On today’s episode, I interview arguably the world’s most popular language learner, the one and only Benny Lewis.
To many listeners, Benny or Benny the Irish Polyglot as he’s also known, will need no introduction.
He first began blogging over a decade ago at a time when the online language-learning community was still in its infancy.
His engaging style and optimistic message that learning languages is about communicating, having fun and embracing mistakes stood in contrast to other polyglots whose methods seemed dull and academic.
Through his blog, books and Ted Talks Benny brought the idea of self-learning a new language to millions of people, many of whom had been put off by bad experiences at school.
In 2012 ago he set himself the challenge of becoming fluent in Mandarin within three months. Ten years on I caught up with Benny to reflect on his Chinese learning experience as well as discuss his approaches to language learning in general.
Need help with Mandarin speaking?
If you’re studying Mandarin and are struggling with your speaking skills, our free Peak Mandarin newsletter shares practical tips on how to become fluent in Chinese. It’s based on exactly what my friend Will Hart and I did to teach ourselves the language while working and studying full-time in the UK.
Subscribe to the newsletter on this link and we’ll also send you my 50-page eBook, Lessons from a Chinese Learning Phenomenon, telling the story of how we went from zero to fluency. And how you can too!
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