I want to know about your English learning environment. When and where do you most often learn English?

Do you study in the morning when you wake up? At night in bed? On your lunch break?

Do you like to listen to lessons on your phone while you're jogging? Do you take an English class at a university? Or do you meet up with a language exchange partner once a week in a coffee shop?

Please share your English study habits in the comments!

EnglishClub.com has announced their 2011 "Site of the Year", and thanks to you, PhraseMix won!

Thanks so much to everyone who voted in this competition. Because of your help, PhraseMix won by a landslide.

Voting helps a lot. When we win an award like this, new people find out about PhraseMix and visit. They tell their friends about it, and the site grows. The faster the site grows, the more learning material I'm able to create for you.

If you've never visited EnglishClub, you should go check them out. It's a huge site with all kinds of material for learning English. The site really does have a "club" feeling, with people of all different ability levels helping each other out.

In related news, the results of the Macmillan Dictionary Love English awards were also announced. We didn't win that one, but ended up in about 4th place. Thanks to everyone who voted in that contest as well.

Everything You Thought You Knew About Learning Is Wrong

The article gives three main suggestions for improving your ability to learn:

1. Interleave your studying. Rather than just focusing on one skill, practice several connected skills together.
2. Study in many locations instead of always in the same place.
3. Work hard to remember things. Don't study something that you've just learned; wait until you've started to forget, and then review it.

The article is pretty hard to read, but it's written in a casual tone. I think you might enjoy it. Have any questions about it? Ask them in the comments!

If you need to refresh your memory, here's the index of all the past PhraseMix lessons.

Leave your answer (with a link, if you can) in the comments!

Here are some of the different categories of "incorrect" English that I've found:

Level 1: Unintelligible English

Something that people just can't understand is "unintelligible".

Here's an example of unintelligible English:

"If me and if we don't you have know me find."

Huh?

You might speak unintelligible English if you're drunk, or if you're trying to talk about something that you don't have enough ability to explain.

If your English is "unintelligible", you'll probably find out quickly because people will make strange faces and ask you to repeat yourself. 

Level 2: Misinterpreted English

When your words are "misinterpreted", it means that someone thinks that they understand you, but actually they don't. The message that they understand is different from what you meant to communicate.

For example, you can easily be misinterpreted when you're talking about days and times:

"Let's meet next Saturday."

If you say this on a Monday or Tuesday, you might mean the Saturday 4 or 5 days later, but the person you're speaking to would probably think that you meant the following Saturday.

This type of incorrect English can be tricky, because you might not find out that your words were misinterpreted until much later.

Level 3: Funny-sounding English

My wife is a non-native English speaker. A few times a day, she says something that makes me smile because of how funny it sounds. Like if I'm cooking some spinach, she might ask me:

"Did you wash the leaves? We don't want any sands in it."

This is funny to me because "leaves" is a funny word when you're talking about food. I imagine leaves on a tree, not spinach in a bowl. Also, "sand" is uncountable, so it sounds funny when she says "sands". I imagine trying to count each little piece of sand stuck to the spinach.

You probably make a lot of mistakes like these. In fact, you might not be able to avoid them even after studying for many years. You should try to improve these errors, but they're not as big of a problem as unintelligible or misinterpreted English.

Level 4: Frowned-upon English

Why do native English speakers have to study English grammar in school?

It's because we all pick up language habits which are common, but frowned upon. In other words, some people speak that way, but other people frown upon it (meaning they don't like it).

A good example of English that's frowned upon is the word "ain't" to mean "am not":

"I ain't had a meal that good in a long time!"

Picky people will tell you that this isn't correct English, but a lot of people use "ain't" every day. 

People learning English as a foreign language might think that they should avoid expressions that they hear are "bad English". But it's good to remember that some "bad English" is actually really useful.

Level 5: Unusual and unexpected English

As a native English speaker, I use words and phrases incorrectly all the time!

I do this because I want to sound new, fresh, and different. For example, when someone asks "How are you?" the standard answer is:

"Good! And you?"

But that's a little boring to me, so I often answer:

"Magnificent!"

That's a strange and unexpected answer.

Sometimes it's fun to say things the "wrong" way to give your words a different flavor, as I've written about before.

What kind of incorrect English do you use?

The categories listed above are in order from the worst to the best. What kind of "wrong" English do you use most often?

For me, I think it would be cool to have this guy's voice:

I've already explained in a past blog entry why you should try to do an impression of someone. So is there anyone special that you would like to sound like?

Give your answer in the comments. Extra credit for posting a video or audio clip!

For example, if I watch a movie in a foreign language, I usually hear a few interesting new phrases. If I'm paying attention, I might even think, "Hey, I should remember this for later!". But a few minutes later, it's gone. If you ask me the next day, I probably won't remember what even happened in the movie, much less any new words or phrases :)

Ah, if only there was a way to record what I've learned and save it for later...

Wait! There's is a way to do that! In fact, it's an extremely simple technique. Just make sure that you have something to write on. Then develop the habit of writing things down.

I like to carry around a really small, thin notebook that fits in my back pocket.

Even better might be a folded-up piece of paper. The important thing is to keep it somewhere where you can pull it out quickly, like in your pockets.

Don't worry about taking long and in-depth notes. All you need is a few words or sentences to remind yourself. 

Some wonderful PhraseMix reader has nominated PhraseMix for another "Best of 2011" award. 

This award is from the Macmillan Dictionary website. A lot of other sites have already been nominated and got an early start on voting, so I reallly need your help this time.

Please visit the voting page and vote for PhraseMix!

Thank you to everyone who voted for the EnglishClub.com "Best of 2011" competition as well.

I'm a big fan of New Year's resolutions. "New Year's resolutions" are yearly goals that you set for yourself at the beginning of a new year. They usually have to do with fitness, saving money, education, etc.

People often make New Year's resoltions at the beginning of the year but don't end up keeping them. That used to happen to me too. Then one year I got serious about my resolutions and started using some of the techniques that I'm going to describe below. I ended up achieving all of my New Year's resolutions that year, and it felt great!

So here are some techniques to help you become a super resolution achiever:

1. Only pick three goals

You should have one really important goal that you're going to achieve no matter what. You can set two other goals to work toward as well. Just remember to decide which goal is your "main" one.

Why am I being so restrictive? Because if you try to do more than three things at once, you'll get lost. You'll lost track of what's most important. You'll start to neglect one of your goals, and then you'll feel guilty about it. Soon you'll start to lose confidence in yourself.

So stick with one main resolution and two secondary ones.

2. Write your resolutions down and post them somewhere

Think of a single word to represent each of your resolutions. Write the word in big letters and post it somewhere in your home. 

For example, if you want to lose weight, you can make a sign with the word "thin". Hang it on your refrigerator, so that every time you get food you'll be reminded of your resolution.

Don't just write your resolutions down quietly, though. Announce them to your family and friends. Put them on your Facebook page. Make copies of your resolution to hang in your office. The more reminders, the better.

3. Turn each resolution into a habit

Now that you've chosen a goal, find something that you can do every day to work toward it. Working on your resolutions every single day is very, very effective. 

For example, that's how I started PhraseMix: I made a rule for myself that I had to write a lesson every day before I went to sleep. I've missed a few days in the last two years, but mostly I've stuck with it.

If you do something every day, it becomes a habit. Soon you won't even think about it; you'll just do it naturally, like brushing your teeth.

4. Work on one habit per month

To achieve an important goal, you'll probably need to pick up several good habits. For example, to get in shape you'll need to exercise, cut down on your drinking, eat more vegetables, and so on. 

If you try to pick up a lot of good habits at once, you're probably going to fail. It's just too hard to focus. 

Instead, I suggest focusing on one good habit per month. After you've gotten used to the first one, you can then add the next one, and so on. For example, if you want to save more money this year, you can add habits like this:

• January: Write down your expenses each day
• February: Make your own lunch each day
• March: Sell one used item from your home each day on the Internet

...and so on.

5. Use a calendar

A few years ago, I heard about the Jerry Seinfeld calendar technique.

The way it works is simple: get a calendar to put on the wall. Every day that you keep up your good habits, mark the day with an "X" on the calendar. Then try not to miss any days.

Seeing all of the hard work marked on the calendar will motivate you to continue working hard every day.

To help get you started, I've put together a blank calendar that you can print out and use:

Get the calendar.

Review

To review, here's how you can make New Year's resolutions this year and really keep them:

• Pick one main resolution and one or two secondary ones.
• Write your resolutions down and post them in easy-to-see places.
• Find a way to work on your resolutions every day.
• Start just one new habit per month.
• Keep track of your progress on a calendar.

So what are your resolutions going to be? Something related to your English studies? What are you going to do each day to achieve your goals?

Now they're going to pick the ESL site of the year for 2011. The decision is based on voting, so I need your help! Please head over to the Awards page:

http://edition.englishclub.com/category/awards/

The red voting bar is on the right side of the page. Pick "PhraseMix" from the list and then click the "Vote" button at the bottom.

Go vote now!