The FUN (and best) way to learn a language 

🎥 The Ikenna Method Video Course (50% off sale) ⇢ ikenna.com 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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!

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

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.

Ready to learn, brain activated

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

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!

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. 😄

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.

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

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 webtoons..... 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!!

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!

Ikenna i am so happy that you’re well enough to post videos more often. It makes my day everytime I see there’s a new video up 😁

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

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

Can't wait for his app and keep up the good work ikenna

I'm so glad you started to make so much content recently

so happy seeing more videos from you!!! They truly motivate me and make me so excited to learn more languages 💛 hope you’re well ikenna!

Thank you so much for this video. I've been learning French on and off for years now and some of the effective repetitive daily tasks are something that I can't always keep up with and are not motivated to fit into my day every day. And recently I've been doing things like playing games in French more often, and really enjoying it. But the part about it not being a sprint, that it wasn't something I needed to do "now" was something I needed to hear right now in my language learning, so thank you!

Honestly the first thing I do when I see you’ve posted a video is to check the description to see if your app is out yet. That’s how much I’m hyped for it

Ikenna, you're such an inspiration.

J’avais besoin d’entendre ça. Merci Ikenna. Team Fun-do!

Thank you Ikenna 🤍

Wow! Super helpful. Thank you!

I wholeheartedly agree with this message!

Absolutely love this video man, you are spot on.

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!

Loved the video. Also really looking forward on your app. Praying for you to be healed from your illness also

Very interesting video! You are totally right. That's the beauty of learning a new language, embracing yourself and your own way to do it. Enjoying the process is very important. After all, if you want to be fluent in a language, that language should become a way to express yourself, so it should be close to you and to your life and habits.

Ikenna kills it again!! I really love the part about how to select what resources you use, based on the dopamine they give you.

Brilliant video on learning. This is the difference between starting something and doing it over the long term.

Thanks as always Ikenna ♥

Thank you, Ikenna!

I was lucky enough to discover what I found fun about language learning at the very beginning. I started around this time last year with learning French because of a foreign exchange friend I had in my senior year of high school. When I started learning, I went straight to finding french music and ways to talk to people and make friends. Because of that, I now have many friends across the world, and I will be living with a friend in France for a couple months this year! This video is the most accurate message to language learners. It’s not a task, it’s a connection. Language is connected to EVERYTHING in modern civilization, so think of it as doing something fun with different sounds coming out of your mouth. Thank you so much Ikenna💪🏻

The encouragement about how everything you learn will stick with you was surprisingly moving. I joke about how I can still do the "la plume de ma tante est sur la table" thing, and yet… I can watch Fabien Yoon's videos and mostly understand them. This feels like motivation to keep studying. ❤️

Been wit you from the start Ikenna! First I'm sorry

You are a language learning genius! 👏🏻🐐

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. ^^

ikenna, you make a good point and i want to add on to it. obviously the 1-10 dopamine scale is personal and based on everything else you do / your baseline. what im trying to do now, before even learning a language, is leaning off of stimulating / high dopamine activities, for me thats games and anime as those are peak happiness and a lot of things such as reading seem dwarfed by them (potentially). what im trying to say is shift your language learning options up your overall dopamine scale by lowering that scale.

Hi,你好,hola ikenna I thank you for ur content that I enjoy.

This dude is quickly becoming a hero of mine.

Absolutely true. Use an activity you like, for example listening to music, as key to slide in some learning by interest in something you‘d do anyways. Works great most of the time!

Really appreciate this - been really enjoying engaging with German through reading though it's sometimes hard to shake the feeling that there's a more effective way I 'should' be spending my language energy, like on flashcards or something which I don't find fun. Reminding myself that like you say language learning is a lifestyle and not a race and reminding myself why I'm even learning a language (mostly for the joy of finding new ways to express ideas) is helpful in fighting off those thoughts that there's something else I 'should' be doing. Thanks!

Best language learning tip ever!!

Amazing video, I totally agree

I agree with this and the same goes for most things in life like going to the gym or working out. Gotta find the way to have the most fun to be consistent!

Ikenna speaks my language! ..and every other language. You’re so underrated man!

Great points!

This is quite true as while I'm not learning Japanese, I loved to watch Japanese music videos, and I was able to pick up and be able to read all hiragana and katakana just from that.

I wish I had learnt this since, because I have started so many things and quit because they were so boring. i even used to think it was a me problem that I lacked motivation .And as someone with ADHD, I hyper focus on a few things I find interesting. I’m glad I’ve finally put together the pieces. Make it fun, take it block by block, and integrate it into your daily system in a way that makes it easy to stay consistent for a long time. Hats off to you broda ikenna🦋

this is the main reason that i can barely remember the 3 and a half years of german classes i took in middle school. definitely makes sense and thank you for putting this out, you make great videos man! i think the hedonic treadmill comes into it too. where your brain gets conditioned to the dopamine your getting, then returns back to the baseline over time. that why if you do something every day for years it dosen't feel fun anymore. (for most people anyway not trying to generalize)

イケンナさまは楽しみのレッスンありがとうございました。

I just love this chanel! When im not that motivated I just rewatch some or ur videos😅

This was a really good video icl

Yay a new post also please extend the sale to this month on the first please I don’t get my money until then and I can’t buy it if it’s 200 Dollars

Ikenna, this is one of the best videos I've ever watched in your channel. Thank you man, it does make the difference, even for those who are further down the road in language learning.

Gracias, realmente necesitaba un video como el tuyo en este momento. Ahora me encuentro aprendiendo Ruso y no encontraba manera de estudiar, ya que cada método que intentaba, a los días lo dejaba, ahora se que tengo que reorganizar mis métodos de estudios, y ver que es lo mejor para mi.

My fun: Reading fantasy books! And speaking to a friend! And listening to engaging podcasts about topics I'm interested in! For me, I get bored and overwhelmed when I study grammar, once in a while I look into a phrase and word structure, but only when I want to. But some people are grammar nerds and love grammar, so for them, go for it! I completely agree with you in this video, Ikenna. Just have fun is the GOAT advice

I’m humbled to have my comment be a video 😆 thank you Ikenna. -Hawaiian

This is one of the best advice sir thank you so much get well soon....

this video practically made me cry. i want to learn languages but doing 2 hours of anki a day with duolingo and books etc was not fun. I suppose ill have to try this

Thank you for sharing a good contents!!! I enjoy it so much!!!

Love this message :)

honestly, this is true for any kind of learning

Wise words from Ikenna

I'd rate watching this video a 10 on the dopamine scale. You're doing good work, sir.

I find it the most fun when talking to people where I'd have to use the language, even if there's times it's difficult to understand as a beginner, it really enforces me to practice and share conversations with others. I'm a visual and kinesthetic learner, so having hands-on learning is best for me. The motivation of learning on my own at times is so I can use new words to talk to people. I'm bilingual in English and Spanish, and two languages I'm learning currently is Japanese and American Sign Language, it's cool how you can connect with others more easily thanks to the internet to learn and make friends.

I never thought of it this way

1000000% agree to this

Ikenna this was so DEEP, I thought you were just gonna start with your new app- I'm older- not into gamification. But you are so right, I LOVE love love, watching a drama in my L2 target language...I"m hooked so yeah I can almost not, not watch this damn show, while noticing I'm picking out more words. But I also believe- AS TI'S IMPORTANT TO ME- to learn quickly- or I get demotivated, so now I'm A2 and just getting excited as this level is where you can express opinion and make suggestions to do stuff,, so excited.

thank you ikenna

I mostly agree with Ikenna when I started learning English by my own knowing some of grammar and vocabulary I began to talk to native speakers you can actually have a lot of fun and also and the same time you learn about the language and the person .

So true, it's doesnt take a genius to know that language learning can be boring and monotonous if it's not enjoyable. This is why I'm so excited for your app because these other apps can learn from you! 👏😁

Such an interesting video. I hadn't realised until now but your method is so obvious I don't know why no one else has realised it. Even as a child I loved Tintin and Asterix and they only had the French ones in our school library so that is what I read. And my French as a child was really quite colloquial but it all stopped when we moved and I left that school. I have been slaving away on Duolingo for a few years trying to learn Russian but the vocabulary just doesn't stick. Now I need to find some Russian comic books and give it another go. Also I must look for your language app as well. Thank you for being inspired to create it. And thank you for your very entertaining videos

This is a such an amazing and genuine way to learn. Personally I really want to learn Welsh, I gave it a try a few months back but it was a bit difficult with everything else going on in my life (mainly school) but since it's cleared up a lot more, Im gonna give it another shot, and do it they way I want to and thoroughly enjoy Welsh :)

Great video, like it

Watching Ikenna gives me 100000 dopamine to learn english.

This makes sense. Of course, sometimes you have enough motivation to where you’ll push through with 2/10 dopamine activities somehow but that’s not most people.

You have my attention

Novels and talking to people are both 10 on the scale for me especially with Lingq where I'm able to save words and phrases, it made me able to read novels in Mandarin that was too difficult to do 15 years ago using a printed book. I'm now reading different novels in Portuguese, Russian, and Mandarin because I got bored with reading them in English. My only problem is that taking classes on iTalki can cost a lot especially if I want to create that immersion feel like how I learned the 5 languages I already spoke as a child.

Bruh I was learning French rn, and I was watching you like an hour ago, what a coincidence!

Ikenna always has the best fits

5:31 I feel personally called out 😂😂

surprised you didnt list, listening to music because singing/hearing music in french really helps me

I wish I could join the course because I want to learn German, but I am only 14 years old and I am very busy with school right now. Maybe I will join in the future if I can, but the discount won't last forever, so there is a good chance I won't be able to join, so I just wanted to thank you for your assistance and I am sure that other people would enjoy and appreciate your course more than me. Thanks again

Never really thought of it that way, but you know? Putting all the pieces together it makes sense, well, time to learn Russian! Take care Ikenna

고마워요.

I think, we should to use fun-do principe in all our life. Saying a truth, I am from Russian and I couldn't find out teachers who thinks like me about ways of studing languges. And I am glad to find you because firstly you have the same pricniples like me and secondly I can practice my english watching your chanel. thank you!

Incroyable en vrai

Yes

I am currently lesrning dutch, by reading thst book by yatir nitzany(?) And watching dutch gameplays/Letsplays

This might be the best video you have put out yet. Your gonna help so many people with this one. Awesome content as always!

thank you for this! i've been thinking of getting back into russian and this came at just the right time :D

ikenna our savior

This applies to more than just language learning

Music is the 10 for me, going for walks listening to music and singing along, maybe bring the lyrics with me if it's a new song