How to make learning enjoyable!
“What is chemistry? Imagine you want to have Upma( Indian dish) in the evening as a snack, how do you make it? You chop down the vegetables needed, get the other ingredients, measure them for the quantity of Upma you need, start by heating the oil , adding the ingredients and end by adding sooji at last and voila , you have tasty Upma. Everything that happens in the vessel during the preparation is chemistry. “ This is the hip answer my high school chemistry teacher gave to a student who said chemistry is a difficult subject to learn. It was a mic drop moment!
If you google the same question this is what you get “ the branch of science concerned with the substances of which matter is composed, the investigation of their properties and reactions, and the use of such reactions to form new substances.”
Now , because of the first informal explanation of what chemistry is , the second formal definition is understandable. This is exactly how anyone learns anything new and actually remembers it. If you are a student learning for the purpose of academics, a working professional learning for upskilling yourself for the job market, a musician learning new instruments, a stay at home parent wanting to learn coding, etc.,
Meaningful learning happens when you can relate new ideas to something that you already know.
Think of this as a sort of mapping that happens in brain.The process of learning is enjoyable when you understand the utility of your learning; meaning, you know where to apply what you have learnt in real life scenarios . This serves as the purpose for our learning.
If you don’t really like Upma (FYI: It’s a debatable topic in India) you don’t even want to know how it’s prepared. So, find a dish that you love to eat ( may be biryani) and then learn how to cook that . This serves as the motivation for learning.
In a nutshell, learning is a rewarding experience when it is backed by
- Utility (knowing how it’s useful to you)
- Purpose( where to apply that you have learnt)
- Motivation ( Are you learning something to use it as you like)
Learning doesn’t have a standard process. It differs for individuals. But it is enjoyable if you can apply the above three pointers before starting to learn anything.
Happy learning!
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