This concept really will help guide a language learner to view languages not as an epic struggle but a neat little hobby that fits well in their lives.  

“There’s no heroism in struggle. There are no extra points for doing it the hard way. The heroism is in making progress” –  well said. 

“Grimble demonstrated. He pressed forward just a bit, extended his head and lifted his wings. And that was it – he was suddenly airborne. Twice Soren’s size or more, yet Grimble seemed to float up effortlessly. Would they ever learn? Have they even improved?”

The last bit struck me when I was reading through these passages recently. I (and I believe I’m not the only one) often feel this way about things I am learning, or used to be learning – be it Japanese, rollerblading, riding a bike or speaking English. There was a point in time when I looked at people who could do seemingly effortlessly what I was trying so hard to learn. I too though: “will I ever learn? will I ever be this good?”

But as it’s mentioned several times in the book – to fly, you must believe. If you don’t believe, you won’t fly no matter how much you learn about the theory of flying. But if you believe, you’ll eventually fly, as long as you keep trying. 

There was a time when I confused “have” with “heaven” and when I needed a dictionary to construct a half-assed paragraph in English. There was a time when I would think: “man, it would be so great to know English already”. And here I am now. So I believe there will come a time when I stop confusing kanji, when I can read more than a few Japanese sentences without a dictionary and when I know which particle to use at a given time.

And I believe that you too should believe :p