Re:The Mystery of People Who Speak Dozens of Languages
by emodendroket on Thursday August 30, 2018 @04:03PM
(#17880232)
The Simple English Wikipedia aims to use about 1,500 words, so that might give you a sense of what's possible. That said, if you look at it it's clearly unnatural and contrived; most people you talk to aren't going to be able to restrict themselves to the right set of words (and even then it can be dicey -- you can know all the words in the phrase "put up with something" and yet have no idea what the phrase means). https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
1) Even in languages that I've studied for a long time and know a lot more than 1500 words, I struggle to carry on small talk. Here again, maybe we have a different definition of small talk. Sure I can navigate the world, but I can't talk politics, economics, or current events without struggling or feeling stunted.
2) I recall being a student in Germany and having a 5 year old host sister. Sure her grammar was not fully developed and her range of specialized vocabulary was limited, but she most definitely knew more than 1500 words and had a more working understanding of that language than a typical non-native speaker would even after many years of study.