Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
I grew up trilingual, speaking Arabic natively, French almost natively, and English from the age of eight. I was quite happy with this versatile knowledge until I met my husband and he also started teaching me basic Spanish. I spent a few months parsing Spanish organically – it’s relatively easy if you already speak French and someone explains the basic rules to you. I then completed Duolingo to (supposedly) take my language learning to the next level. I’ve tried the app after trial, but the bottom line is unequivocal: Duolingo doesn’t work for me. So I moved my language learning to Memrise and I have nothing but positive things to say about it.
Why Duolingo’s methods failed me
Duolingo’s boring, useless repetitions annoyed me. I swear, I learned that “mujer” means woman. Duolingo doesn’t care. The gamification-oriented system wants me to come back every day and repeat the same exercises over and over until I reach a new level. Only then can I unlock more lessons.
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Duolingo’s learning path also focuses on meaningless sentences that I will never use. Things like “cats drink milk” or “monkeys eat an apple”. When would I say that? (It’s worth noting that I’ve only tried a few Duolingo courses, namely French-Spanish, English-Spanish, English-German, and French-Italian, so things may be different with other language combinations.)
Duolingo was hell-bent on teaching me useless sentences about cats and apples.
Despite the boredom and lack of motivation I felt, I kept coming back to Duolingo and gave it my best shot. I failed many times. Until I decided to see what other language learning apps were out there.
Memrise’s approach to language learning is different
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
After a few misses, I landed on Memrise, watching a course in English and German while shrugging my shoulders and thinking, “Well, how bad can it be?”
Not bad. Not at all. Actually, surprisingly excellent. After 10 minutes I had learned a few words and was watching a video trying to pick those words out in the middle of a conversation. The next day I went back for a second session, then the next day, and the next.
In less than a week I had a very basic knowledge of German.
In less than a week and with only 15 to 20 minutes a day, I had a (very) general understanding of the German language – something I never felt after countless hours on Duolingo. Now I’m still using Memrise and I’m almost done with the first German course. I also started learning some Italian because why the hell not.
The first thing I noticed about Memrise was the “I already know this” button when entering new words. Tap it and the app will assume it’s a known word and skip it (unless you’re browsing). Plus, at any point you can mark words as familiar or difficult, then choose to review the words you’ve learned or continue learning new ones, progressing at your own pace. No more pointless repetition.
To combat boredom, Memrise uses fewer repetitions, native videos, adaptive learning, and multiple testing methods.
The second thing that struck me is how Memrise teaches you words and expressions. It uses matching games, writing challenges and pronunciation tests. The best parts are the short videos of locals speaking words in addition to the synthesized speech voice, and boy is there a difference between the two. Natives speak faster, more fluently and skip or mix some letters together, while robotic pronunciation is slower and more articulate. I’m learning how to really speak German, which is infinitely more useful when I’m trying to understand a real human being.
Memrise also provides a literal word-for-word translation for each expression. For example, many of us know that “Gesundheit” means “bless you,” but did you know that the literal translation is “health?” Literally, “es ist leider nichts mehr frei” translates to “unfortunately it is not -vacant’, but is used to convey that the seat is fully occupied. Take the time to check these literal translations as you learn expressions, and you’ll quickly expand your vocabulary and grammar without even realizing it.
More options: The best German learning apps for Android
Even better, the courses focus first on tourist-friendly phrases like “what’s the Wi-Fi password” and “where are you from?” instead of ducks eating apples. There are also grammar rules and tutorials that helped me figure out sentence structure from the get-go instead of guessing over time.
The additional feature that sets it apart
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
The one feature that made me fall in love with Memrise is the fascinating video section. Unfortunately, it’s not available in all languages, but when it is, it makes all the difference in the world. In it, you watch short 10- to 15-second TikTok-style videos where local people have a fake conversation with themselves (but dressed differently). It’s a bit hard to explain, but the amateur play, the props and the situations; it’s all cute and funny. You don’t have to understand everything, but you should catch if a character should go left or right, if they like sushi or pizza, if they’re local or from the US, etc.
Memrise’s super fun TikTok-style immersion videos boosted my confidence in the words I had learned.
The app relies on your understanding of context and your ability to pick up words you’ve already learned. And it works beautifully. Even from the first video, I was able to grasp the situation and answer correctly, even though I only knew a few words at the time.
As I said, this immersion mode is available from English to German, but I haven’t seen it in several other courses. It’s a shame because it really makes the app infinitely more fun and useful.
After a month I traveled to Berlin and was amazed at how much German I understood.
After less than a month of using Memrise for 10 to 15 minutes a day, I traveled to Berlin and was amazed at how much atmospheric German I understood. Obviously, I wasn’t fluent in the language, but I could pick up on the general meaning of the conversations, messages, and advertisements all around me. I was in Cologne last year and didn’t hear a single word but “bitte” and “guten morgen”, so I can fully credit Memrise for all this improvement.
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A few missing features
However, like any app, it’s not perfect. It took me a while to figure out how to skip reviews to learn more words or how to see the list of words and expressions I’ve already learned. The lack of a search function also annoys me. I’d like to search for “noch” and see all the expressions it appears in, for example. I also noticed that some languages don’t get the royal treatment like the English-German course — they have fewer local videos and no fun TikTok-style quizzes.
But luckily, the service is free for as long as you want, so you can test it out and see if the language combination you’re interested in offers everything you need. The pro subscription unlocks offline mode, an option to review difficult words, and several other extras; it’s a great addition, but by no means essential.
Have you used a free language learning app?
185 votes
Yes, Duolingo.
78%
Yes, Memris.
7%
Yes, another app. Tell us in the comments.
3%
No, but I’m considering them.
10%
No, and I don’t think I’ll be using it anytime soon.
3%
But is Memrise enough to master a language?
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
Perfection aside, Memrise totally won me over, which is why I’m writing this article and sharing my experience with you. The app is often overshadowed by its huge competitor, but I think it deserves recognition for its different methods and fun approach.
But is it enough?
Honestly, if you’re serious about a language, I don’t think Memrise is enough on its own. You will need a diverse mix of learning methods such as videos, podcasts, grammar lessons and interactions with native speakers. In this context, Memrise can be an additional tool in your belt.
The ROI with Memrise is incredibly high, unlike Duolingo.
But if you want to quickly grasp the essentials of a language either for a short trip or out of sheer curiosity, then this should definitely be your app. The return on investment, i.e. the number of useful words and language concepts you learn in a short period of time is incredibly high and leaves Duolingo in the dust.
Another Opinion: Do Free Language Learning Apps Really Work?
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