Is anyone else here using memrise.com?
I started using it a few days ago, and I have to admit it’s really addictive.
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It looks like it´s a method where one uses mnemonics to remember vocabulary. Is that right, or is there more to it? Generally I find it more trouble to make up and retain the little phrases than it is to just remember the definitions. However, this sort of thing is useful (to me) for tricky definitions. Such as remembering вместО means “instead Of” in Russian, and виестЕ does not (it means “together”).
But it must be pretty good if you are enjoying it. What is especially good about it?
Well, it does indeed revolve around mnemonics, but I don’t even really look at them. I use it just to get a quick organized look at new vocabulary, which is enough for me to remember words. There are frequency lists and a variety of other glossaries ready-made that you can use or you can make your own lists. I use it pretty much like Anki, but it has a much nicer interface, and many of the words and expressions have user-recorded accompanying audio. It also has a user forum. Like in Duolingo, you accumulate points by studying and getting the words right, so there’s a leaderboard where you can see how how you stand against other users who signed up at the same time as you did, which adds a fun competition factor, if you’re into that kind of thing. I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit, and it’s been helping me with my reading here at lingq.
I am using it right now for Chinese (beginner) and it is great. Key points are:
- The feedback is pitched to make you feel successful without too much effort.
- You do not really need to make up mnemonics, in early stages anyway most are pre-made for you
- You do not need to be concentrating too hard to use it. Good for me who is basically either working or surrounded by toddlers.
I also really like the timer on the flashcards, something I wish LingQ had.
Enjoying it myself. Lovely looking website which I’m going to use to try and crack some elusive new vocabulary.
Had a laugh earlier going through the Top 5000 Word frequency list in German, and die Floetenstunde (Flute Lesson) came up around 15th!
That’s a lotta flutin’!
I’m glad you guys are enjoying it. I’ve been using it on a daily basis for over a month, and my profile tells me I learned 2,550 words so far. If you guys want to add me as a mempal, my nick over there is postalblue.
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Just to add…
I think memrise is not a replacement for LingQ by any means. While LingQ is a true whole-language approach and really shines in terms of portability, memrise has the edge in terms of making the activity user-friendly, fun, motivating, and emphasising teeny tiny baby steps. It also has interesting crowd sourcing techniques. I encourage anyone to go and try a totally new language on it.
It’s certainly not a substitute for anything, except flash cards and SRS systems in general because that’s what it is. I use it basically as a quick way to gain exposure to new vocabulary. I use it daily along with lingq and my Assimil course.
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I am also using Mandarin Reading Survival - by BenWhately - Memrise
It would be a lot of fun, if someone created a LingQ Beginner’s companion course, using just those 249 words.
I believe the great thing about memrise is that the flashcarding is much more motivating than at LingQ. In the end, however, the most useful thing I discovered through memrise is that I do not need the phrase part of the flashcard. I used to be insistent on it. But I now see that to sustain interest in flash cards means to do them at a fast pace. This rendered reading the phrase useless 99% of the time.
I have now returned to Anki to get the timer aspect missing at LingQ. (memrise’s uploading function does not seem to work) Anki requires a bit of patience if you encounter difficulties. The documentation seems to be written by geeks, for geeks. But I am getting used to it.
I’ve been using Memrise as well. I would compare the site to iknow.jp but with user created mnemonics (ie, the crowdsourcing aspect). I used iknow.jp back when it was called smart.fm. While I don’t dislike LingQ’s flashcard system, it isn’t as enjoyable as Memrise or iknow. Both of those systems make flashcarding more enjoyable by mixing up the testing methods and timing you. So it ends up feeling more like a game. I think it would be great if LingQ further developed its flashcard system to do something along those lines. One advantage that LingQ’s flashcard system has over those other sites is that it is tailored specifically to the user. The flashcards I encounter are only the words I am interested in learning, I’ve created LingQs for them afterall.
I will say that one thing these flashcard systems seem to do well that isn’t replicated in any way with LingQ is teaching alphabets and the like for those just beginning to learn the language. I learned the Japanese syllabaries hiragana and katakana by using smart.fm and I’m using Memrise right now to learn Korean Hangul.
Memrise is probably the best flashcard system I’ve used, because it’s thorough in making sure that you remember the words. You go through various tests (selection, dictation, etc). The less you recall a word, the more exposure you’ll get to it. That’s basically it, though. No context. It won’t help you much with picking up actual speech or understanding sentences. Only recognizing isolated words here and there. And with Russian, this is even more limited, considering the vast amount of inflections that aren’t included on Memrise.
The reality is that LingQ already offers what Memrise does: Multiple Selection, Dictation, etc. The only difference is that LingQ relies on your own motivation and organizational skills to practice the words you ought to, skip the ones you know well, and so on. Even then, I subscribe to daily LingQs (100 in my case), which makes sure that I’m covering words regardless of whether I’m actively trying.
Where Memrise is no comparison to LingQ is in 1) both learning and enjoying naturalistic context within your target language (both in reading and listening), and 2) the vast amount of words; Memrise relies on an author to set up a limited amount of words for you to learn from, while LingQ’s list of vocabulary grows naturally every day.
So I only use Memrise when I want to learn words and nothing else. And that’s about two or three times a week; it gets tiring to do it everyday. Otherwise, I try to focus on context, which is usually a more effective learning method than learning words in a vacuum. Of course, both methods have their place. But I can’t imagine getting very far in a language relying solely on flashcards. Nor would it be enjoyable.
I’ve just recently started using Memrise for flashcarding. I’m not new to flashcards , ainki , lingq flashcards ect… I’ve always Avoided them because they were boring…
memrise makes it fun and easy to do. Really not tedious at all. It’s been helping me ALOT with learning vocabulary out of context.
Obviously its not a Lingq replacement. Its just an SRS with a nice little twist to it ( growing plants)…
I need to push my vocab to the next level and just reading and listening using Lingq wasnt enough. And while lingq flashcards work just fine I just dont have the self motivation to use lingq flashcards or ainki… Theres just something about memrise that makes it fun.
just a note: I’m not SRS my own flashcards . I havent looked into uploading anything to memrise yet. HOWEVER I’m using the Courses that have already been uploaded. I’m just studying lists of common korean words. Normally i would be bored out of my mind but memrise has made it quite fun and even after just a week i can feel the improvement in many areas…
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Interesting post keroro. I have heard many times about Memrise but have only just tried it out as a result of reading your post. To be honest, I do not like it. Maybe this is because I do not understand it properly, and probably if I learned more about how to use it, I would find it much more useful.
The problem for me was that it seemed to require so much time and effort to go through the cards. I kept having to move the mouse about the screen, click on things from lists, click ‘next’ (probably there is a shortcut), and - worst of all - type things in. I think this would be fine for lots of people, but I do not like it myself. The way I like to do flashcards is much more suited to Anki and LingQ. I like to spend a very small amount of time on each word so that I can get through huge amounts of vocabulary in a small amount of time. I will explain the reason for this.
I started using Anki at the end of November last year, and until about mid-January, I was learning huge amounts of vocabulary on Anki. I was making my own Anki deck and when I stopped using it in January, I had 1200 words in it, with about 70% at the ‘mature’ stage. The reason I stopped was partly because I started using LingQ, and partly because I found that I was not really learning words in the way that I wanted with Anki. What I found was that when I learned a word with Anki, what I really did was I learned the word in Anki. By that I mean that I was able to produce the word, and understand the word, when I was using Anki. But the moment I came across the word outside of Anki or I wanted to use the word outside of Anki, my mind was a blank. I essentially ended up with three vocabularies: an active vocabulary, a passive vocabulary, and an Anki vocabulary.
Maybe the same thing won’t happen with Memrise. I probably will never know. I also suspect that other people do not have the same problem with Anki that I do, since so many people love it, and use it as one of their main tools for vocabulary learning.
I have just started heavily using Anki again because I do think it is good. I find it much easier to put a word in my passive vocabulary when it is in my Anki vocabulary, and Anki is also great at stopping me from forgetting words that I already know. Also, a lot of vocabulary does leak through from my Anki vocabulary to my passive and active vocabularies, in the same way that words leak through from my passive vocabulary to my active vocabulary.
@colin
No worries if you dont like Memrise. I respect that… To each their own…
My point with my reply in your other thread is that , to me, it sounds like you need more vocab input int he form of massive reading and flashcarding ( reviewing). Doesn’t matter which SRS system you use ( ainki , lingq, smart.fm etc…) . I only suggested memrise because I’m having a good experience with it so far!
What I like about memrise is that its kinda like a mix of a SRS system + writing practice + multiple ways of testing. which In my opinion helps you retain the words faster than just a basic SRS system.
I dont know why the basic process of memrise is slow for you… On average I dont spend more than a Second per word ( except if im typing the word or if its a word i forgot). You dont have to use the mouse at all. Just Use the arrow keys on your keyboard and press enter to go next. The process is just as fast as any other SRS. I like the writing practice it gives you because it allows you to “use” the word in some form of output. I also take this time to practice/ repeat the native recording the accompanies the word ( if there is a native recording but that depends on the deck you use).
Right now I’m using word lists/ words from books created by other people and made into a memrise course… It would be better if i made my own Person deck from the LingQ words that I am learning But I havent taken the time to figure it out and I dont know how easy it would be to transfer over. Ainki might be better suited for that. Or better yet just use the lingq Flashcard system.
Personally I prefer memrise over the other options ( so far). I love the Timer , the writing practice , THE POINTS/RANKING system, crowdsourcing. I also like how easy it is to do with the whole Plant growing analogy. I also like that it sends me emails to remind me to water/harvest my plants and what not. Their system is VERY motivating… As opposed to other flashcard systems that rely on Self motivation to use.
I know exactly what you mean about learning the word in Ainki only. I dont that memrise is any different in that respect. HOWEVER I think this all has to do with your study habits. If you heavily rely on Ainki and do mostly Ainki on a daily basis with a little bit of listening /reading, I dont think that will help you much… I think flashcard/ reviewing is extremely helpful if you do ALOT of listening and ALOT of reading. Just learning words out of context doesnt help me much at all…
After a while of on and off korean studying, I’ve realized that I do ALOT of listening , mediocre reading/ lingqing and almost no reviewing. The Result of that was that I could Hear individual words / korean sounds no problem. The language does not sound foreign to me at all anymore and i can pick out words and repeat sentences BUT i just dont know what they are saying in many circumstance… I started reading more and doing more flashcards reviews and My brain is finally starting to make connections to words I’ve heard hundreds of times but just didnt know what it was.
So while just flashcarding alone doesnt really help much ( like when i first started studying korean in ainki years ago)… Its the combination/ balance of everything…
This is just for me though… i dont expect it to me the same for everyone…
If you dont like memrise , dont use it. its as easy as that =). You have to use what you think works for you/ interests/motivates you.
Thanks for the long reply. I hope it did not seem like I was criticizing Memrise in my earlier post; I was just saying that it does not really fit my strategy.
In fact, your post motivated me to go back and try out Memrise again because I did not realise that I could do it with the keyboard. It is much better with the keyboard than with the mouse. (My problem was actually that my main browser is an old version of Firefox, and the keyboard shortcuts on Memrise don’t appear to work with this old version; I also cannot use LingQ with that browser so I have to use OmniWeb for LingQ and now for Memrise).
I will probably stick with Memrise for a longer time and see if I like it. I am currently enjoying learning some German verbs with prepositions on the website. I doubt I will use Memrise much because, as I said, it does not fit into my learning regime, which includes a lot of flashcarding, but only during the 90 minutes a day that I spend travelling to and from work. For that purpose, Anki is better.
You wrote
“My point with my reply in your other thread is that , to me, it sounds like you need more vocab input int he form of massive reading and flashcarding ( reviewing). Doesn’t matter which SRS system you use ( ainki , lingq, smart.fm etc…) .”
I think you got me mixed up with the other Scotsman Corin_Wright. I thought your post on the other thread was directed at him. I don’t really have any problem with vocab input since my understanding of German, and my vocabulary, are both rapidly expanding, mostly due to activities here at LingQ.
@colin Yeah I might have gotten you and Corin mixed up =). CORIN , COLIN … both of you have long names from the uk… my bad =).
Memrise Use to have a beta Iphone App to use on the Go but they took it out of the app store. As I understand They will be release a new mobile app Next month for Iphone/ Android. I guess look out for that if you want mobility…
I wish memrise had a working app right now. Their website works greats on a mobile browser BUT I much rather have a native app . I’m waiting for their app to release… That way I wont have to be at the computer soo much anymore!!!
good luck…
The app sounds exiting. I doubt it will beat the excellent LingQ app.
Anyway, I should stop reading forums and get back to LingQing. My plan is to get past 10,000 words known by the end of the day. I am currently on 9550. My aim is to get onto the activity score Ranking top 15 scoreboard by the end of the month and then to stay there for a few months. LingQ definitely has a lot of motivational tools too.
The Android application is finally out!
I doubt it will beat the excellent LingQ app
In my opinion, it certainly did.
I have recently started using Memrise for Russian. It is alright, but I am not sure I like all the messing around with typing, selecting things from lists, and whatnot. I think I prefer the simpler and faster Anki. The iOS app for Memrise is good.