Kobu - Words you didn't pay attention to, coming back to you

So, today while watching Ranma 1/2, something interesting (unexpected) happened.

I picked up a new word ("kobu") - which isn't new or interesting in and of itself; I pick up words all the time. But, the thing is, today was not the first time I had heard that word... I heard it yesterday or the day before that, and today was the second time. But when I heard it the first time, it slipped right by me - I heard it, but I made nothing of it at the time; it was sound without meaning at that point, along with most of what I hear at this point in the experiment.

Today when I heard it, the context made the meaning clear - it would roughly translate as 'swelling' or 'bruise'. What struck me as interesting was that, had I not heard the word repeated today in a context that illustrated its meaning today, I would not have remembered hearing the word. Indeed, up to the point where I heard it, I had no particular recollection of hearing it. But now that I a) re-heard it and b) understand what it means, I both remember hearing it before and better understand what was being said that first time that I heard (but did not understand) the word.

I just thought this was kinda cool, because a lot of what I'm listening to nowadays is sound without meaning, and more often than not words rush by me without appearing to leave any trace of either meaning or recollection... it now seems that the last part isn't true; in addition to everything else that listening does for me (allow me to pick up new words, show me how those words are used in context, etc), it also allows me to build up some kind of store of Japanese sound inventory that I'm not even aware of and that comes back to me when it's needed. Of course, this is all pure theory, but until my experience (or that of another person's) proves otherwise, I think I might be right.


P.S. There's an article about language learning that I read recently that talks about something related to what I just said and seems to confirm my thoughts... I'm not going to post or discuss it now because it's late and I'm tired, but do expect to see it up within the next few days.