Memrise Review: Learn English Online

Memrise introduces new language and then quizzes you. There are audio and written parts and even video lessons. You then need to do a multiple choice quiz, listen and choose the correct answer or make the sentence yourself like in the example above.

At the beginning of the lesson, you can see the words that you are going to learn. You can then decide if these words are new for you or if you want to skip that lesson and do something more advanced. 

How much does Memrise cost?

Memrise uses a freemium model. This means that some parts of Memrise are free and others, you need to pay for.

Most of the content and lessons are free so you can study and learn a lot of vocabulary in English for free. The pro content you need to pay for and it is $9 per month,$39 a year(if you sign up in the first week) or $120 for life.

Memrise Pro includes extra features including difficult words practice and statistics on your learning. It is not necessary for most learners. 

The Benefits of Memrise

Learning in chunks

Words do not exist alone. When you are learning English, you need to understand how a word works in a sentence. At beginner levels, you only learn words but as you go through the courses you start to learn language chunks. This means that you learn a few phrases. This is important because we often use set phrases in certain situations. An example of this would be the greeting “How’s it going?” You don’t need to know what all the words in that sentence mean but you do need to know the mean.   

Some interesting ways of remembering words

Memrise uses flashcards and you can listen to the audio and sometimes see a video of a native speaker speaking the word. I love the videos but there are not that many of them. They also have mems which is like a mnemonic. This is a way to remember something by visualizing it or finding some associations. I couldn’t find many of these mems while I was researching this article. 

The Problems of Memrise

No speaking practice

Speaking English is the most important skill that you need to practice when you are learning English. Unfortunately, there is no opportunity to practice your speaking skills. This is such an essential part of learning English as using an app for 100 hours will not allow you to speak to native speakers when you go to an English speaking country.

Memorizing words is not learning a language

You can learn 1 million words in English but that is different from actually being able to use English. Learning vocabulary is just one part of learning a language. It is not a memory test to speak English. There are specific times when you should think about improving your vocabulary(at beginner and upper-intermediate levels) but the best way to improve your vocabulary is actually using it in a real situation. That is how we remember words. I will never forget the word “llave”(key in Spanish) because of the time I lost my key in Barcelona! There was an emotional connection with that word. 

Memorization tactics try to simulate real situations, Why not have real practice??? 

Is Memrise worth it? Is it good?

Memrise is a good platform for learning vocabulary and I like that the vocabulary is informal and the language we use when we speak English. I would only recommend it for complete beginners to learn basic phrases. If you are A1 level or above and I guess you are because you are reading this, then you need to be practicing the skills of English. This is why I recommend Cambly for speaking/Listening English and Espresso English courses for everything else.