I'm typing the Danish numbers, cardinal and ordinal up to twenty plus every tenth up to a hundred (hundrede), into my language machine (you can play along at home - follow the link in the title, add some words to your personal list, and take a test), and I recognized a pattern. We have a test tomorrow on the numbers, in addition to the standard memorize-fifteen-sentences test, and when the test was announced and then the announcement repeated during the course of last week, I experienced and witness a sequence of reactions. First, denial of meaning - she said there would be a test and we filed that away but pretended that it didn't matter yet. Then anger - why are these numbers so stupid? (They're not much more irregular than English numbers, where eleven, twelve, thirteen, twenty, and thirty are nothing to brag about.) Then despair: I'll never make it; I'll never pass the test, I'll never learn the language. Then numbness - you just do it, and do it over and over. Acceptance may come next, but I've not gotten that far.

See the pattern? That's right, language learning is emotionally identical to grieving.