So I’m trying to find applications that will suit me for kanji (mainly wanikani), vocab, listening/speaking and grammar. And today I tried Memrise, and so far I think I will really enjoy it. Does anyone here use memrise, and how was your experience with it? What will be most beneficial when going through the courses, is it mainly for vocabulary or will you pick up on other areas as well?
One thing I don’t like though, is that you have to input romaji when you answer a sentence or a word that is shown in Japanese, is there any way to go around this (except using Japanese IME) since I want to distance myself from romaji all together.
A large amount of people here use Memrise and most seem to think positive of it. You do have to use an IME to input Japanese but if you are a learner then you should have one on your system anyway, it’s not exactly hard to put on (unless you are on work machines, in which case you have to suffer).
Personally I go on and off Memrise. I really like the system but if it just had an api I would be far more inclined to use it. I need reminders in places I’ll see them, just putting it on the website is useless.
Also the pro features are pretty rubbish and really not needed.
I use memrise as a supplement to the Genki I textbook. On memrise i just started the Genki I vocab course, and I do them every now and then (admittedly, I am not as commited to memrise as wanikani), but it seriously helps a lot when i go to study grammar, because by that time I already know all the vocab in the Genki textbook. Its great!
That’s how I personally use it, so maybe it might help
Yeah I got the IME covered, downloaded one as soon as I started practicing. I’m still not 100% used to it, but I’m getting there. The reason I asked is because most of the answers are timed based, and it takes me longer to input a word with the IME and using it on my phone wouldn’t work (Not sure if there is an app for memrise, but it seems from your post there isn’t?)
I guess you mean that you want the words etc in context, like the words are shown here on wanikani? Also are there several aspects to learn from memrise, or is it manily focused on vocab?
I have a ton of applications that I use, and It’s hard to space the study out along with mixing them up so you are not studying one thing all the time. I’m thinking about making a post later on to see how people plan their work into studying a bit of everything but at the same time keeping consistency, that’s my biggest issue at the moment.
I actually started using it myself just yesterday! I like it a lot, especially the option to create your own courses. Right now I’m making one with random words I’ve encountered while reading. I personally don’t think it has much use other than learning vocabulary, but I might be wrong since I’ve only used it a very short while.
There is an app. I’m not a huge fan of it though but it’s better than nothing.
As for an IME, when you get used to them they shouldn’t take any longer. Learn hotkeys to quickly move between input methods and everything will work well. You’ll need to get used to it at some stage so you might as well do it now with Memrise.
An api is a computer term. Put simply, it allows you to gain access to different features and information from a piece of software. So if Memrise had one, it may allow me to get information on my own account and review times which I could then use somewhere else (such as putting that information on my desktop). Wanikani has an api that allows you to get all that information and more, which is how many of the third party apps work.
Yeah i guess you are right, better to start getting used to it for real. Earlier is probably better than later too
Ah I see! Yea I am using some of the apps on here and they are great! I can see what you mean with having additional information, but without the community making stuff like here on wanikani I wouldn’t be able to use it anyway.
Memrise is mostly good for vocab, though it can teach just about anything. It is even a competitor to Wanikani since it teaches Kanji as well, which it doesn’t decently enough but Wanikani is far better for it.
I’d suggest just go look through the courses on it, the Memrise community has made most of them so you’ll find a large variety of topics. Personally I like to find courses that specialize on one aspect, then by learning that I can do readings and practice based on it. That’s just me though, find your own way.
That depends on your course. Most of them are from users, so some want Romaji as input, others Kana or Kanji. I don’t think there is a way to change that for an individual course, but you have a large variety of courses to try out.
I don’t think you are. What I meant was that for example the word: Hello is listed and when I shall type it, it will input as romaji Konnichiha instead of こんにちは that I want. Same goes for a japanese word that is listed, it will only use romaji. On here for example the romaji will be converted automatically to Japanese. But Its great to hear that some courses will need kana or kanji input as well, but for now I will use the IME.
The reason I ask is because I’m not that familiar with the IME yet, especially when it comes to writing words with kanji in them (If you write a word with a kanji, you will have to choose the correct one in the list, and that is mostly what I’m not used to yet).
You will have to become familiar with the IME. What I meant is that some courses might accept answers submitted in pure Romaji (I’d stay away from those)
Unlike WaniKani, Memrise has no auto-conversion that I’m aware of.
Ah I see! Ye I will surely not use any courses where the answer needs to be in pure romaji. I was just a bit spoiled from the auto-convert here on wanikani, but like previous posters (and you) have said, It’s better to just dive into the IME and start getting familar with it! Memrise will be a good time for me to use it everyday
So if I review on my laptop it asks for the kanji and I have my IME active and choose the right kanji, no romaji for this course. They also have a version of the same course where you can learn the words in kana only.
i started messing with renshuu recently and find myself liking it a fair bit. the more curated lessons along with options to use user made ones is nice and the ‘paid’ version isn’t terribly priced considering. also the first time i’ve been tested on onyomi and kunyomi readings…surprised how much of that i’ve absorbed via wanikani without realizing it.
Unless you’re IT, then you get to do whatever the heck you wanna to your own machines!
ULTIMATE POWER!!
Related to the actual topic: I use Memrise for kanji/vocab supplementation because it’s a heckuva lot easier to go through a few words a night to blast through WK levels rather than struggle and constantly be resetting to apprentice.
I’m a big fan of Memrise over Anki now, even after having given up on Memrise in the past. The “interaction” that Memrise provides in learning each word leads to me absorbing it far better, as opposed to just staring at the word in Anki. This is the course I’m currently going through. I like that each level contains ten words and that each word has audio, and so far it’s all pretty much nothing but common words.
I do like anki, and it was the tool I used to learn Hiragana and Katakana, but you do need a lot more knowledge about the program in order to use it efficiently (at least in my experience) which takes time that I rather spend on actually studying Japanese. Even though I use Anki when I’m on the go I think that I will have a more enjoyable time with Memrise from what I can tell so far.
I’m trying out the memrise own courses at the moment, and having real Japanese people poping up to say the word in a context where it makes sense was instantly a yay for me, I do agree that the “interraction” that can be provided in many of the lessons are a huge plus for me too. I also enjoy that you can check the answer if you are not sure, and then are forced to write the answer while It’s showed in the box and all that accompanied by audio. I guess lessons are structured in very different ways, and while Anki has some really great lessons that I have downloaded too, I’m a bit more fond of memrise already.
Might be because I don’t have the energy to learn more about anki and create my own decks the way I want them, and even then it feels like anki is a bit more lacking when it comes to the “interaction” part that you were talking about with memrise (Which I have seen in many of the courses that I have tried so far).
Well I’m totally rambling now, I’m glad I checked it out and will try it out for a longer time for sure and see how it goes from there. It’s so tough to find resources that you think works for you when you are at this level, since you are kinda lost as it is already, and you are scared that you won’t learn anything efficiently.
Also thanks for sharing that course! It looks really amazing!
I do the same but then I move it on to Renshuu which is like mixing Genki, Memrise and Wanikani together. My only problem is finding the time as Rrenshuu tends to come last in priority, although it’s actually far better than Memrise. Memrise is good for the initial learning so comes first purely for that reason.
When I first tried it, I didn’t like it. but recently I went back to it and I’m enjoying it. I don’t know, maybe it was the course I took the first time?
