Thank you all for your responses. It's interesting to see how other people learn languages, especially Esperanto. I do find that Memrise compliments any shortcomings I feel with Lernu! and vice versa (I say that but I've been so busy lately that I haven't gone on Memrise at all and my time spent on Lernu is limited).

I have found out that certain words that were drummed into me on Memrise have been easily remembered while reading Esperanto texts (I'm currently reading Sten Johansson's Marina). But no learning experience is the same!

Alkanadi:After I went through the courses on Lernu, I started using Memrise. I think I have about 6 courses in progress. I like it. It is very useful.

Based on my own experience, the best way to learn a language is just memorizing vocabulary with flashcards. Memrise keeps all the flashcards organized for you. Also, they have an interesting way of testing you.

The downside with Memrise is that I can't go through cards for extra practice. I have to stick to their schedule.

actually if you open the course and press review you can get in extra practice

Structured courses (aka Lernu) for grammar and language use + Smart vocabulary learning (aka Memrise/Anki) is (at least for me) the best and fastest way to learn a language .. at least the basics before you can start engaging in real conversations/chats to go all the way to fluency.

In fact, my mum (64) was doing the Ana Pana course here but had tons of trouble with vocab learning, so I created a course on Memrise with all the Ana Pana words (Spanish-Esperanto-Spanish) and now she's advancing smoothly lesson after lesson (and not getting frustrated for forgetting vocab).

My 2 cents!

rodrigo99:Structured courses (aka Lernu) for grammar and language use + Smart vocabulary learning (aka Memrise/Anki) is (at least for me) the best and fastest way to learn a language .. at least the basics before you can start engaging in real conversations/chats to go all the way to fluency.

In fact, my mum (64) was doing the Ana Pana course here but had tons of trouble with vocab learning, so I created a course on Memrise with all the Ana Pana words (Spanish-Esperanto-Spanish) and now she's advancing smoothly lesson after lesson (and not getting frustrated for forgetting vocab).

My 2 cents!

I really love memrise. I love that the fact that audio can be added to the words. This really makes it stick in my mind.

I think (but I could be wrong) that Anki is open source, which means that you can copy and alter it as you like.

I use both Memrise and Lernu. I personally think a mixture of the two is better than either one by itself. That's just me though.