My story with the Irish language

In this episode of the Language and Travel Hacking Podcast , I share my story with the Irish language, from struggling through boring school lessons to finally reconnecting with it as an adult. In the 90s, Irish was taught in a very academic and grammar-heavy way, so despite ten years of “learning,” I could barely say a few phrases after school. Years later, after learning Spanish, Italian, and French, a French friend asked me, “Do you speak your own country’s language?” That question made me realize how disconnected I was from my roots and inspired me to give Irish another chance. I joined an adult immersion program called Oideas Gael , where I spent six weeks learning through morning lessons, Irish dancing, singing, and hill walking. That experience completely changed my relationship with the language and helped me reach a conversational B1 level. Since then, I’ve spoken Irish in Dublin, Galway, and even at events around the world, proudly using it wherever I can. Now, after 15 years based in the US, I’m preparing to move back to Ireland, reactivate my skills, and finally work toward fluency. Stay tuned for updates, and as always, happy language learning and happy travels! Mentioned in this episode: - Oideas Gael If you need one-on-one language guidance, schedule a consultation session with Benny at languagehacking.com/chat . And don’t forget to check out the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp here ! Or you can follow me on all Social Media channels: Instagram: @irishpolyglot Thread: @irishpolyglot TikTok: @irishpolyglot

You can listen to My story with the Irish language online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

My story with the Irish language is an episode from Language Hacking by Benny Lewis.

This episode is 11:44 long.

This episode was published on Oct 22, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Language Hacking when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.