Have any members heard of or been on the Memrise site? I find it has helped me learn things and seems to have improved my short-term memory. Please note I am not connected in any way with the site - other than using it.
I assume that would be this site. My wife does Luminosity to help with memory problems, but I haven't tried either.
Yes it is. Strangely I also used Luminosity, but I haven't for some time. I found I reached a limit and didn't seem to be getting any better. I have an interest in such sites partly because dementia runs in my family and there seems to be evidence it can be delayed by brain training and the like, even if not avoided.
I used Memrise for a few weeks last summer to learn some Italian in preparation for a trip to Rome. There are a wide range of courses to choose from for many languages so I chose one that was perfect for purpose - ie: tourist-level language for a complete beginner in that language. I am fluent in French so I did have a head start with some of the similar vocabulary .... but I think even without that I would have been well enough prepared. As a result, my trip (which was always going to be wonderful) was made even more enjoyable because I was able to interact with more than just a few words and a lot of hand-signals. I later took a look at the French courses on Memrise because my brother wants to learn enough French to be able to communicate with my husband - I was very impressed again with the variety of levels and purposes available. And I taught French for many years so I'm hyper-critical about teaching materials. If you are worried about developing dementia - language learning is one of the recommended mental activities for older people and Memrise makes it entertaining to boot!
Thank you for such a lovely reply! I am trying to massively improve and eventually perfect my French, which is about at a high intermediate level and to improve quite a few other languages. I spend a lot of time on this as a project to improve myself. I think it's excellent to learn vocabulary and seems to dramatically improve short-term memory, I suppose something similar to the taxi driver effect. I absolutely agree with you about slowing or halting dementia through language learning; there seems to be solid research for this. I have noticed, while working in care, some older people give in to a sedentary and circumscribed lifestyle and show mental decline (or maybe this is the cause) while others show a great interest in many things and seem to be very active. I definitely want to be in this second group!