10 Fun Ways to Learn English (That You Should Try ASAP)

English is a global language and one of the most important languages to learn if you want to study internationally or improve your career.

Because of this, you might think that learning English needs to be serious business. Well, we are here to tell you that you are wrong; there are actually many rewarding and fun ways to learn English.

If you want to learn a language, it’s important that you keep yourself motivated and interested. One way to do so is to make language learning fun. Learning English is no exception to this. 

Supplementing your formal English lessons with a few fun activities that can help you learn English will enable you to quickly achieve your goal of being able to effectively communicate in one of the world’s major languages.

Here are a few fun ways to learn English that you should try ASAP.

1. Liven up your lessons with vocabulary and grammar games

Playing games is always fun and it’s a great way to learn as well! 

Playing vocabulary games tests your knowledge of different English words and their meanings. Meanwhile, grammar games give you a chance to practice different grammar skills, such as how to conjugate verbs or how to properly construct a sentence. 

Taking a “break” from your serious study sessions to play a few language-related games will help test your skills and knowledge and keep you interested and motivated to continue learning English. 

2. Improve your pronunciation with funny English tongue twisters

Learning how to properly pronounce English words is an important skill to develop, it is also kind of tricky. 

English isn’t really a phonetic language, which means that there are many English words that are not really pronounced like they are spelled. This means that you need to practice saying them out loud in order to make sure that you are saying them properly.

Using tongue twisters in English is a great way to practice the proper way to pronounce different English words. Tongue twisters aren’t just fun, many of them are funny! They provide an interesting break from just repeating and repeating basic travel phrases to yourself over and over.

3. Download and use English language learning apps

There’s an app for almost everything nowadays – even language learning. Since most of us don’t go anywhere without a mobile device, having a few language learning apps on your device will allow you to squeeze in a few lessons on English grammar or vocabulary whenever you have some spare time.

Many English language learning apps make use of nice graphics, pictures, and even sounds to make language learning more lively and interesting. There are also several language apps that use “video game” strategies to keep you motivated, for example, they reward you for taking quizzes or have contests that you can participate in with other users.

4. Listen to Ted Talks for Motivation

Listening to a language is one of the most basic ways to learn a language. Babies and young children basically pick up their language skills from hearing the language being spoken around them every day. If you want to learn English, listening to people speaking in English is important.

One particularly fun way to learn English through listening is to listen to TED Talks. Ted Talks are short  - no longer than 18 minutes - but very inspirational. The speakers are experts on a variety of subjects and know how to make what they are saying interesting as well as easily understandable to a layperson.

TED Talks are easily available in a variety of mediums – you can download them as podcast episodes for one – so you can easily access a few. Just make sure to pick the ones that sound personally interesting to you, that way not only are you improving your English but you're also learning more on a subject you’ve always wanted to know more about.

5. Listen to Podcasts That You Find Interesting

As we mentioned above, you can download TED Talks as podcasts that you can listen to at your leisure. It’s not just TED Talk podcasts you should use to make English language learning fun, however.

There are many English language learning podcasts out there that can help you improve your grammar and vocabulary. The best have hosts who know how to make what they are talking about fun and interesting as well as educational.

Many English language learning podcasts feature hosts having a dialogue amongst themselves to provide you with practical examples to illustrate a particular point about grammar or vocabulary. This makes podcasts a fun but effective way to learn important lessons about the English language.

You can also use podcasts to learn English, even if the podcast isn’t specifically geared towards language learning. Listening to a podcast in English about a subject you are interested in, such as sports or pop culture or even news, will help keep you motivated to learn and improve your listening comprehension.

6. Listen to English language songs 

If you love music, you can use this love of music to improve your English language skills. 

Listening to English songs and paying attention to the lyrics will help improve your ability to understand spoken English. Bonus? You are bound to hear a lot of different English expressions and idioms by listening to song lyrics. Take note of them and study their real meaning in order to recognize them when you hear them in conversation.  

7. Mentally and Physically Exercise With Language Shadowing

Let’s be honest, sitting at a desk, in front of a stack of books or a computer can get a bit boring. Sometimes you just need to take a break and getting up from your desk to go take a walk is the best way to get a little restart and refresh your mental capacities.

So, go ahead and put down that grammar textbook and go get some fresh air and exercise to clear your head – or you can try and go on a language shadowing walk instead. 

With language shadowing, you can kill two birds with one stone. You get a nice break and a chance to stretch your legs. However, you are also still continuing your language lessons. This combination of physical and mental activities makes language shadowing a unique, effective, and fun way to learn English.

8. Enlist the Help Of Your Inner Child And Watch Cartoons!

Many educational professionals will tout the benefits of audiovisual presentations for learning. Educational videos are considered effective teaching mediums as the visuals tend to grab people’s attention and keep them for longer; allowing the lessons being talked about in the video to be better understood and retained.

Because of the effectiveness of animated audiovisual learning materials, there’s a long tradition of creating educational cartoons for children. These cartoons are intended to teach children everything from grammar concepts, science facts, math tricks, and even just good manners.

A fun way for adults to learn English is to look into educational cartoon series that are meant to teach kids about vocabulary and grammar. It’s also interesting and effective to look into other educational cartoons as a fun and easy way to grasp different concepts on subjects that interest you in English.

You shouldn’t however, limit yourself to educational cartoons. Many animated cartoon series and even films are not just for kids anymore, they have plots and character,s and jokes that even adults can enjoy. Watching a few cartoons every now and then can improve your ability to comprehend spoken English and get a glimpse into the culture of English speakers. It’s definitely a fun educational tool that people of all ages can check out. 

9. Netflix and Learn

Many language learning experts will say that watching television shows or movies in the language that you want to learn can help you gain fluency. This piece of learning advice used to be a bit difficult to do, but has gotten easier with the advent of the internet –specifically, the arrival of streaming services such as Netflix.

Netflix has a wealth of English language content that you can watch to not only have fun and relax but to learn the language as well.  Watching a show or movie in English can help you practice your listening comprehension, allow you to pick up interesting slang words and expressions, improve your pronunciation and ability to construct sentences, and improve your accent.

 10. Have Interesting Conversations with An Online Native English Speaking Tutor

One of the most effective ways to learn English quickly is to place yourself in a situation where you regularly have to practice your English. Having regular conversations with a native English speaker will help you put all your lessons on grammar and vocabulary into practice.

Working with an online native English language speaking tutor is the most effective and fun way to get fluent in English. You can book a couple of sessions with your tutor at the time that is most convenient for you. This means that you are regularly getting a chance to talk to a native speaker and practice your conversational skills. This is way more fun than just reading proper “dialogue” from a textbook or just practicing creating and saying sentences in your head.

Conclusion

Working with an online native English speaking tutor is probably the one way mentioned here that we would say that you must do. Having conversations with your tutor is the most effective and lively way to ensure that you are putting your language lessons into practice. 

Aside from working with an online tutor, however, most of the other fun ways to learn English will work great for almost anybody. Remember, the key to these learning methods is that they are supposed to be fun. They should keep you motivated and interested in learning English. In other words, you need to WANT to do these activities.

Make sure that you choose an activity that personally suits your idea of what fun is. If, for example, you’ve never done language shadowing but think it sounds fun then try it! However, if you find that it’s not really something you enjoy, try another activity that might be more aligned with your interest