Benny Lewis

speaker

589 appearances 9 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 12 Aug

Benny Lewis’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 9 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 3.

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Language & Travel Hacking · Why More Language Study Isn’t Always the Next Step · 4 Aug 2026 podcast

I made that as I was on my way to this course and I often put myself among people who are more skilled than me because it forces me to stretch.

It's happened to me many times and I did expect it to happen at this Irish course, but I turned out to be wrong.

I assumed I was the weakest person in the most advanced class, but out of the eight classes of the course, class eight is the top one, which is more than the seven I said in the last episode.

And when I attended 20 years ago, I was one of the lowest classes.

But this time I was indeed in that top class eight.

And I was surprised to find that I was not clearly the weakest person there.

I was pretty average for the class.

And there were many moments when I stood out because I was confident enough to answer something or remember something very specific that the others couldn't.

Being in the top class doesn't necessarily mean I'm fluent in Irish though, because following advanced classroom work and sustaining a deep conversation require really different things.

I had several short conversations in Irish during the course, and I was really happy to have them, as you'd expect when you're at a conversational level or a lower intermediate level.

But none of those short conversations became deep, and that's what I want more of now that I'm ready for it.

As well as the pure language course part of it, though, there was a cultural immersion aspect that I dove into to learn about Sian No Singing, which is a very traditional and very old style of singing in Irish.

And I felt very confident doing that and much more so than some of my classmates who are quite timid about singing.

And I could put extra effort into learning the unique pronunciation style of the Ulster Irish dialect, which helped me follow the local singer way better.

And that confidence helped me step forward and take part in a more active way than the others without necessarily having to be the best singer.

But the language aspect of the course has helped me recognize that I am definitely ready enough to participate in Irish quite a lot more than I gave myself credit for.

And now I need more opportunities for brief interactions so I can develop that into longer and deeper conversations.

And I find my Irish to be unique among the languages that I've learned when you compare it to the vast majority of what I've done in the last few decades.

because I've spent most of my Irish speaking at this and similar language immersion courses rather than in more natural settings, which is why I'm dedicating August to improving my Irish and stepping up my game to force myself into more natural usage situations.

This doesn't mean I'm abandoning study, like books and vocabulary will still be a part of the month, but they will be alongside Irish language social media, which I'll both be consuming and hopefully uploading to, Irish TV shows and, of course, real social opportunities.

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