Memrise

First I want to talk about an app, that taught me hundreds of words when I was trying to learn Japanese, helped me pass exams and in the end graduate university successfully.

It is called “Memrise” and you can use it on your laptop or smartphone. First, you need to create an account and enter your native language. Then you click on “Courses” and select a language you would like to learn. Some of the courses were created by the team of Memrise and some of them by other users of the app.

I know just the English and Japanese sections. Concerning Japanese, my classmates and I just put in the vocabulary and other things we had to learn by heart, so it would be easier for us to prepare for an exam. Regarding the English section, the options are endless. You can learn vocabulary from a certain level (A1-C2), from various textbooks, topics (food, travelling, business, phrasal verbs, irregular verbs,...) or to prepare for specific English proficiency exams (FCE, CAE, TOEIC,...) and so on.

If you don’t want to study a language, there are also other possibilities, such as literature, maths, science, history, etc. or just general memory training.

When you click on a course, you will see all the levels included. The levels are represented by pots, in which you will start to grow your knowledge.

Course -> Level 1 -> Learn these words

They will introduce the vocabulary first. Then you will practise by reading, listening and writing (in some cases also speaking I guess). If you want to practise the pronunciation more, you can always repeat the word aloud.

The button “help me remember this” sometimes provides some kind of strategy, how to remember a certain word.

Then you will slowly plant and grow each new word in your mind. You can come back any time and revise.

Especially if you are a beginner or your language level is quite low, always choose a course that includes an audio file with pronunciation.

It might seem complicated described like this, but believe me, it is in fact pretty intuitive.

When you become more familiar with the app, you can also create your own courses and packages with vocabulary, that will be personalised.

This is how you see your profile with all your courses (you need to scroll down) and words learned. Mine says: learning 27 courses with 8642 words learned. I don’t know how this insane number happened.

I don’t know what else to say.
Go and try it!