Hey Bob,

One of my subscribers, Adam, sent me a question about the week where language learning all goes wrong.

He'd had a couple of good weeks. Then one week nothing went right, and picking the language up again felt like a mountain to climb... as if he'd slipped back behind where he started.

I know that feeling well. You feel lost, defeated, and absolutely no motivation to keep going.

But I don't think you're actually losing ground at all.

In fact, I think it's mostly an illusion.

I once went on holiday with some friends for a whole month and didn't speak my target language the entire time. (Not the greatest hardship of my life.) I should have come back rusty.

Instead, I came back more comfortable with the language. If anything, I felt more fluent. And that's happened to me a number of times.

The only explanation I've got is that your brain keeps processing things while you rest, even while you sleep.

Learning isn't linear.

Which is why I think "falling behind" is a slightly odd idea. Behind what, exactly? Usually it's a schedule we set ourselves... and then felt bad about when life got in the way.

Someone once said to me, "Olly, why don't you just try to be kind to yourself?" I've been trying to remember it ever since.

Remember that when you start to feel "behind" in your language. You're working on a project that takes years, not months. And on that timescale, one bad week really isn't such a big deal.

You got this!

Chat soon,

Olly