My next big language mission is Irish B2!
I've been saying for years that I wish Irish was among my fluent languages, and I've finally stopped delaying. In this episode I announce my...
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Language Hacking
Benny Lewis and Shannon Kennedy meet real-life language learners and discover smarter, faster ways to learn a language. Learn more at:
Episodes
20 of 288 episodesThree Months in Italy to Bring My Italian Back
In this episode, I share my plans for spending the next three months in Italy and my mission to reactivate my Italian. After years away from...
My completely free digital immersion setup
In this episode, I share how I’ve built a completely free digital immersion setup for Irish without adding another paid subscription. My goa...
I prepared for one career and built another
For four years, I worked toward becoming a conference interpreter. I learned languages, passed exams, took translation training, and even ac...
Why More Language Study Isn’t Always the Next Step
I’ve just returned from an Irish immersion course that I first attended 20 years ago, and it gave me a fresh perspective on where my Irish s...
Why it's good to be the worst in the room
I’m heading to one of Ireland’s Gaeltacht regions for an Irish immersion week, and this time I’m deliberately putting myself in the most cha...
Summer language project: Boosting my Irish
After spending years helping others learn languages, I've decided it's finally time to give my own native language the attention it deserves...
Celebrating 23 years of speaking from day one
This week marks 23 years since I first began speaking from day one, and as I celebrate my 44th birthday, I'm reflecting on just how far that...
The Pros of Being Somewhere Touristy
In this episode, I explore the surprising benefits of learning languages in tourist hotspots. While I usually encourage travelers to get off...
You Don't Need a Good Memory to Learn a Language
In this episode, I share why having a terrible memory has never stopped me from learning languages. In fact, I believe it's one of the reaso...
Everyone in the Room Thinks They're the Worst
In this episode, I reflect on conversations at a language exchange event in Guadalajara, where I met learners who were communicating success...
The Instant Community a Language Hands You
In this episode, I share how learning a language can instantly connect you with people wherever you travel. While staying in San Luis Potosí...
Mexico or Spain Spanish? You're Asking the Wrong Question!
In this episode, I explain why worrying about learning the “right” dialect is one of the least important problems for language learners. Whe...
The conversation you're having with ChatGPT doesn't count!
In this episode of the Language and Travel Hacking Podcast, I share a discussion from my language Bootcamp about using AI for language learn...
I forgot I was speaking Spanish
In this episode, I share a moment I had during a dinner in Monterrey where I suddenly realised I’d stopped consciously thinking about speaki...
The Mexican States project
In this episode, I talk about my next big travel project as I prepare to head to Mexico for over two months. After recent language missions...
Major cities vs deeper travels
In this episode, I explore whether it is better to stay in major cities or travel more deeply into lesser-visited places. From my recent tim...
Update and my daily routine during my Chinese project
In this episode, I give an update on my Mandarin progress after spending a month in Taiwan. I explain how I quickly regained enough confiden...
Are you not ready yet, or is the situation what’s wrong?
I shared how reactivating my Mandarin has put me in an unusual stage of language learning: I am far beyond beginner level, but still rusty e...
Why My First Mandarin Project Almost Broke Me (And How I Fixed My Approach)
In this episode, I look back at my first Mandarin project in 2012, which became the most stressful language challenge I had ever faced. I se...