos están aprendiendo inglés todavía. Por eso, vamos a ver qué tal si comparto algunos artículos que no estén escritos en inglés, como el de hoy. Conocí […]


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Reading time: 13 minutes

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6 biggest lessons from learning to speak my first non-native language [Final video]

6 biggest lessons from learning to speak my first non-native language [Final video]

written by Benny Lewis

Time for the final update on Lauren’s 6-week-challenge! She successfully completed her mission, and was able to socialize, make new friends, and have fun in Esperanto. You can see it all happen in the video at the bottom of the post. But first, I’ll hand the blog over to her, to share her thoughts: 1. […]


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Reading time: 4 minutes

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4 language learning revelations from a Ms. World contestant

written by Guest Author

Karen who runs Immersia offers these words of encouragement – I love seeing the same realizations from such a wide range of people, and am happy to share hers with you today, especially since she has such an interesting and different background. Over to you Karen: ——— I was born in the Ukraine and my […]


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Reading time: 6 minutes

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Why Cantonese isn’t as hard as you think: following the journey of two learners

written by Guest Author

Let’s share another “Why a supposedly hard language isn’t as impossible as you thought” type post! This time from Cantonese native speaker Brian, who has guest posted here before and who organizes the Add1 challenge (now the Fluent in 3 Months Challenge). One of the challengers, Jan, took on Cantonese for his project and you […]

Case Study: Learn Spanish in 11 Weeks

Case Study: Learn Spanish in 11 Weeks

written by Benny Lewis

Tomorrow I’ll be updating you on my Japanese project, but until then though, I want to share this excellent video by my friend Scott Young, who has guest posted here and whose Spanish project I introduced you to 3 months ago. This video was edited by Vat, who was also learning Spanish intensively. It’s an […]

How monolingual parents can raise a bilingual child

written by Guest Author

The issue of parents teaching their children comes up often and I’ve even had someone guest post on the blog about it before. That’s great if you speak the languages yourself, but what if you are monolingual and still want to give your child the best possible head start in this wonderfully global world?

Christine, who blogs at AlmostFearless and who has been travelling with her husband since 2008, has thought long and hard about this while she raises her own son, and is even writing a book about the experience. If you want to help out, see details at the end of the post. Otherwise, enjoy her take on what parents can do to help their children learn languages that the parents themselves don’t speak fluently yet!


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Reading time: 11 minutes

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