retorick dixit:
Yet perhaps there's a list somewhere of vocabulary words that comprise a working knowledge of the language. I've read (and I believe) that part of learning a language is simply buckling down and memorizing thousands of words. It sounds daunting, but I suppose it's really not, if one paces oneself. The challenge seems to be finding such a list and settling on an effective system for memorization.
Any recommendations?
I used to think so some time ago. But essentially it's nonsense.
There is no point in memorizing any reference book. If you just learn by heart a thousand words it doesn't mean you can easily use them in speaking or writing or at least understand in reading. By the nature of the language words do not exist as isolated items, but as elements of speach. Memorizing a list of words is quite unnatural and you can't achieve automatism this way. Words that you have never met in a text or in speach are dead for you. In order to increase vocabulary one should read more. Any teacher of foreign languages will confirm my words.
What's more, you don't need to care about remembering every single word you once memorized. Oblivion is also a most natural thing. But if you use a language, you come across the same words over and again, and gradually they stick fast in your memory.
I don't want to say that rote-learning should be avoided. I mean only that it's role is auxiliary, and you shouldn't attach to it an exagerrated importance.
The same is true about grammar. If you manage to memorize a whole grammar reference book, it doesn't imply that you can at least recognize the forms when you read. Memorizing a sample of declension you do the first slight step towards mastering declension (and this step can be avoided under some approaches). Only training and practice result in real knowledge.