They fit in your pocket — you can use them everywhere, and if you ever studied a language you probably have used them before. Flashcards. They are a great tool to help you memorize keywords and phrases.

The principle is simple, you buy, or make your own cards. If you make your own simply take a sheet of paper, and cut it into squares. Bookstores usually sell hard paper empty cards in a little box that make great instants.

On the front of each card you write the word you want to remember and on the back the word in your own language. When you have a spare moment, in the train or waiting for the bus, you get them out of your pocket and shuffle through them.

At home you get can reverse it by looking at the back. Try to write down the word you are learning correctly, and then check your answer. Try not to look at the other side of the card !

Still cheating yourself? Get a computer to do the same thing — it flashes the words, and you type the answers. This can be a very fast and good way to repeat the same set of words over and over again until you perfectly remember them. And its completely honest.

If you want to just memorize a set of words — you can also enter them online in one of the many online flashcard sites. One website you can try is flashcardexchange.

If you think that learning English isn’t lively enough then try listening online to the BBC’s “The Flatmates“. This is where soap opera meets online learning.

Woman: If there’s any stealing going on, it’s you who’s doing it.
Alice: What are you talking about?
Woman: Home wrecker, husband stealer!
Alice: Mrs Laver? Lucy?

The series just won a British Council Elton Award for Innovation in Teaching English. It features regular new episodes which visitors can read online and listen to.

It also provides useful vocabulary and language insights to help you understand it all:

home wrecker
someone who has an affair (with a person who is married) and who breaks up a marriage because of it (makes the married person leave his/her partner)

And of course you can vote on the general direction of the next episode. Where is this all going ? Stay tuned!