Learn the 1,000 words that matter. Skip the ones that don't.
The first 1,000 words of any language cover roughly 80% of everyday conversation. Apps teach you "elephant" before "I need". We don't.
Coverage figure from Nation (2006), How Large a Vocabulary Is Needed: the most frequent 1,000 word-families cover 81-84% of spoken English (BNC). Comparable figures hold in Spanish (Davies, Routledge Frequency Dictionary of Spanish) and other major languages by Zipf's law.
Spanish
FSI Category I. Around 600 to 750 hours to professional working proficiency, the cheapest second language for English speakers on the table.
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French
FSI Category I. The biggest receptive head-start English gives you (30 to 40% cognate density). Liaison and the spoken-written gap are where it gets hard.
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Mandarin
FSI Category V. Around 2,200 hours, roughly four times Spanish. No conjugation; the cost sits in tones and characters, not grammar.
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What this site is for
Phrase pages and grammar guides that respect the language and the country. Calculator-led tools (FSI category, time-to-fluency, lexical similarity) that the gamified apps will not build because they undercut the in-app subscription pitch. An editorial voice for adult learners who are bored of being congratulated for completing a streak.
The first three languages are Spanish, French and Mandarin. More to follow.