Learning a New Language

In the event that foreign language study is not already part of your everyday daily lessons, I'd like to introduce you to a new website.  Memrise is a web-based program that makes learning another language kind of fun.

At Memrise, they use a quiz-based approach to help reinforce vocabulary words of the language you choose to study.  Some of the languages they offer include: Mandarin Chinese, French, Spanish, and Italian.

Each lesson is broken in to a small set of words for you to learn with the assistance of audio clips, short videos, an English explanation, and clever mneumonics or "mems".  A mem is anything that helps you learn a new connection between a word and its meaning. In Memrise, mems can be text or graphics.

For many of the vocabulary words taught, you will notice there are multiple audio clips.  Some of them are in a woman's voice, man's voice, and a slowed down voice.  Again, this helps your ear pick out the exact pronunciation.

Another interesting feature of Memrise is their garden analogy to help facilitate the learning process.  As you learn new words, you begin growing a Memrise garden.

Phase 1: Learn new words by planting seeds
To first learn words on Memrise, you plant seeds (new words) in your Greenhouse (short-term memory). This is the where your memories are at their most delicate and require the most love and attention. During this early phase, you are tested and reminded of the words frequently, so they get a secure root-hold in your brain.

Phase 2: Harvest: Transfer words to long term memory
Once your Greenhouse plants are fully-sprouted (well established in short-term memory) you’ll see a count-down timer begin on each plant, which will indicate a period of four hours during which the memory must mature by itself before it is ready for long term memory.

Phase 3: Reviewing long-term memories = watering your garden
Once a word is in your Garden (long term memory), it requires less attention than when it was in your Greenhouse, but you will still need to “water” it periodically. Watering is refreshing and strengthening memories, which one does by means of Memrise’s carefully calibrated tests and reminders.

The Memrise website is 100% free.  The program was founded in Cambridge, MA, by Greg Detre, a PhD neuroscientist from Princeton, and Ed Cooke, a Grandmaster of Memory.  The Memrise team combines science and fun to assist people in the learning process. 

Memrise is definitely a cool foreign language learning tool that is worth checking out.