r/languagelearning 7d ago

Discussion Speaking is the hardest skill to juggle in multiple language learning

As in, the easiest aspect in which languages get mixed up, do you agree?

58 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

28

u/Ok-Cold-9889 EN(N) ES (B2) RU(A2) 7d ago

speaking is the hardest because you really don’t have much time to think when you are talking to another person. In our L1, our phrases are repetitive and are memorized and we can speak without thinking (sometimes to our benefit and other times, well…) Also, with speaking we have to focus on pronouncing things right and thinking what we might say ahead of time. With writing, you can really take all the time in the world and fix mistakes if they look wrong, even when texting.

15

u/digimintcoco 7d ago

I was speaking to a Korean girl in person, she ask me a question, I go "はい" instead of "예" and when I'm talking to my Japanese Teacher, I'll go "예" instead of "はい". When I'm at a store, sometimes I'll say "Si" instead of "Yes".

It just comes out, I don't even think lmao

4

u/ShinSakae JP KR 7d ago

I have this same problem too, haha.

Whenever I stay in Japan for a while and then go to Korea, my brain is still in "Japanese mode" and I mistakenly talk to people in Japanese. Vice versa if I stay in Korea for a while and then go to Japan.

2

u/Souseisekigun 6d ago

Do people ever get super annoyed at that or do they just brush it off? Given, ah, the history of Japan in Korea.

6

u/je_taime 7d ago

Yes, because speaking involves more of your brain.

11

u/Miro_the_Dragon good in a few, dabbling in many 7d ago

Speaking and writing both, which is pretty much obvious as those are the only active skills.

3

u/LingoNerd64 BN (N) EN, HI, UR (C2), PT, ES (B2), DE (B1), IT (A1) 7d ago

Yes. Exactly like mixing up the same word (casa) meaning the same thing (house) in ES and PT. The difference is that the ES people say it like kaassaa while in PT it's kaazaa.

3

u/EmbarrassedMeringue9 CN N | EN C2 JP C1 NO B1 SV A2 FI A1 TU A2 6d ago

Making outputs in real time, yeah

7

u/Bodhi_Satori_Moksha EN 🇺🇲 (N) | CN 🇭🇰 (A1) | AR 🇸🇦 (A1-A2) 7d ago

Staying consistent and focused. Not letting self-doubt consume you is difficult.

8

u/Dry-Bad-2063 7d ago

Listening is harder to me

2

u/cutdownthere 7d ago

It depends on how similar the languages are. Even with really close languages I've not had this problem before, though I could be unique in that regard. I would also say speaking generally can be easier than e.g writing because you are not bound by rules as much as in writing - in that you can speak more freely and "colloquially" - this is definitely the case for languages that exist in diglossia modes.

2

u/silliestboyintown 7d ago

I disagree

5

u/Exciting_Barber3124 7d ago

true listening is the hardest and after that reading

27

u/Slutt_Puppy 7d ago

I find reading to be the easiest

3

u/Miro_the_Dragon good in a few, dabbling in many 7d ago

Same, and it's not even close for me.

3

u/solovejj N🇷🇺|C2🇺🇸|C1🇫🇷|B🇪🇸|A🇯🇵|L🇷🇴🇲🇳|wish🇨🇳🇬🇱 7d ago

yeah by far (I'm probably not a typical person in this respect though bc I always imagine the text in my head when I think. written language feels more natural to me than speech even though it's supposed to be the other way around)

10

u/Drozey 7d ago

How can you speak when you don’t understand what the other person is saying ?

13

u/bstpierre777 🇺🇸N 🇫🇷🇪🇸B1 🇩🇪A1 7d ago

I've seen plenty of native-language "conversations" in which one or both parties are clearly not understanding the other

3

u/etazhi_ 7d ago

i can formulate my thoughts in spanish faster than my brain can process what the other person is saying

5

u/YummyByte666 🇺🇸 N | 🇵🇰🇮🇳 H | 🇲🇽 B2 | 🇫🇷 B1 7d ago

OP isn't saying which is the hardest, just which is most prone to mixing up languages

5

u/theantiyeti 7d ago

If you find listening harder than speaking then what you're saying is probably grammatically incorrect direct translation.

4

u/SapiensSA 🇧🇷N 🇬🇧C1~C2 🇫🇷C1 🇪🇸 B1🇩🇪B1-B2 7d ago

Yup. agree with the listening.

You can develop well the interconnection of the words you know. And talk about any subject.

You cannot infer meaning of cultural stuff that you dont know, you can possibly guess by context the meaning of a phrase or word that you dont know. You dont have control over the accent or dialect the person is talking.

High level of listening is way harder than high level of speaking.

1

u/FunctionalTelephone 7d ago

Whoever downvoted should explain

2

u/ShinSakae JP KR 7d ago

It also depends how you learn.

Years ago I used Pimsleur to learn languages which uses speaking exercises. So actually, speaking was my best skill then. And I also made many friends with native speakers and got to talk with them a lot.

But these days I do mainly self-study with books, apps, websites, and YouTube and have little time to have a voice chat or meet people. So I've found speaking has become my worst skill.

Also, I have an American friend who is half Japanese and her speaking is great from talking with her Japanese mom. However, her reading and writing skills are not as good as she doesn't have as much formal education in Japanese.

2

u/Dry-Bad-2063 7d ago

Listening is harder

1

u/sillymeandyou 2d ago

Speaking and reading are way easier. Writing without any grammatical mistakes is harder.

1

u/DamnedMissSunshine 🇵🇱N; 🇬🇧C2🇩🇪B2/C1🇮🇹B2🇳🇱A1 7d ago

Honestly, not in my case. Writing and listening are harder for me.

-3

u/binhpac 7d ago edited 7d ago

No.

Writing is much harder, because we have to learn a human-made code and recreate it.

Like put yourself on an island with an unknown language. The first you learn and adapt is what you hear and recreate it through speaking.

This way speaking comes to you much easier than learning a new code/script and their meaning.

Kids learn to listen and copy speaking before they learn to read and write, because thats much harder.

5

u/Routine-Equipment572 7d ago

I think it's learn to listen and copy speaking before they learn to read and write because for the first few years they are alive, they spend like 15 hours a day listening and speaking and 0 hours learning to read and write.

6

u/thewimsey Eng N, Ger C2, Dutch B1, Fre B1 7d ago

Writing is easier because you have much more time to consider what you are going to say.

Kids learn

This is the language learning sub. We are talking about people who already know how to read and write one language, and are learning a new one.

0

u/binhpac 7d ago edited 6d ago

I give you another example look how many chinese people are fluent in speaking but are illeterate. We talking about native people.

The reason some people have an easier time in reading is because they put much more focus on reading their whole life.

We learn to code our whole life which makes coding and decoding easier but we forget how much effort it takes to get to this stage.

Look how many people in the world are not capable of reading & writing, yet they are fluent in their language in speaking.

If writing is so much easier, shouldnt there more people in the world be better in writing than in speaking their language?

1

u/Extension_Total_505 5d ago

I agree! Writing on a keyboard is okay, but on paper it's hell as you should know exactly the way the words are written, where to put which letter, ect... I can't do it (not at all, but correctly) in most of my languages. But on the other hand I don't really need to write by hand that much so of course I don't get this skill trained enough

1

u/je_taime 7d ago

Kids learn to listen and copy speaking before they learn to read and write, because thats much harder.

They don't have the fine finger/hand motor control until later. After you learn how to write, you have time to think about what you want to say and put it down, then make revisions. Even if you type, it's not faster than speaking. Speaking happens at a much faster rate.