tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4705 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish
| Message 2 of 7 18 September 2013 at 12:45pm | IP Logged |
The basics to do what exactly?
Speak to your teacher? Point at items in a store? Read a novel?
But the fundamentals usually mean a modicum of grammar, a swash of vocabulary, and a
decent pronunciation, as well as an understanding of the spoken and written language
(to
some extent).
But details are hard to pinpoint if you don't give me any context.
See the thing is language is not an end in itself, it's a tool you use to accomplish
other things for which language X is a vehicle. I have the basics of Russian when it
comes to buying things in a store. But not if I want to write a literary essay.
Edited by tarvos on 18 September 2013 at 12:47pm
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7203 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 3 of 7 18 September 2013 at 7:25pm | IP Logged |
Grunting, scratching, and burping are the fundamentals.
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Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4907 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German
| Message 4 of 7 18 September 2013 at 8:48pm | IP Logged |
luke wrote:
Grunting, scratching, and burping are the fundamentals. |
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Erenko is studying French. Don't forget shrugging.
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luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7203 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French
| Message 6 of 7 18 September 2013 at 9:03pm | IP Logged |
Jeffers wrote:
luke wrote:
Grunting, scratching, and burping are the fundamentals. |
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Erenko is studying French. Don't forget shrugging. |
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And farting. Those Frenchmen really know how to cut the cheese.
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Jenne:) Tetraglot Newbie Netherlands polyglotquest.wordpr Joined 4465 days ago 38 posts - 56 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, French Studies: Norwegian
| Message 7 of 7 18 September 2013 at 9:07pm | IP Logged |
Coincidentally, I just read a text about it this afternoon. I agree with what has been said above: what the basics are depends on your goals. Many (beginning) learners assume that learning frequency-lists by heart is enough (e.g. the top 2000). If you know the 2000 most common words, you should be able to get by. Nowadays, however, this viewpoint is being challenged. Frequency lists are not enough for learners who need specialised vocabulary. Someone who is learning a language for fun may find it sufficient, but not someone who needs to communicate intelligently about ships, for instance. For this person, "the basics" denotes a collection of words which have to do with ships.
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