Learning a language

[bunn]

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. 

Comments

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I feel, sadly, that it is intrinsically unheroic to do what I do, and find myself paralyzed and struck dumb by an inability to remember what case I am trying to talk in, and therefore spending 30 seconds wibbling over parts of speech, by which time the conversation has moved on and left me flailing in its wake :-/

But probably I would be useless at swordplay, and I know I am a disaster on horseback, so it's all of a piece really :-D