u/Responsible-Dog3057

A while ago, in February, we added the Community Wordlists feature, to allow users to create their own Wordlists and words and phrases, to teach other or to teach themselves.
This week, I'm working on improving this feature a bit, because it needs some love!

Just now, I have released the feature many of you requested, to make it possible to edit a learnable after it has been created. The only way so far was to delete it and recreate it from scratch. Now it's very easy to update it. Updates will be reflected to your learners, who will see the updated text.

https://preview.redd.it/a40fnob1942h1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=779a4a27b47f6d800484170d4121a88489edef84

Soon, I will also add the feature to record audios, or auto-generate audios on the new words and phrases you create.

By the way, this feature is only available on the "New experience" - if you don't see Wordlists, feel free to send an email to alexis@memrise.com with the title "New experience" and your username or email, and we will migrate you over to the new experience.

Let me know if you have other suggestions or feedbacks for the Wordlist creation feature!

Hey all,

We recently announced that Mems are back, last week or so.
Until today, they were only available on language pairs where the source language is in English, because the buttons and texts for that feature weren't localised in the other languages yet.
The localisation is now done in all languages, so the feature is available in all language pairs now!
Our translators have translated the tooltip with a pun in all the languages, and I found it quite funny, so I'll share it here as well

https://preview.redd.it/yxtnwx8uw22h1.png?width=704&format=png&auto=webp&s=ab4106e2a3d7e0ec079ca64f40bfdbd2d59f10d0

Arabic

>على سبيل المثال، لكي تتذكَّر أن كلمة “candle” تعني “شمعة“، تخيّل شمعة تضيء بدفء داخل “قنديل” (وهи كلمة يتشابه نطقها مع كلمة “candle”). (English translation: To remember that “candle” means “شمعة” (shama’a), imagine a candle glowing warmly inside a “قنديل” (qandeel - a traditional lantern), which sounds exactly like “candle”.)

Danish

>For eksempel kan du, for at huske at “Spider” betyder “Edderkop”, forestille dig en spejder (udtales ligesom spider) med en stor edderkop på hovedet. (English translation: To remember that “Spider” means “Edderkop”, imagine a scout (“spejder” in Danish, which sounds just like “spider”) with a huge spider on their head.)

French

>Par exemple, pour retenir que le mot anglais « on sale » signifie « en solde », imagine des vêtements sales et boueux vendus à bas prix ! (English translation: To remember that the English phrase “on sale” means “en solde”, imagine dirty, muddy clothes (“sales” in French) being sold for a cheap price!)

German

>Wenn du dir zum Beispiel nicht merken kannst, dass „bright” „hell” heißt, dann stell dir vor, wie du von einem breiten Sonnenstrahl geblendet wirst. (English translation: If you can’t remember that “bright” means “hell”, imagine being blinded by a wide (“breiten”, which sounds like bright) ray of sunshine.)

Spanish

>Por ejemplo, para acordarte de que «pineapple» significa «piña», imagínate una manzana («apple») haciendo el pino («pine»). (English translation: To remember that “pineapple” means “piña”, imagine an apple doing a handstand / headstand, which is called “hacer el pino” in Spanish.)

Mexican Spanish

>Por ejemplo, para recordar que “mischievous” significa “travieso”/“latoso”, imagínate que una señorita (“miss”) “huele a chivo” (la parte de “chievous”) porque de tan traviesa, se mete en todos lados. (English translation: To remember that “mischievous” means “travieso” (playful/troublesome), imagine a young lady (“miss”) who smells like a goat (“huele a chivo”, sounding out “chievous”) because she is so mischievous and gets into everything.)

Persian

>مثلاً برای اینکه یادت بمونه «Candidate» یعنی «نامزد انتخابات» تصور کن در زمان انتخابات، نامزدها به همه‌ی مردم «کندی» (Candy - شکلات) میدن تا رأی جمع کنن! (English translation: To remember that “Candidate” means “election nominee”, imagine that during election time, candidates give candy (شکلات) to everyone to gather votes!)

Hindi

>उदाहरण के लिए, “window” का मतलब “खिड़की” याद रखने के लिए, कल्पना करें कि तेज़ हवा आते ही एक “विंड” (wind) इतनी ज़ोर से चलती है कि खिड़की खुल जाती है. (English translation: To remember that “window” means “खिड़की” (khidki), imagine that as soon as strong air comes, a “wind” blows so hard that the window bursts open.)

Indonesian

>Contohnya kalau ingin mengingat kata “house” yang artinya “rumah”, bayangkan kamu pulang ke rumah untuk minum karena haus. (English translation: To remember that the word “house” means “rumah”, imagine coming home to have a drink because you are thirsty (“haus” in Indonesian).)

Italian

>Ad esempio, per ricordarsi che “Käse” significa formaggio in tedesco, immagina una chiesa (che ha una pronuncia molto simile a Käse) fatta di formaggio. (English translation: To remember that “Käse” means cheese in German, imagine a church (“chiesa” in Italian, which sounds very similar to Käse) made out of cheese.)

Japanese

>例えば、英語の「borrow」が「借りる」という意味を覚えるために、借りたジャケットがボロボロになっていて、手の中でバラバラになっていく様子を想像してみたり。 (English translation: To remember that the English word “borrow” means “to borrow” (借りる), imagine the jacket you borrowed is completely tattered (“boro-boro” in Japanese) and falls apart (“bara-bara”) in your hands.)

Korean

>예를 들어 “thumb”이 “엄지“라는 뜻을 기억하려면, 썸 타는 상대에게 엄지손가락으로 메시지를 보내는 모습을 상상해 보세요. (English translation: To remember that “thumb” means “엄지” (eom-ji), imagine texting your crush the person you have a “sseom” (썸 - romantic chemistry/flirtation, sounds like thumb to a Korean speaker) with using only your thumbs.)

Dutch

>Om bijvoorbeeld te onthouden dat ‘ananas’ in het Engels ‘pineapple’ is, kun je je voorstellen hoe een appel ‘pine’ (pijn) zou hebben als hij naast een ananas ligt in de fruitschaal, door de stekels die erop zitten. (English translation: To remember that ‘ananas’ is ‘pineapple’ in English, you can imagine how an apple would feel pain (‘pijn’ in Dutch, sounding like pine) sitting next to a pineapple in the fruit bowl because of its spikes.)

Norwegian

>For eksempel, for å huske det spanske ordet «gato» som betyr «katt», se for deg en katt som sitter midt i gata (gat-o). (English translation: To remember that the Spanish word “gato” means “cat”, picture a cat sitting right in the middle of the street (“gata” in Norwegian).)

Polish

>Na przykład, żeby zapamiętać, że „cash” oznacza „gotówkę“, wyobraź sobie kasę w sklepie, gdzie zamiast pieniędzy płacisz kaszą (cash → kasza). (English translation: To remember that “cash” means “gotówka” (hard money), imagine a cash register (“kasa”) at a store where instead of money, you pay with buckwheat/porridge (“kasza”, which sounds like cash).)

Brazilian Portuguese

>Por exemplo, para lembrar que “pineapple” significa abacaxi, imagine uma maçã (apple) misturada com uma pinha (pine cone). (English translation: To remember that “pineapple” means abacaxi, imagine an apple (“maçã“) mixed together with a pine cone (“pinha”).)

European Portuguese

>Por exemplo, para recordares que «grape» significa «uva», imagina uma uva gigante a espirrar e com o nariz a pingar, apanhaste uma «gripe» de tanto comer uvas (gra-pe). (English translation: To remember that “grape” means “uva”, imagine a giant grape sneezing with a runny nose, you caught a flu (“gripe” in Portuguese, sounding like grape) from eating too many grapes.)

Russian

>Например, слово «clever» («умный») по звучанию очень похоже на слово «клевер». И фраза «УМНАЯ корова ест КЛЕВЕР» поможет тебе запомнить не только слово, но и его перевод. (English translation: The English word “clever” sounds a lot like the Russian word for clover (“клевер” - klever). The phrase “A CLEVER cow eats CLOVER” helps you remember both the word and its meaning.)

Swedish

>För att komma ihåg att “Pineapple” betyder “Ananas” kan du till exempel tänka dig en tall (pine) med en ananas som växer högst upp istället för kottar. (English translation: To remember that “Pineapple” means “Ananas”, you can imagine a pine tree (“tall” in Swedish, but “pine” clarifies the root) with a pineapple growing at the very top instead of pine cones.)

Turkish

>Örneğin, İngilizce “car” kelimesinin araba anlamına geldiğini hatırlamak için, kar üstünde kayarak ilerleyen bir araba hayal edebilirsin. (English translation: To remember that the English word “car” means “araba”, you can imagine a car sliding and driving along on top of snow (“kar” in Turkish).)

Vietnamese

>Ví dụ, để nhớ rằng “love” trong tiếng Anh có nghĩa là “Tình yêu”, hãy tưởng tượng tới việc “yêu nghĩa là LO lắng cho một người và vuốt VE, âu yếm người đó“. (English translation: To remember that “love” means “Tình yêu”, imagine that loving someone means worrying about them (“LO” lắng) and caressing them (“vuốt VE”).)

Chinese (Simplified)

>例如，要记得“dilemma”的意思是“进退两难“，你可以想象一匹困在地雷区里的马，“地雷马“（dilemma），往前往后都难。 (English translation: To remember that “dilemma” means “caught between a rock and a hard place” (进退两难), imagine a horse trapped in a minefield. A “landmine horse” (“地雷马” - dì-léi-mǎ) sounds just like “dilemma”—moving forward or backward is impossible.)

Chinese (Traditional)

>例如，要記得「dilemma」的意思是「進退兩難」，你可以想像一匹困在地雷區裡的馬，「地雷馬」（dilemma），往前往後都不是。 (English translation: To remember that “dilemma” means “caught between a rock and a hard place” (進退兩難), imagine a horse trapped in a minefield. A “landmine horse” (“地雷馬” - dì-léi-mǎ) sounds just like “dilemma”—moving forward or backward is impossible.)

My favourite is probably the Chinese one! Let me know if you have feedbacks!

Hello!

I am Alexis, a developer at Memrise and also an enthusiastic language learner and Memrise user.

Recently, I have worked on implementing the back-end for community wordlists, the feature where you can create your own courses and your own words (available only on the new experience) as well as bringing back 100+ languages from the old site to the new ones, like Cantonese or Latin (also only available in the new experience, check Ben’s recent message to see how to get upgraded to the latest version).

I have started to use Memrise in 2013 and I loved all the features of early Memrise, and the sense of community we had back then. I’d love to have more of that in the current product!

Recently, I became the engineer in charge of the Web for Memrise. The first thing I would like to work on: bringing back the mems, because I am very fond of this feature, having created many mems myself over the years, and I was amongst the many Memrise employees who were disappointed when the decision was taken to remove mems.

For those who never got the chance to see mems from the early times of Memrise: they are mnemonic devices, like a text or a picture, usually funny, to help you remember something. An example of a mem might be:

"τρικυμία (storm) is τρι (3) + κυμία (wave), so the Greeks literally say '3 waves' to say storm!”

This wikipedia page explains the Memrise mems also.

Mems were taken down at the time partly because many users were irresponsible, and would use mems to advertise websites or pass messages unrelated to the learning. I'm hoping this time the voting system and reporting system, along with a filtering system, should fix this issue.

The sad news: all the lovely mems that existed at the time are completely deleted, there is no way to restore those. I'm sorry!

With this post, I just want to test the waters here and see what you think of this.

The idea is basically to bring back mems in the same format as before, more or less. We accept images and text. There will be a system to upvote/downvote mems created by others, to allow the more useful ones to rise to the top. Maybe AI-generation of images. Also, a reporting system so that offensive mems are taken down. You can also choose to keep your mem private, if it's relevant to you but wouldn't be useful to the rest of the community.

Please let me know your thoughts and ideas!