Last Updated on August 28, 2017
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Are you looking for memory tools to help you remember Chinese vocab and grammar etc? Well, this program includes a description of 3 flashcard programs for learning and studying Chinese all using spaced repetition.
Mnemosyne
Mnemosyne is a fantastic, totally free, and open source flashcard program. You can use it very easily for studying individual Chinese Characters, or for studying whole Chinese words. Mnemosyne is personally my favourite flashcard program for studying Chinese. It is very easy to import and export flashcard sets in Mnemosyne. Mnemosyne even supports making front-to-back and back-to-front flashcards which can be very useful in learning Chinese Characters. In learning a Chinese Character, you must learn the pronunciation(s) of the Character, the Character itself, and the meaning in your own language. You can search for many pre-made flashcard sets for Mnemosyne for Chinese on the website here.
You can download Mnemosyne for Windows, Linux, or Android in the Google Play Store. It is also possible to use Mnemosyne with Mac OS X, but it requires a few more steps, but the site explains those steps on the download page. The main page of Mnemosyne is here. The download page of Mnemosyne is here.
If you use Linux, you can install Mnemosyne in Ubuntu and Ubuntu derivatives like Linux Mint by typing:
sudo apt-get install mnemosyne
You can use a similar command in other Linux-based operating systems.
Below are some pictures of screenshots of Mnemosyne. The first is a screenshot of creating a flashcard in Mnemosyne. The next two are screenshots of reviewing flashcards in Mnemosyne.
Anki
Anki is another great free and open source flashcard program. In many ways, it is very similar to Mnemosyne. Anki supports Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD, iPhone, and Android . You can download a huge number of pre-made Chinese flashcard decks here.
The main page of Anki is here. You can download Anki from the main page on the Anki website in Windows, Mac and more.
If you use Linux, you can install Anki in Ubuntu and Ubuntu derivatives like Linux Mint by typing:
sudo apt-get install anki
You can use a similar command in other Linux-based operating systems.
Below are two screenshots of Anki. The first screenshot is a screenshot of creating a flashcard in Anki. The second screenshot is one of reviewing a flashcard in Anki.
AnyMemo
AnyMemo is yet another memory tool that is made for Android devices. It is completely open source and free. It is available on the Google Play Store, the F-Droid app store, and here is its GitHub page. I personally prefer using this program for Android over Mnemosyne because the Mnemosyne Android app is a little buggy, and AnyMemor supports similar things to Mnemosyne anyway. If you export your Mnemosyne data as a text file, you can easy import it into this program.
Here are some interesting features of the program according to its website
- Well tested and highly efficient algorithm for fast learning.
- Text-to-Speech feature to aid language learning. Support multiple languages.
- Support images and audio in cards.
- Import and export from different formats including Mnemosyne XML 1.0 and 2.0, SuperMemo PPC XML, Tab TXT, CSV, QA Text.
As for the text-to-speech feature, I have tested it, and it is fairly decent for at least some Western European languages, but I don’t think it works well for Chinese. This program also includes some Chinese vocab lists that you can download through the app. I highly recommend this program for learning Chinese.
Do you have anything to add to this article? Let’s discuss it in the comments below.
I’ve been using anki for a few years for learning all sorts of stuff. Its good because you can add your own and/or use shared ones by others.
Do you like using apps too, like memrise, or duolingo (although duolingo doesn’t do Chinese)?
I have used Memrise and briefly looked at Duolingo a while back. Memrise has a huge database of free courses one can take, so to me that makes it well worth using for studying. I like Mnemosyne, Anki, and AnyMemo all in part because they are completely open source while Duolingo and Memrise are not. But in any case, they are all good. I think it’s best to use whichever programs works best for you. And with regards to Memrise, it was designed partly by a memory champion, so that definitely adds credibility to me as to its effectiveness.