I met a Maori speaker and it was interesting to learn about that language culture.
Found this video in the course of trying to learn my first few Maori words: #1 Beginner Mistake in Te Reo.
Lovely idea. He invoked the 80/20 rule ā suggesting that 80 % of our vocabulary use is made up of what we say with high freqency, it will vary of course from person to person but we all will have phrase we use very often. So he suggests keeping a notebook by you throughout one day and working out what you say most often in English. Then on the next day try to whittle that down to the ten phrases you use most. Get a good translation for those ā asking friends/family if you need to ā and then start using those phrases as a way of building your language use.
His approach reminded me of SSiW so I thought I would pop over here and share the video in case it inspires other people. I have to say I am thinking of doing the exercise and getting hold my most commonly used phrases in welsh as a way to get back into using it at home with the children.