Memrise review: learn a new language, take a math refresh course, or reinvigorate your vocabulary through addictive mems

Irrespective of where it is we call home, irrespective of our background, our education, our experience and knowledge, all of us are looking to learn something new. The more productive that new skill is, the better. Say, you want to learn Chinese, because your company is thinking of expanding its operations there, or you're just genuinely interested in the culture. Perhaps you're looking for a math refresh, or simply want to reinvigorate your vocabulary or prepare for the SAT's. Trouble is, it's darn hard. It's also quite expensive sometimes, not to mention time-consuming and even boring at times. This has given rise to crowd-sourced projects that employ different methodologies to deliver content to you for free and in a compelling format. Memrise, the app which we'll be reviewing for you today, does exactly that.
But there are downsides to the crowd-sourced model, and those show in some courses which aren't as well made. Due to the open nature of course creation, it's not at all surprising that while the content is varied, the overall level of quality is also lower. This isn't to say that there aren't great courses, though -- some authors take the time to include audio (for example, words' pronunciation) and even animated GIFs in their courses as to better aid visual recognition. That was pretty helpful when we started learning Chinese, which looks completely alien to us.
Of course, relying solely on Memrise to learn is almost never a smart strategy. In our experience, Memrise's true value is in its feasibility for on-the-go learning, when complementing a wider effort. There's no schedule (that you can't ignore) -- it's entirely up to you. That can be a bad thing for some, but for others the experience is liberating, as they get to learn and practice on their own pace. In conclusion, if the topic of self-improvement at all strikes a chord with you, then you should at the very least see what Memrise has to offer. The effort will be more than rewarding in the longer term -- after all, flinging angry fowl never helped nobody.
Pros
- Great variety in topics
- Mnemonic learning approach helps with retaining new information
- There are audio pronunciation files in some courses
- Can save courses for offline reading
Cons
- Not all topics are very well made
- Some subjects lack depth
Developer: Memrise | Download: Android, iOS |
Genre: Education | Price: Free |