Hey everyone! My name is is Benny Lewis,
and I make loads of videos about language learning,
and share my own struggles, progress and and cultural discoveries as I learn new languages.
Two years ago, as I started my project to learn Mandarin
I wore a t-shirt that said Cunning Linguist for the first time,
and have had it in lots of videos since then.
Many comments from people asked how they could get one themselves,
but rather than just give them a means to get an exact replica,
I decided to set up a huge project to create the world's most useful language learning t-shirt.
Seriously!
So what gave me the idea for this was the fact that when I was in Ireland,
I wore this t-shirt that said "Speak Irish to me" in Gaeilge, the national Irish language.
Now the thing is, by looking at me
there's no way to know that I speak other languages.
And it's such a pity that I could be in a party, and talk to someone
and never know that we shared a common language other than English.
But because I had that t-shirt on, when I was in Dublin,
seven different people approached me and spoke Irish to me!
So this got me thinking,
that wouldn't it be great if other people could do this for any language?
Since we can't be walking around with a big sign saying I speak whatever,
it makes sense to put it on your t-shirt.
The problem is that it's quite expensive to create your own t-shirt,
they usually look quite dull, and when I tested certain sites
they couldn't handle other scripts like Chinese, Arabic or Hebrew.
So I got in touch with my friends at Campus Customs,
and they did a little programming magic to create an input field,
so that you could write whatever you want in whatever language you want.
This could be like this t-shirt that says,
"Speak to me, please" in Spanish, French, German. Chinese, Irish and Esperanto.
Or it could be a clever message, like this t-shirt I'm wearing
where I took my favourite unique and strange to translate phrases in each language
as an interesting conversation starter.
For instance, the first phrase "Un poquito de por favor"
is from a Spanish TV series "Aqu? no hay quien viva"
and is like the Spanish equivalent of Puh-lease,
and using this phrase has instantly broke the ice when I meet Spaniards.
Each other phrase is some unique part of the culture or language I like.
And just to show you one other example, since you can write anything,
I was travelling in the States this summer,
and wanted people to know that they could use American Sign Language with me.
You don't really write ASL, so I tried to be clever
and used the Wingdings font to represent ASL with me.
See that?
This actually worked, and someone stopped me in a Starbucks to have a sign language chat!
So, on the back you can write whatever you want,
as long as it's up to 140 characters.
It can be one or several languages. You can come up with it yourself,
but see a link under this video for a list of good examples and translations
of "Speak X language to me".
Now the front doesn't have to say "Cunning Linguist"
It can also say "Language Lover" or "Polyglot",
since I know this choice is a little cheeky for everyone.
Having said that, I've had many strangers stop me in the street
and comment on how much they love this clever and funny phrase.
A few other language learners have already got their hands on one,
like Richard, Judith, Moses, and Anthony.
Click their image to see their great Youtube channels.
Another thing about these t-shirts is that I made sure they were as affordable as possible.
It's way cheaper than the one that I made for myself 2 years ago,
and yet it's much better quality.
We can have it delivered to you anywhere in the world,
although postage is a little bit cheaper if it's to the US.
I am very confident that if you wear this t-shirt next time you are out,
and you pass by someone who speaks your target language
whether they be a native speaker or another learner like yourself,
then an amazing opportunity could come up where you get to practice that language in person.
So go on, get a t-shirt to tell the world what language you're learning!
And when you have it, maybe send me a photo of you with it on,
especially if you're also with sombody that you met
to practise your target language, thanks to the t-shirt,
and I'll make sure to feature as many as possible on my blog and social media channels!
Just click the link under this video for all details on how to get it.
Happy language learning!