Cool Site of the Day: Learn Languages With a Game

A screenshot of the memrise.com website, which helps grow your vocabulary and turns learning into a sport. (Memrise)

There are many reasons to learn a new language. Maybe you're going to do some traveling. You may need to learn a language for your job. Or maybe you're doing it for fun.

Unfortunately, picking up a new language isn't the easiest thing. One key is repetition. That can get tedious after a while. Maybe you have bad memories of it from high school.

That's where sites like Memrise come in. It turns learning a new language into a game. Plus, it rewards repetition.

Start by selecting a language. Memrise's featured language is Mandarin Chinese. However, other languages are available. Just click the Languages icon at the top of the page. Then select a language and word list.

Memrise will give you a couple words to start. These are presented as seeds. You memorize them and take a quiz. Once you've learned them, they're planted in a digital garden.

Whenever you log back in, you add more seeds to your garden. You can also help existing seeds grow by remembering them correctly. In the end, you'll have a full garden and a new language.

Kim Komando hosts the nation's largest talk radio show about consumer electronics, computers and the Internet. Get the podcast or find the station nearest you at www.komando.com/listen. Subscribe to Kim's free e-mail newsletters at www.komando.com/newsletters.