Next month, I'm traveling to a remote area of Central Africa and my aim is to know enough Lingala—one of the local languages—to have a conversation. I wasn't sure how I was going to manage this until I discovered a way to learn all the vocabulary I'm going to need. Thanks to Memrise, the app I'm using. It feels just like a game.
"People often stop learning things because they feel they're not making progress or because it all feels like too much hard work," says Ed Cooke one of the people who created Memrise. "Were trying to create a form of learning experience that is fun and is something you'd want to do instead of watching TV."
Memrise gives you a few new words to learn and these are "seeds" which you plant in your "greenhouse". When you practice the words, you "water your plants". When the app believes that you have really remembered a word, it moves the word to your "garden". And if you forget to log on, the app sends you emails that remind you to "water your plants".
The app uses two principles about learning. The first is that people remember things better when they link them to a picture in their mind. Memrise translates words into your own language, but it also encourages you to use "mems". For example, I memorized motele, the Lingala word for "engine", using a mem I created﹣I imagined an old engine in a motel room.
The second principle is that we need to stop after studying words and then repeat them again later, leaving time between study periods. Memrise helps you with this, because it's the kind of app you only use for five or ten minutes a day.
I've learnt hundreds of Lingala words with Memrise. I know this won't make me a fluent speaker, but I hope I'll be able to do more than just smile when I meet people in Congo. Now, I need to go and water my Vocabulary!
