19 zeros then a 1

Last night I had a dream about language learning. Don’t know if the dream was in color, but it certainly had a binary feel. 

I saw 19 zeros in a row, followed by a one. And I knew what that meant. 

It takes on average 20 times before a language item sticks i.e. you forget it 10 times before you remember it long term.

These instances are regarded as failures by school. You got them wrong.

But THAT attitude is wrong. Each instance of forgetting is an improvement. Each zero is actually a ‘1’.

I'd go so far as to say each so-called 'zero' is real, rational and positive too! They graph upwards.

Now, you might think that this represents awfully slow progress. After all . . . forgetting something 19 times. How can that be efficient?

Here's how. 

You take a whole swag of language up that slope at once. You improve a thousand items at a time, which you can do with light, comprehensible and enjoyable input (ListenRead to a book). Twenty tries to internalize a thousand items. That's not bad at all. Work it out!