Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to SafariWhen comparing HelloTalk vs Memrise, the Slant community recommends Memrise for most people. In the question“What are the best sites for learning foreign languages?” Memrise is ranked 2nd while HelloTalk is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose Memrise is:
Memrise uses "mems" to increase your vocabulary, which are a way to connect a word to its meaning. A common example is associating a word with an image. Mnemonics are another one they use to help you remember new words. For example, "le parcours" (route or course) could be remembered with the mem "People who do parkour pick their own route".
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Very large, active community
The community is very large, meaning you'll never have a problem finding someone to chat with.
Pro Text, Voice, and Video
Chat with language partners via text, voice recordings, voice calls, video calls, and even doodles.
Pro Free
The app is free to use. There are some in-app purchases, but the app is very helpful without them.
Pro Grammar correction
It allows users and native speakers to correct each other's grammar mistakes.
Pro Allows you to share "memories" with the whole community
"Memories" act similar to a Twitter feed. You can post pictures, ask questions, or let the community know what kind of chat partner you are looking for (for example: maybe you want to discuss a specific topic with someone).
You can "love", and comment on memories.
Pro The interface is very intuitive/easy to use
Despite being feature-rich, the app is very easy to use. It provides a tutorial which you can revisit at any time if you can't remember what certain icons are.
It has a very clean, uncluttered design.
Pro Helps grow your vocabulary quickly
Memrise uses "mems" to increase your vocabulary, which are a way to connect a word to its meaning.
A common example is associating a word with an image.
Mnemonics are another one they use to help you remember new words. For example,
"le parcours" (route or course) could be remembered with the mem "People who do parkour pick their own route".
Pro Free account without a time limit
The Basic account is totally free (has no time limit) and is very generous.
An upgrade (with more features) is available for 9 USD / month.
Pro Huge vocabulary
The courses can teach you a very large vocabulary (for example, the first level Spanish course has 1705 words).
Pro Android app can be used offline
You can download courses to use offline with the Android app. Great for when you're traveling.
Pro Easy to use
You will understand quickly what you should do, and you will begin to learn in less than a minute.
Pro Foreign keyboard on screen when necessary
This saves you from having to copy/paste characters or worry about your keyboard settings.
Pro It makes you write the words
If you choose this option, writing is a very efficient way of memorization.
Pro Learn from natives
Official courses have videos of natives, recorded recently, to help you along.
Pro Awesome community made courses
Pro Courses available using Tim Ferriss' method
Cons
Con chinese company with lacking privacy rules
Con The number of messages can get overwhelming
Because it is such an active community, you may find yourself getting 20+ messages an hour when you are online. It can quickly get overwhelming. However, there is a setting that allows you to hide your profile from search.
Con Keyboard can't be used in landscape
The app doesn't let you rotate to landscape, instead you're stuck with portrait. Using the condensed keyboard when writing long messages can be a pain for some.
Con Free version has restricted search
On the free version, it won't let you change the language of the people you can search, though you can still access the profiles of other language speakers. For example, if they comment on a memory you made a comment on, you can access their profile through that. Even if you can still send them friend requests and chat with them, being able to just search for them would've been so much easier.
Con Doesn't teach much grammar
Memrise is more focused on increasing your vocabulary, so has very little on grammar and sentence structure.
Con No grammar
Con Typos and other mistakes in target languages
There is no guarantee that the word you just learned is the correct spelling, because there are so many errors throughout many of the user-made courses.
Con No context
Con Not really effective
Con Some useful functions like pinning your active courses were removed
It is hard to have an organized dashboard if you have more courses, which is most likely to happen, as starting them is the only way to bookmark them for later.
Con Lack of uniformity
It is driven by community, that can be good, but quality isn't always the same and it misses some uniformity.
Con Lack of diversity in some courses
Some courses will have a very poor diversity for vocabulary lessons. For example, a Russian reading lesson, will repeat the 5 same people names for 8 to 10 minutes. It can be annoying, or demotivating.
Con Low level and mistakes in the official courses
Memorization of a phrasebook is not a good system for many learners.
Con The search function is broken
It is very hard to find most courses, many user-made jewels are hidden at the bottom of the pile and are quite impossible to find without knowing precise details.
Con No way to rate courses in the official or the community made ones
Con Not funny
Con The staff doesn't communicate well with the userbase
Explanations of changes, responses to feedback by large groups of users, implementation of new stuff based on user's needs and not against them, all that could use improvement.
Con The app is too easy
Con Rhythm is too slow
