Memrise

[Balthazar]

Like many other people, I too started out with Memrise. This was at the time when I was still not sure whether or not learning Chinese was really something I could manage, and at that stage the spoon-feeding was most welcome in that I didn't really need to set up a "system" of my own, it was all there (and I thought some of the mnemonics were pretty cool). So I stuck with it for perhaps a month or two (actually until I discovered this forum and realized that there were more suitable tools out there), but once I got more serious about learning I quickly stopped using it.

 

The lack of offline accessibility was the biggest issue for me (I had just moved to Hong Kong, and didn't have internet access on my phone). I felt I picked up words much faster with Anki, and more importantly I could create my own decks based on words encountered in my textbook, and so on. (I know you can create your own decks with Memrise too, but it seemed more of a hassle to me.. Although I never tried it, so I have no real basis for that impression.)

[fabiothebest]

Recently I'm loving pleco a lot, also its flashcard system. Anyway I still use memrise as well I love both I usually memorize characters using memrise on the pc, where I can see characters bigger, then I can review them even just using pleco, offline, anywhere..and I also like that with pleco I can create cards linked to dictionary entries, so they are usually more accurate and complete.

[peas02]

I think Memrise is great, but only for the courses that have lots of moderators (and thus lots of care for changing definitions that are wrong etc.) – the HSK 6 course is just like that. Got audio for each entry and also added synonyms (so if you type a synonym you'll still get a correct answer).

 

So, for beginners and people whom want to learn HSK or TOCFL vocab Memrise is absolutely marvellous. The only thing that bugs me is that when you export flashcard lists from Pleco, you get it in the wrong order, and hence cannot bulk add the vocab for a course on Memrise. This would all be solved if Pleco let you export flashcards to an Excel file...

[chinesenoob]

I loved memrise initially... until i realised the definitions weren't really helpful

 

had about 3 characters in a week which had the meaning "to divine" ... looked them up on pleco and they were all different things meaning "to own" and other stuff

 

there was also one they said mean't "small table" when i looked it up it mean't how many or something like that so i haven't used memrize since but pleco is pretty awesome like others have said 

[Demonic_Duck]

Memrise relies on user-generated content, so it's bound to be 良莠不齐 (of inconsistent quality).

 

The problem you're describing, however, doesn't sound like the meanings provided were incorrect, just that the creator of that flashcard set wanted to use the original meanings of the characters. A modern meaning of “占” is "to occupy" or "to own" (read [zhàn], as in “占有”), but the original meaning was "to divine" (read [zhān], as in “占卜”). Similarly, a modern meaning of “几” is "several" or "how many?" (read [jǐ], as in “几个”), but the original meaning was "small table" (read [jī], as in “茶几”). Bear in mind that in both these cases, those original meanings and readings are still in usage, alongside their more recent meanings.

[chinesenoob]

@DD yeah i did notice those meanings were actually listed on pleco too, just right at the bottom under definition i just realised that memrize wouldn't be that helpful for me to remember meanings if it only displayed 1 meaning...especially when theres multiple "to divine" listings which i'm not even sure makes sense in english

 

now you have explained 几 it seems memrize was quite effective in helping me remember both meanings if i use it alongside pleco... just the divine thing really bugged me as you can tell lol especially having to type in "to divine" or select that in the quizes when i have no idea wtf it is

[Jan Finster]

Memrise is also offering 50% Black Friday discout (you need to create an account to the see the offer).

 

Has anyone used Memrise lately? Is it worth 35€ per year?

[mungouk]

2 hours ago, Jan Finster said:

Is it worth 35€ per year?

 

TLDR: tofulearn is still alive (just) and free, and does it better.

 

I used memrise a lot when I was cramming vocab for HSK2-3 because there were good vocab lists with native-speaker audio — which it turns out use public domain recordings anyway — but the user-generated content (vocab lists) for higher levels had way too many errors. 

 

That was about 2 years ago, so things may have changed since then. But I wouldn't dive into a subscription just because of a limited promotion, without having tried and tested it first.

I just realised I'm not answering your question because I never paid for memrise. I don't see how that would be better than the free version when that version's content was full of mistakes, but I'm happy to be corrected. 

[Jan Finster]

9 minutes ago, mungouk said:

TLDR: tofulearn is still alive (just) and free, and does it better.

 

I used memrise a lot when I was cramming vocab for HSK2-3 because there were good vocab lists with native-speaker audio — which it turns out use public domain recordings anyway — but the user-generated content (vocab lists) for higher levels had way too many errors. 

 

That was about 2 years ago, so things may have changed since then. But I wouldn't dive into a subscription just because of a limited promotion, without having tried and tested it first.

I just realised I'm not answering your question because I never paid for memrise. I don't see how that would be better than the free version when that version content was full of mistakes, but I'm happy to be corrected. 

 

Yes, I love Tofulearn too. I had a quick look at the Chinese collections at Memrise. I think this is useful for beginners and if you want to cram theme-based vocabulary (fruits in Chinese). I basically just want to SRS my personal "word lists" created from texts I read. I am not even sure I can use Memrise for that purpose and I doubt it can do things TofuLearn cannot do.

[mungouk]

Similar situation here. I have my own custom word-lists (typed in from the HSK 5 book in chapter order).

 

I know I want to SRS them in some way with native audio, but just didn't manage to find the time to sit down and work out a sensible workflow with a platform I like. 

 

The backlog is building up (9 out of 36 chapters now, so about 600 words) and becoming more urgent.

 

Maybe it's time to go back and try Anki again... I don't know!  I have a rather fickle habit of switching platforms every 6-12 months...

 

[jannesan]

On 11/27/2020 at 5:03 PM, mungouk said:

I know I want to SRS them in some way with native audio, but just didn't manage to find the time to sit down and work out a sensible workflow with a platform I like. 

 

On 11/27/2020 at 5:03 PM, mungouk said:

Maybe it's time to go back and try Anki again... I don't know!

 

I think Anki is the best choice for you, it is no problem to add audio and autoplay it with Anki.

You can grab native audio from forvo.com and you could even automate this. I did this some time back to create a Dutch deck for someone.

The thing with Anki is, it will cost you more time than something like Pleco, but you have more freedom.

In my opinion it is worth investing the time, you can pick out example sentences that are most meaningful to you and do all kinds of customization.

Also instead of deleting cards that are not relevant anymore you can suspend them and if in the future it becomes relevant again, you can reuse the card.

The phone apps let you write on a whiteboard area, so you can use it also for testing yourself on writing.

 

[Flickserve]

I subscribed and never used it ?

[Asha]

I’ve used several SRS tools for learning Chinese words. I started with Memrise and I was happy with it for a while. Then I came across a less known alternative https://www.hackchinese.com/ and switched to it. What I like about this app is that it doesn’t make me re-learn all of the words from a previous HSK list when I start a new HSK list. Besides, it allows for creating custom vocab lists and provides native-speaker audio.

[fabiothebest]

Nice, thanks. I'll give hackchinese a try.

[大块头]

@Asha @fabiothebest Just out of curiosity, does Memrise (and Hack Chinese) allow you to easily export your user data, or are you locked into a subscription to their platform if you want to keep studying?

[Asha]

As far as I know, there is no option to export your data to another platform. I think this way they keep people using their software.

[fabiothebest]

I didn't try hackchinese yet. About memrise there isn't any official way, but there is a Chrome extension and a anki extension that allows to do it.