PhraseMix Articles

Why you should focus on learning situational English

In my last blog post, I explained that there are two categories of sentences:

• things that you say about a topic
• things that you say in a certain situation

For example:

• topic: family - things to say when talking about one's family
• listener: family - things to say to your family

How I've been improving the lesson categories

My problem with categories

Have you explored the Categories page on PhraseMix? It's a useful way to review lessons on different topics, like business, shopping, or phrasal verbs. 

I realized something recently while writing Twitter messages to advertise some of the categories. I had...

"Correct" pronunciation is not always right.

A funny story

Back when I was a middle school English teacher in Japan, one day there was a big standardized English test. All of the Grade 3 students had to take it. I was asked to sit in on the test and help administer it by passing out papers and making sure that no one was cheating.

After a...

Tips for mastering English

If you've been reading the blog, you probably already understand PhraseMix's philosophy of language learning. But just in case you need a reminder, I posted a new page on How to Learn English. This is a collection of my best ideas for how to improve your English skill quickly. 

Take a look...

Some unusual advice for improving your English accent

People often ask my opinion about how to improve their English accent. The best answer, of course, is to spend a lot of time listening carefully to natural, native English. But there's another secret which has to do with your attitude.

The secret is:

...

Do you have a different personality when you speak English?

The other day, I got into a conversation with one of the students I tutor. She's from Japan, and has been studying English in New York for over a year. We were talking about how she acts around her English-speaking coworkers. I asked her:

"Is your personality a lot different when you speak...

Should you focus on your flaws or your strengths when it comes to learning English?

How do you feel about your English-speaking ability? Do you think to yourself:

"Wow, I've come so far! I can speak English a lot better than I used to."

or do you think:

"Man, my English isn't very good. There are so many things that I don't know how to say."

I bring this up because I read...

PhraseMix named one of the Top 25 Language Learning Blogs of 2011

Thanks to your help, PhraseMix has been honored in the Top 100 Language Lovers 2011 competition at Bab.la:

We were chosen as #19 in the Top 25 Language Learning Blogs. And when I say "we", I mean PhraseMix and you! Thanks for your support in the voting.

Please check out some of...

Infographic: How many words do you 'need'?

How many words do you need to learn in order to speak English fluently? Well, it depends on what you mean by "fluent".

We looked at a "word frequency" list of spoken English - a list of which words show up most often - and made some interesting discoveries. 

...

Teaching the meaning of a word is like...

...trying to describe a dog.

Imagine that I show up on your doorstep one day. You open the door, and I say:

Hi, I'm looking for my dog who's gone missing. She's about a foot tall, with short legs and a long, round torso. Her face is kind of scrunched up and she has big eyes. Her hair is short...