The FUN (and best) way to learn a language

Who ever knew language learning could be so FUN?

In this video I discuss how language learning needs to be fun and that everything else such as effectiveness, speed and method is secondary. Of course its nice to learn a new language in a effective way however if it's not fun enough to stick to, you'll lose motivation.

📖 LANGUAGE LEARNING COURSES & E-BOOK
﹉

🧡 JOIN MY PATREON (comes with discord access)
﹉

📱 SOCIAL MEDIA
﹉

👨 ABOUT
﹉
Hello, I’m an Irish-Nigerian-American language learning Youtuber hailing from New York!
I currently speak seven languages. Six of which I taught myself from scratch. By 2023, I aim to learn another five. The languages I currently speak are English, Japanese, Russian, Dutch, French, Chinese and Spanish.

New here? Check out my most popular playlists:

📩 CONTACT
﹉
(The emails above are the official contact options to reach me, so kindly check back with them if you have received enquiries from different addresses)

[IkennaLanguages]

In this video I discuss how language learning needs to be fun and that everything else such as effectiveness, speed and method is secondary. Of course its nice to learn a new language in a effective way however if it's not fun enough to stick to, you'll lose motivation.

[JoshGeoGoose]

This is why I love Ikenna. There are ALWAYS people who are eager to criticize polyglots' "Best method" that they sell or promote, but Ikenna is out here saying "yeah I have a course if you want, but who cares. Just have fun." And honestly this is the most inspired I've felt to continue learning my new language

[sadshiver]

This is exactly why I chose to start learning Japanese about 6 months back. My mother tongue is Spanish, and I've spoken English for most of my life. And I realized I wanted to learn languages, to travel, connect with people, you name it. People kept telling me, you have two strong languages mastered, you should go for French, or German, languages that open more opportunities for yourself, in jobs or whatever. So I decided that I was going to learn the language I WANT to speak and understand, and the other languages will come to me and I will have fun with them as well, one after the other. So yes, fun is the way to success.

[val.teacup]

The first step is to pick a language you actually love. When I was trying to learn German no activity gave me 5+ dopamine, but as I'm studying Spanish now even grammar exercises can be super fulfilling.

[sylve]

Another thing is, even if the fun ways are "less effective", when you find something fun, entertaining, enjoyable, etc, you actually remember it better and are more motivated to do it, vs if you are uninterested, you remember things less effectively and will get lest motivated, , , , so even if it's "less effective" the "more effective" methods may not actually be more effective if you don't enjoy them

[GoodMorningButch]

That’s so true, man! I always feel like online polyglots defending their method never take enough into account the diversity of all types of language learners. For me, I’m never going to be a person who speaks from day one because I’m also not going to be a person who speaks at day 1000, my interest in language learning is in reading, consuming media, maybe writing. In that way, that’s how I’m learning it too so that the entire way through fluency is fun for me!

[bpdgyal]

This is very true. I learned English through input, watching movies and tv shows in english, watching fun youtube videos, playing games like sims 3 in english etc. That's how I reached fluency

[adamblance]

I have ADHD (which is all about dopamine disregulation), so having fun is super important to me. In the beginning I was obsessed with finding the "optimal" learning method and it really demotivated me. It wasn't until I found fun learning tools like Wanikani that I was able to study consistently every single day, and two years on I know 2000+ kanji and 7000+ words! There is no chance in hell I'd have gotten to this point if learning was something I dreaded every day instead of something I looked forward to.

[meds]

Guys... I cannot stress enough how actually important fun is in learning a language. Tried learning a language I was asked to learn in the middle of high school life, but it was plagued with using boring textbooks and the pressure from family to learn it, and I eventually quit a year ago.

Fast forward to the beginning of my senior high school years a year ago, I decided to learn a language I actually liked (Japanese), did activities I considered fun, and now, I'm literally one day away from finishing the input method and onto the output method, haha!

Basically, DO NOT underestimate the "fun" factor in a language. You may have the method that people claim is the "fastest way to learn a language in the world", but if you ain't having fun... TRUST ME. You will very most likely fail. Thus, I strongly agree on Ikenna's advice in the vid to have fun!

[matiuspakpahan]

-Prioritize having fun
-2:20 language learning activities that are fun

[Paul-ykds]

I actually think this is true for almost any skill or goal in life. The people who get the best results at anything are usually the ones who love their process and want to spend every hour doing it. Even when you hear certain business gurus talk about "hustle" and "putting in the work, " those same gurus often explain how their business doesn't even feel like work to them—it's a fun game to them. Find goals where you really want the outcome AND you can use a strategy/process you love to reach it, and you will be unstoppable in life.

[ebee]

I’m a fellow POTSie, and I started learning 普通话 during a bad flare up, just to fill the time. I’m doing much better now, but I still don’t have the stamina to study for a long time/every day, which makes my learning journey rather slow. I often feel ashamed by my lack of progress, so hearing you say “it’s not a marathon” and that it’s ok to take things slowly has reassured me. Thank you, IKenna, for the video!

[superoligarch_official]

I’ve made reading Hunter x Hunter and Fullmetal Alchemist the main part of my mandarin learning language.
I combined it with Pleco and the HSK textbooks for the gramma part. Rereading HxH is always such a joy.

[thatsdaniellelol]

I’m finally conversationally fluent in Spanish (I think lol) and now I kinda been getting into Korean along with A BUNCH of other languages (like Yoruba, Pashto, Hindi, Mandarin, Urdu, Arabic, Swahili, Polish, Japanese, Punjabi, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Burmese, Russian, Turkish, Slavic, Macedonian, etc.) a lot lately.

Lol I know I need to slow down and focus on one at a time. I really wanna learn American Sign Language next tho. But so far I haven’t had issues learning about more than one at a time

[nikkicruz]

One technique I’ve found that works for me to get those less enjoyable/but effective tasks done is to stack them with my favorite learning activities. For example, I can watch my favorite hour long novela after I do two quick rounds of flashcards. These also become habits that I don’t even have to think about. Great video, Ikenna!

[rueavenue]

I can attest to this with French 💯 I found so boring & my lang trauma made it monotone but now Speakly + Memrise + TV + LangTrans + 1 side lang is super fun and I’m finally in it for the long run. If I start lagging my big red button is to do a Lingoda Sprint. 😄

[vilhjálmr]

Remember, it's not the speed that counts, but the direction.

[AmbiCahira]

I have been focusing so hard on listening comprehension so that I can understand tv shows or music and haven't dabbled in talking really at all because I know the risk at accidentally creating poor muscle memory habits would be annoyingly high until I feel like I have a good grasp on the language and almost everywhere I see people recommending talking from day 1. It's not my main goal because I'm an INFJ and no matter the language I will always prefer listening and reading or writing over speaking. It's cool that you take personality type into consideration. ^^

[RealMe-qzds]

You know, I've been learning Korean for less then a year now, I have never memorised any vocab, never took notes, never had a teacher or even actively tried to "study" the language, yet I have reach a level where I can hold a basic conversation and understand a lot, and that's because the only thing that I was doing was watching SO MANY Kdramas/movies, so much kpop, following people on all social media platforms, TV shows and so on, I literally do everything now in Korean, even 90% of the youtubers I watch are Korean and now even the only thing that I have been doing with the language was related to fun, like you should see how excited I get when I get to understand the lyrics of a song that I hear for the first time, or when a kdrama scene is more impactful in Korean than with the subs, or when I hear someone talking at a Korean restaurant and I understand what they are saying, and on to this day I have never actually spoken to a native person yet I talk to myself in Korean and I have really reach a level of good basic knowledge and that without actually studying (ofc, I had to learn the alphabet but except for that I never actually studied anything). So, like he said, just have fun with the language as much as you can, It will come naturally to you, maybe not as fast as when you actively study, but it will stick with you forever anyway, there is no need to hurry. ( I also didn't learn English in a few months, everything takes time) Good luck to everyone learning a language, and have FUN!!

[chrysoberylidol]

This reminds me a few days ago I went to a grocery store and was practicing my Spanish vocabulary at the different foods in the store for a upcoming Spanish test which was really fun