Tipping point

A half-filled glass. Drop by drop the water level rises. It takes a certain number.

In terms of language, it's the same: it takes a certain number of exposures to a vocabulary item (or grammatical structure) before it sinks in. Maybe 12, 15 or 40, depending on who you believe. And at some point along the way you reach a tipping point. You feel that you 'know' that word.

The notion of tipping point applies elsewhere also.

Maybe it is the 'i' in i+1 (from Krashen).

With me, with French, it happened when I came across the music of Serge Gainsbourg.

I also look forward to reading about French Impressionism in French (especially about Paul Gauguin). Or the original letters of Vincent Van Gogh (I understand that he wrote his letters in 3 or 4 languages).