Memrise Review

Sunday, October 6th

2024 German Lesson Reviews

Memrise

• Pricing: Starts at $22.99/month, $71.99/year, or $249.99 for a lifetime plan
• Frequent discounts of 50% or more
• Free version available with limited vocabulary lessons, native speaker videos, and speaking practice
• Personalized learning path based on user's goals and progress
• Gamified app with leaderboards for motivation
• Access to the entire lesson and video library regardless of user's level
• Lessons are practical and relevant to real conversations
• "Learn with Locals" videos for understanding native pronunciation
• In-platform YouTube videos for learning German
• Conversations with AI chatbot for practice

Memrise was created by Ed Cooke, a Grandmaster of Memory, and Greg Detre, a neuroscientist who studies memory and forgetting. Together, they built Memrise with the goal of making learning not just effective but also really enjoyable. The platform uses what we know about how memory works to help you learn languages and other subjects faster and remember them for longer. Like several of the websites in our review, Memrise is a gamified app. You can compete on leaderboards against other learners, which is an excellent way to stay motivated.

Free version still lets you do a lot

When you sign up for Memrise to learn German, you get to personalize your learning experience right from the start. You can choose to learn German from a variety of source languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese. Instead of a free trial, Memrise offers both a free version and a Pro version. The free version has limited vocabulary lessons, access to two native speaker videos per day, and two speaking practices per day. It's not ad-free, which can be a bit distracting, but we appreciate that Memrise allows you to filter out lessons that aren't included in the free version so you don't always feel like you're missing out. On the other hand, the Memrise Pro version unlocks all vocabulary lessons, a library of 30,000 native speaker videos, and unlimited speaking practice - all without ads.

Pricing plans

If you're interested in unlocking all the lessons and hiding ads, here's how much you'll pay before discounts:

• Monthly Plan: $22.99
• Annual Plan: $71.99 (Originally $89.99, equates to $6.00/month)
• Lifetime Plan: $249.99 (one-time payment)

Great news for aspiring polyglots: all of Memrise's plans include access to all of their language courses.

Personalized learning path

Memrise's home layout is notably simple and clean, designed to keep you focused and motivated. Right on the home screen, you'll see your weekly progress displayed according to the personal goals you've set, such as building vocabulary (displayed like "x/35 words learned”), practicing listening ("x/5 videos”), or practicing speaking ("x/5 conversations”). Based on your recent activities, Memrise smartly recommends your next activity, adjusting automatically to your pace and progress.

Learn from the whole library

However, if you're feeling adventurous or want to focus on a particular skill, you have the freedom to navigate to the Scenarios tab, the Videos tab, or the Conversations tab. Here, you can choose from the entire lesson and video library without being limited by your current level. Jump around as you like according to your interests. If something is too challenging, Memrise trusts you to make that call for yourself, and there aren't any penalties for not completing a lesson.

Lessons are actually relevant to real conversations

One of the things we love most about Memrise is the practicality of the lessons. We at TopConsumerReviews spent some time in Germany without speaking much German beforehand, and Memrise was the tool we utilized to quickly learn the vocabulary and phrases relevant to our new situation. For instance, in German, there are two ways to address someone: formally or informally (for example, "Sie” vs "Du"). When meeting someone your own age, it's typical to use "Du”. But if it's someone older or in a professional or educational setting, you use "Sie”. You might start out addressing someone with "Sie”, and then they might tell you it's okay to use "Du”. There are a few ways to transition in conversation, which you'll find in the "Formal Introductions” lesson. Examples include: "Wollen wir uns duzen?”, "Ist du okay?”, "Sie können mich duzen”. If you're looking for a specific topic, you can use the search bar at the top right to bring up related lessons. Just make sure to use English search terms - typing "siezen” or "duzen” will yield no results, but "formal and informal” will.

Understand native pronunciation with "Learn with Locals” videos

Another much-loved Memrise feature is its "Learn with Locals” videos. These are short clips integrated into the lessons where German speakers demonstrate the phrases you're learning in their own environments. For example, you might see a local ordering a pretzel at a bustling bakery in Berlin or asking for directions to the nearest U-Bahn station. These videos not only allow you to tune your ear to natural pronunciation, but they also give you a glimpse of everyday German life, bolstering your cultural understanding and making the language learning process more engaging and exciting.

Watch YouTube videos in-platform to learn German

The "Videos" tab is a recent addition to Memrise's features. It includes a mix of videos from the internet and those created by Memrise. Initially, you'll start with short skits made by Memrise, which use the vocabulary you've practiced in the Scenarios. As you progress, you'll be suggested more challenging videos, such as German music videos, well-known commercials (the Christmas ad from Edeka had us bawling at our desks), street interviews, and news segments. Before you watch a video, you can see what percentage of the vocabulary you're already familiar with. To review the vocabulary used in each video, you can click on the "learn words" button below the videos.

No-stress German conversations with AI chatbot

The best way to solidify what you're learning is to use it in conversation, and early on. Memrise understands how daunting that feels to new language learners, so they have a solution: converse with their GPT-3 powered chatbot. You don't even have to pick the subject - there are lots of topics to choose from based on the lessons you're learning, like "Dogs are the best”, where your goal is to convince your imaginary colleague why dogs are better than cats.

No offline downloads

Some long-time users of Memrise (including us) are unhappy about some changes happening lately. For one, they took away the option to download lessons for offline use. This was really useful for people who like to learn on their phones when they don't have internet, like during a commute.

Community Courses have been phased out

Another thing people are upset about is that Memrise got rid of Community Courses early in 2024. Before, users could make their own language courses, with everything from conlangs to endangered or ancient languages. For example, one person was learning Welsh and found the whole curriculum from a government course, painstakingly uploaded by another user onto the app, which was really helpful in combination with Memrise's spaced repetition methods for practice. Another person used Memrise to learn Bengali, her late husband's language, and she can't find it on any other app. Why are Community Courses being done away with? In a Reddit post, the CEO said, "Each of these courses is really important to a few of you. None of these courses are important to all of you or the broader public, as confirmed by Google. As a result, from an SEO standpoint, this entire community exerts a tremendous downward force on our rankings.” We have to wonder if the number of long-time Memrise users who say they are canceling their subscriptions will change his mind.

Tried and true

Despite these changes, we still really like Memrise for its German lessons. We put them to the test ourselves, and it was an invaluable tool for keeping our heads above water in a fully German-speaking environment. For these reasons, we give Memrise a very high rating.