Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave for the past decade or so (I actually love caves – tell me where), you’ve probably heard of Benny Lewis aka the Irish Polyglot aka blogger, author and all-round language man over at Fluent in 3 Months.

Benny was one of the first language blogs I ever read long before I’d even thought about starting Lindsay Does Languages and it’s fair to say what he’s done for language learning is second to none.

Having never had the chance to sit down and have a proper chat with him, it was great to finally do so in Montreal earlier this year at the first North American Polyglot Symposium.

And having been given an early preview copy of his new Language Hacking Spanish guide produced alongside Teach Yourself and italki, it’s great to finally share my thoughts on this new series with you.

First thoughts

So like a lot of people, I first found out what Benny’s big secret project he’d been working on was back in May at Berlin’s Polyglot Gathering.

What is it? As it says on the front cover of the book, ‘A Conversation Course for Beginners’.

Not only are the guides created with Teach Yourself and therefore with the traditional Teach Yourself methodology in mind, but the thing that really struck me as the game-changer is the partnership with italki, encouraging users of the courses to also get to work with native tutors and start speaking from day one, something Benny is well-known for supporting.

So what were my first thoughts when I got my copy?

First of all, as lame as I know it sounds, the book is really slick-looking both inside and out. Because good resources are often reflected in our results.

Secondly, I was like “Dang! Why have I already studied these languages! I want more!”

The books are available not only in Spanish, but also French, Italian and German right now. Will there be more in the future? I hope so.

How is it structured?

The book is split into 10 Units, each with three conversations and various activities around each conversation. So far so normal. So what makes this different to other guides?

Before each Unit begins, you’re given your Mission for that Unit. For example, Unit 1 puts you into the scenario of arriving at passport control and needing to have a basic conversation sharing your name, where you’re from, why you’re in the country and why you’re learning Spanish. This gets you set and ready for what you’ll learn in the Unit.

Next up, rather than just plopping a conversation in front of you in what may as well be gobbledygook at this stage and then giving you a direct translation requiring very little thinking, one of the big focuses of the course is to actually teach you how to learn a language.

Enter the ‘Figure It Out’ activities after each conversation, there to get you using context to extract at least some meaning from what you just read.

The ‘Language Hack’ boxes throughout also help on the showing you how to learn a language front.

Oh, and the sidebar annotations giving hints and tips add a really personal touch as if Benny is over your shoulder helping you out when you need it in real time. Yay!

Why is it different to other guides?

As I’ve mentioned, the italki integration is something I’ve never seen before with a traditional resource such as a book course. This is one of my favourite things about the course. Rather than just tell you to speak, or even tell you to find a tutor and speak, the course actively encourages it with the italki Language Hacking Community.

Of course I love this because it’s a speaking course primarily so speaking practise is…well, kind of important.

But I also love it because often when we have a solid-looking resource such as a course book like this, we sometimes expect to learn the language simply by possessing the book. Nuh uh. I think the idea of sending people outside of the book is a great way to also lead learners to other resources and tools, giving a much rounder learning experience.

The learning how to learn aspects I shared above are also a pretty crucial part to the whole thing and something that you’d often find in a separate resource, so it’s great to see it combined actively with a language learning course.

And if there’s one thing likely to put me off a course book by chapter 3, it’s dull. black. repetitive. text. Benny’s courses are printed in black and blue ink, which helps to make it so much friendlier and enjoyable to use. Another yay!

One last thing that was released just in time for me writing this review: downloadable audio content. Via the Teach Yourself Library app (on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store), you can download an hour and half worth of audio tracks to accompany the course. Yet another yay.

I want! I want!

Are you ready to learn French, Spanish, German or Italian? Click the language you want to learn and enjoy!