[Phi]

I'm not sure I agree with you, but maybe you can explain a bit more about why you think frequency lists are a bad idea?

Originally Posted by kat

Get a copy of "The art and Science of Learning languages". Pay close attention to what they say about 'crawlspeaking', etc.

Frequency lists are the wrong approach - you can survive with a few hundred words, but they'll be scattered throughout the first 15,000 or so most common. You also need a minimal 'crawl grammar'.

For really quick tourist-survival-level speech, for people without a background in studying languages, Pimsleur is probably the best.

To get to an intermediate level quickly, Assimil or FSI is - budget 3-12 months, minimum.

For quick fluency (as opposed to being able to get by, get the gist of things, etc - actually understanding several thousand words, and using them actively, with largely appropriate grammar, understanding literature and spoken conversations in crowded rooms with background noise) - it just doesn't happen. Budget a couple of years, unless you speak something closely related and/or already speak half a dozen+ languages.