If you want to look at the phenomenology of learning you will find that:
* There are some people who have always the need of learning things. Remember all those people who have a hobby. Whatever it is, collecting stamps, reading comics, watching chinese movies or playing the piano. They take their hobby to the extreme, they know all the history of football players, they can tell you by heart the actors of a movie filmed in the 1930´s or they know the ten different adaptations of a popular song.
* These people really learn because they like it. Learning for them is not something taugh or requiring an additional effort in their lives.
* They enjoy while they learn. In fact none of them consider they are learning, they just think they are enjoying their time.
Yes, I can identify with this. The best work I do I would not call work but rather play. The best happens when you are not conscious of time or of punching a clock but just doing what you feel is right.