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Memrise Learning Game

Along the same line of learning as Anki are a few webapps like Memrise. The Memrise aspect uses additional memorization techniques like adding motion and pictures to help humans more easily recall these facts. It adds a game-like feel to the quizzes, point counting and different levels. Each of these adds to the feeling of accomplishment and success. I’ve enjoyed using 100% free Memrise the last few weeks. I try to login every morning and plan to spend about 30 minutes going over the courses I’m doing.

Languages seem to be the main use for these tools, though other courses of study like country capitals and math are included. I recently read somewhere that knowing the main 1000-1500 words in a language is the first step towards learning it. This has not been the way that languages are taught historically, since convincing people to spend 2 months memorizing 1000 words usually doesn’t work. As I try to learn a new language, I tend to agree that having a larger working vocabulary, even without proper grammar, is vital.

Memrise feels like a game. There are points. There are levels. There is a strong sense of accomplishment. I know when an answer is wrong. So far, I haven’t come across programming errors that would make the use frustrating at all. The techniques used to help solidify the knowledge seem to be ideal. A few ideas are introduced, then quizzed. A few more ideas are added, then quizzed. The quizzes work forwards and backwards, then, eventually, require fill in the blank answers. This is where it becomes harder for me. I almost always get all the new concepts correct, except 1. There is no cheating or good enough. Either the answer is correct or it isn’t. Finishing the lesson for the day is my reward.

Memrise understands that learning takes time. They know the difference between short-term memory and long term memory. The game uses that knowledge by spacing out the concepts to be learned over time in an efficient manner. I’m just getting started, so I can’t say whether this spacing of the quizzes is optimal for myself or not, but I suspect it is.

An article that quickly explains Memrise from a Japanese learning website. Don’t worry, the article is English.

Other Language Learning Methods

I’ve gone through the typical language learning methods.

• 3 years of high school German
• 2 weeks of in-country, 4-hours a day intensive Spanish training
• Rosetta Stone-like software
• Watching Spanish movies and TV shows
• Anki memorization

All of these methods have their own issues. However, with this background in trying to learn languages, I tend to believe that grammar is a secondary level of learning and that recognizing words during conversation really is the most useful aspect of formal training in a language. Learning the most commonly used words CAN drastically improve understanding for common conversations, even if we aren’t ready to speak in complete sentences ourselves. At least with a 1000 word understanding, we have a chance to follow the meaning of common conversations. Learning this vocabulary can be done on your own.

I’m hardly an expert on languages and I struggle to put words together in a foreign language just like most other people. When traveling with friends, usually one of us becomes a little more familiar with the local language, but that really shouldn’t be too much of a worry in most places around the world, since many times an English speaker will be around any tourist places. Outside tourism areas, the challenges can be greater, but humans are smart beings. We can figure out how to communicate with others fairly quickly. This surprised me, but it does work. In many places of the world, it is common for locals to speak many different languages from each other, yet they are able to communicate well enough for commerce. Clearly, this level of communication is not sufficient for complex ideas, but when you want to order food, you’ll be just fine.

Android Memrise App

A quick search this morning found an Android app for Memrise currently in beta and free. I haven’t tried it, but doing my daily studying from bed would be nice. The app is not tied into Memrise and does not keep the completion data synched. Too bad. I’d love if it worked disconnected too. Update seems that the Memrise API has been removed, so the Android app is broken as of 11/14/2012. Perhaps the Memrise folks are working on a iOS and Android app themselves? We can only hope.

Other Apps

There are other webapps to help learning languages. Please drop your favorites into the comments along with why you like the app.

Time Well Spent

So the next time you are bored, consider signing into Memrise or using Anki to learn something interesting and useful rather than always playing Angry Birds or some other mindless game for a few hours. It has been amazing what 30 minutes a session has taught me already. There will be plenty of time for other games later.