How the words we teach English language learners changed

Re:How the words we teach English language learners changed by jonahx on Sunday August 02, 2026 @03:21PM (#49147456)

> This is good news - you can be proficient in a foreign language by learning only 2,000 words!

Depends what you mean by "proficient". I currently know ~6k Spanish words and would hesitate to self-apply that word. Others might, but damn languages are hard.

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Re:How the words we teach English language learners changed by WalterBright on Sunday August 02, 2026 @08:22PM (#49149793)

> Depends what you mean by "proficient".

I thought I was pretty clear - you could understand at the level of television. Television scripts are dumbed down.

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Re:How the words we teach English language learners changed by jonahx on Monday August 03, 2026 @01:55AM (#49151701)

Depends on a number of factors, but the majority of people with a 2k word vocabulary would not understand much of a Spanish television show or news cast at native speed. If you were reading the script, it might be different.

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