Alternative to Memrise for Self-designed Courses???

[ahilan]

Hallo,

Now that Memrise is kind of closing its community courses, and they can only be accessed through the web interface and not the app.
Do people have recommendations for other apps which function similarly to Memrise?

- I upload my own words, which are kept in GoogleSheets / Excel docs, ordered per tab
- I occasionally make use of the audio, and would like to do more of this.
- I have quite a few of these courses (40+ according to Memrise)
- I predominantly use the 'Classic Review' option

Thanks!

[emk]

Now that Memrise is kind of closing its community courses, and they can only be accessed through the web interface and not the app.
Do people have recommendations for other apps which function similarly to Memrise?

- I upload my own words, which are kept in GoogleSheets / Excel docs, ordered per tab
- I occasionally make use of the audio, and would like to do more of this.
- I have quite a few of these courses (40+ according to Memrise)
- I predominantly use the 'Classic Review' option

The desktop Anki app can import flash cards from CSV files, and you can add media directly to "collection.media". It takes a little while to get the hang of this, but it's really powerful. You can then synchronize with Ankiweb and with the mobile apps. If you're a programmer, you can also automate things using AnkiConnect. It can be a pretty slick setup, despite the learning curve. There's support for custom flash card templates, images, audio and cloze exercises.

[Learning Is Hard]

Try

My Little Word Land

They have most memrise courses there.

[Learning Is Hard]

Sorry, just re read your post and realised you are looking for an app.
My Little Word Land has the memrise courses but seems to be web based.

[księżycowy]

Quizlet is another option which has an app in addition to website based. I can't say whether it has any of the Memrise material, but it has very similar functionality.

[tiia]

I'm also using memrise, but not with the app. Simply because I don't like to install apps, when a using a browser is an option. I do this also for memrise on my phone, so maybe that would be an option for you? For me the mobile view of the web page workes just fine.
Until the end of the year they say, that the community courses should be found under the community course web address. But after that the whole thing is still open as far as I understood it. So I was just hoping that everything works fine with the other web address and maybe I have just finished the current lists until the end of the year...(?)

Personally I never got a hang of Anki (I tried some years ago), which is why when searching for a vocab trainer last autumn I ended up with memrise. If I would have to use Anki again, I may stop doing simple vocabulary learning all together. (This is how it has been most of the time learning languages for me.)
Because not everone here uses memrise, I thought of giving my personal reasons, why I prefered Memrise (which also may not be perfect) over Anki (without modifications others that the in-built options for reptions, review times etc.):
- I started with the idea of wanting more than one review option and definitely not wanting to just look at cards (it's too easy to betray yourself that way, and it's too boring)
- I actually have to type my answers (this is the classic review option in memrise)
- I also have multiple choice options, either as Turbo mode or for learning new words. So I can see a word 4-5 times before having to write it the first time.
- for multiple choice it tries to give you to some extent similar looking words from the course, so often nothing completely random.
- I can review even when there are no repitions that I have to to. (The turbo mode is great for such an extra repetion.)
- Having used memrise for a few months, I can say I like the hints if I partially know a word: either in form of the letters that are shown for typing the answer (there are always some extra letters, and on my phone I usually cann't see them without scrolling/turing of the normal keyboard) or using the hint button, that just gives one letter at a time. I use that, in case I almost get a word right, or if I'm completely clueless and just take the first one or two letters as a hint.

[ahilan]

Thanks for the responses. I think some people are missing the point that I'm not looking for the Memrise courses, I make my own words lists and like the Memrise app for studying these. So I'm looking for an app, where I can simply re-upload these courses and hopefully continue in a fairly similar manner to Memrise.

I guess I will give Anki a go and try to adjust to it.

@Tiia, I've really enjoyed Memrise for years though I've never really seen the benefits in the Speed Review or Difficult Words (for which I tried a Pro subscription). I think the biggest problem with Memrise and likewise how it can be most optimalised. Is when you aren't encountering those words outside the app. My daughter and I now have a method where I let her jump on Speed Review for a while and then we have a 10-minute Tamil conversation and I specifically try to pick words which she has just used.

Oh and in regards to using the Memrise web app. Yes, I have tried. It's not terrible. But because Tamil has a different script, the letters get provided by Memrise but then sometimes my keyboard springs up suddenly and it becomes a bit arduous.

[tiia]

I totally did not think of issues with another script, that the popping up of the keyboard would cause. For me the keyboard just hides the possible keys, that could be used to guess a word more easily.

The difficult words option I also have not found too useful yet. I get to try it every now and then for free, when I earned a lot of points one day. But usually there are only one or two words in that list...

I currently use three courses on memrise (all for Basque), one done by another user for the first five chapter of my textbook, one added by me for the other chapters of the same textbook and an additional list for another online course, with only the new words that I found worth adding (=words that may not be guessable, nor the ones I already learned elsewhere.)

I only started using memrise when I realised that the Basque courses I use, contain so many words, that I simply cannot remember them given the few exercises in the books etc. There are so many new words that it hinders comprehension and focussing on the grammar points. So I needed a workaround to make the material more accessible. And of course each course I use, has a different set of words, so in order to get more excercises, I also need more words... I really hope this issue is going to solve itself the more I progress, because courses may introduce the same words just in a different order.
I never had a problem like that - and especially not to this extent - in my other languages.

[GawainStan]

I hate Anki and I feel like you need a PhD in computer science to use it but unfortunately it's the only app that comes close to Memrise

If you google 'an alternative to Memrise2Anki' you'll find a chrome extension that can turn any memrise course (including yours) into spreadsheet files which you can then import into anki or other apps that accept .CSV files (Takes some getting used to though)

There's also deckacademy which works similar to Memrise (and it has a less depression-inducing interface than Anki!) but currently it's web-only. There are plans for an app sometime in the future iirc though.

[Severine]

Thanks for the responses. I think some people are missing the point that I'm not looking for the Memrise courses, I make my own words lists and like the Memrise app for studying these. So I'm looking for an app, where I can simply re-upload these courses and hopefully continue in a fairly similar manner to Memrise.

I guess I will give Anki a go and try to adjust to it.

If you get stuck with Anki, feel free to post here with questions. I have been using it for many years and am happy to help. It can be very simple to use if you familiarize yourself with the basics and ignore everything else. For those interested in more advanced functionality, it's extremely powerful (for example, I have had great success with TTS plugins for auto-generated high-quality audio) as long as you can ride the learning curve.

The online documentation is a good reference: https://docs.ankiweb.net/