Mini Review: Memrise

Memrise: a language-learning app built on a foundation of psychology-backed memorization strategies; offers courses in 34 languages, including popular choices as well as more rare options like Welsh, Thai, and Yoruba

• Slay: brain-stimulating UX with engaging colors, sound effects, and animations

• Slay: optimized for both mobile and desktop

• Slay: includes video of a native speaker with each new word/phrase/sentence so that you can hear correct pronunciation, watch mouth shapes, and match vocab to gestures

• Slay: keeps track of the words you have learned and places them in a spaced repetition system (SRS), a proven language-learning tool

• Slay: The Sentence Builder tool is hugely helpful, a standout feature from other apps I've tried; I'm not an AI proponent, but this AI tool (and the other five) allows you to have a guided conversation in a low-pressure environment while using words you've already learned.

• Slay: The Word Nuggets feature within Memrise Labs (which you can find on your dashboard), though still in its beta stage, provides interesting fun facts, etymology, and common colloquialisms tied to the vocab words/sentences you've saved.

• Slay: On the main website (not within the app/learning platform), you can access extensive phrasebooks in each language Memrise offers that act as a quick lookup dictionary if you want a specific phrase

• Slay: If Memrise doesn't offer an official course in your chosen language, the platform offers a unique opportunity for users to create their own courses that are free to use, not only for languages but also for a range of subjects including humanities, math and science, history and geography, standardized testing, etc. Just be aware that these courses are not fully vetted by Memrise and may not be completely reliable.

  
  

  (Note - The following cons are pulled from BullishLang's and Vikash Gupta's Memrise reviews as they offer more depth of experience and context around the app than I have been able to incorporate yet. Explore their pieces if you want a thorough analysis of the platform.)

  
  

• Nay: As with most apps, emphasis is placed on beginner and intermediate learners; advanced learners may not find much to take from Memrise.

• Nay: Because it's based on an SRS system, you may find the consistent repetition under-stimulating.

• Nay: Some of Memrise's features, lessons, and activities are behind a paywall that can add up, in addition to going ad-free.

• Nay: According to Gupta, the app has not gone through many updates since its creation in the early 2010s, including some promised optimizations that were not delivered.

Recommendation:

• You can explore much of the course with the free version and you may find you don't need the paid version, depending on how in-depth you want to go.