Benny the Irish polyglot

After completing my all-contiguous-states adventure, I'm heading to #AustinTexas for the next 6 weeks to catch up with friends and practise my ASL with the sizeable Deaf community there!

I've plenty of privilege that has meant I've been shielded (for now) by so many things, so at least I've personally always been treated well by pretty much everyone and I am grateful for being made feel welcome everywhere!

It's satisfying to wrap up this travel project!

The United States is going through some serious challenges, politically, economically & socially, so unfortunately I will be winding up my residence in a couple of years, since I don't know what living here will be like soon. I know it's becoming difficult for so many people.

I'll be forever asked which was my favourite, or where are the people the friendliest etc., but I don't really go through life with superlative mentalities about the places I've visited.

I can simply try to take the most positive experiences that I can and not get distracted with comparisons.

It wasn't about driving through; I've stayed in every state about a week minimum and a lot were between a month and several years.

The thing I made sure to do in EVERY state was to have genuine interactions, either by making new friends or going to events.

So glad to have ticked off a major bucket-list item of visiting every single contiguous American state!

It was a very long project, since every few years, I'd do another road trip to add around 6-10 more.

It's been a great adventure!

I heard rumours of this being a really walkable town, which as a European, you know I was sold on! I got a place on the Isthmus for the month, so I can regularly walk downtown.

Of course, I've a car too, to be able to explore the area and will do a weekend trip to North Wisconsin at some point.

Just moved to #MadisonWI for a month. Let's see what living in Midwest US is like for a Eurotrash like me 😋

There are some push factors for a foreigner in the states these days unfortunately (I've personally always felt really welcome here, but it's bigger than that), so I'm going to try and wrap up my US residency on a positive note!

Back in the US 🇺🇸 for a few months. I'll be working on my ASL🤟 and doing what may be my last ever big road trip here, so I can have visited all 48 contiguous states!

"I'm 100% certain that that word is either 'elephant', or 'salary'... or 'marijuana'" - me when trying to recall Indonesian vocabulary

All notification sounds on my phone are often from whatever TV show I'm currently watching.

Right now it's Doctor Who, so the TARDIS landing, using a sonic screwdriver, dugga doo, bingle bongle dingle dangel, exterminate etc. are individual notifications for apps or specific people messaging me.

Last year I was in the Amazon rainforest & next week I'll be in the Borneo rainforest
🌳🌧️🦧.

Rather than quick in-and-out trips, they're part of huge explorations of respective countries (all states of Brazil + 6 months through the Indonesian archipelago) while speaking to locals in their language.

YouTube video by Benny Lewis Skype Me Maybe - sung in 30+ languages by 17 polyglots!

2. Skype, since it's being taken offline forever on Monday!

I remember switching to online lessons with teachers via Skype in 2012. It was revolutionary! Skype was so iconic, it became a verb, like in my polyglot collaborative video "Skype me maybe": www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HZb...

This weekend say goodbye to 2 language learning tools:
1. Duolingo, since they are switching their language courses entirely to AI-generated slop. I already wasn't a fan of their app, but now I'll actively advise against using it. Language learning is too human an activity to replace with *pure* AI.

Starbucks; where I have a thousand names across the world. Here, in Indonesia, Benny➡️pen.

Mr. 🖋️ is actually a great name for a writer though 🤔

If you think German's "hand shoe" for gloves was crazy, wait until you hear about Indonesian's "foot t-shirt" for socks!
🧤=✋👞
🧦=🦶👕
#languagelearning

So far, I'm loving Java! Everyone is so friendly and very patient with my Indonesian!
Here is a quick sample of a bunch of places I've visited in Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta.
One thing that's different to other places I've been is that I'm addressed as "Mister" a lot. Not "Mr. Lewis"😊

Note: this word comes from Dutch, so the mnemonic would be less useful in that language because of the 'v' sound on the w. But it's a closer match in Indonesian

Another way I'm using AI with my language learning; using AI generated images to help me with mnemonics. "Wortel" (carrot) is a hotel made of carrots in the middle of a war

Me when I see I have 50 new notifications:😄

Me when I see why:🙄

I pick the one that is most memorable to help me make a better mental link to the word.

Deepseek and ChatGPT do a decent job at this, Gemini is a bit better to bring in linguistic features like word origins but the actual mnemonic is often less memorable.

I got a couple of requests, so here's the example prompt I use with AI for mnemonics. After the first prompt, I simply write "Now X for Y" (X is target language word and Y is translation).

The result then gives me 3 word association examples, in languages I speak.

During an intensive travel week, limping slowly for days and the 1st day of having to literally one-legged hop home in agony would not have worked well

Also, it would get me way too many looks, when I'm already expecting a lot of looks for being the only white guy in most places I'll be visiting

I slipped and sprained my ankle a week ago and am now finally feeling closer to normal again (attempting a dance class tomorrow).

If it had to happen, I'm so glad this happened during a sedentary study week!

𝘖, 𝘣𝘢𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘢 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘢𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘬𝘢𝘭𝘪!
(Oh, you speak fluent Indonesian!)

It seems like I'm going to be hearing that a lot. Indonesians are extraordinarily generous with their compliments, especially to someone who is definitely just barely beginning (10 days in, so far) 😂

Learning Indonesian, and discovering that Timur is East, which means... Timor-Leste / East Timor, means "𝙀𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙩" (even though the u changes to an o, it's still the word origin).

The Indonesian western part of the island is West-Timor (Timor Barat), or West-East.

A week or so into my stay in Bali, and I've settled in and gotten into my routine!
Eating healthy, exercising often, and studying Indonesian during the day most days.
It's just one of those places in the world I know I can buckle down and focus, while also living healthily!

I'm the only one in this co-working space using books and paper instead of a laptop (studying Indonesian).

I've gone full circle and have become... an analogue nomad 😂

Day 1 learning #bahasaindonesia - so pleasantly surprised by everything! This may well turn out to be the easiest language I've ever learned (after Esperanto).

I've booked sessions with teachers every day next week, so I'm cramming what I can to Monday then will speak every day for the next months.