Learning a language

How long do you reckon it takes to learn a new language to the point where you can have simple conversations with native speakers of that language?

Specifically, how long do you think it would take for someone who can already speak at least two languages to learn an unfamiliar language, when they are in an environment where the unfamiliar language is spoken by everyone and they are working on picking up the language as the main thing they are doing?   Assume that the person has the assistance of someone who can speak both languages, and that the structure of the language is similar to those already known.

I reckon two weeks would be more than enough, but then my attitude to languages is a bit Top Gear.  Pp, who has A's at O Level in several languages he can't speak at all, feels that two weeks is a ludicrous underestimate. 

Random Mine of the Day : Great Wheal Martha, or New Great Consols.

New Great Consols mine in Luckett has come and gone, come and gone.  Mineworks in this valley probably started out as surface tin panning along the stream at the bottom of the valley in the late Middle Ages, it was first recorded as Wheal Martha in 1836, and it closed for the last time in 1946.  It was a mine that produced copper, silver, tin and a small amount of gold, as well as, yes, arsenic.

Here's a chimney, in the process of blending in to the background:

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