How can someone understand a language but not be able to speak it?
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Tlitbis much easier to put together what someone means rather than generate a sentence yourself with correct grammar, word choice, and punctuation. If someone else speaks to you, you do not have to worry about those aspects, and really only have go worry about the word choice.
Then theres the memory aspect of it. Have you ever been trying 4o remember something, but it just won’t come to you until someone else says something? Imagine that, but with several words at a time. I know their meaning when I hear them, but I can’t remember it on my own.
They probably have studied it for a bit but not enough to confidently speak it. It takes a lot more study and practice until you can form your own sentences.
They probably wouldn’t be able to understand a whole lot either if they can’t speak it at all.
I can understand a lot of Portuguese & Italian because it’s similar to Spanish, especially if it’s written, because I’m fluent in Spanish. As humans, we live looking for patterns in life, and languages that are based in Latin have tons of similar patterns. For some people that can get confusing, and make trying to actually grasp the new language nearly impossible.
Because listening only require thinking in the present and past on what you’re heard. This is a passive skill.
Talking requires thinking in the present and future while also directing your mouth, tongue, and vocal cords to speak another language. This is an active skill.
Not an expert, but I would guess because when you’re speaking it, you have to recall the language and grammar and words completely from memory. But when you’re hearing it, you just have to remember what the word means and you don’t have to know every single word because you can usually figure it out from context.
It’s the words. I have a very bad memory (due to medical bs that happened) I am currently learning Russia and just started polish because I work with a bunch of poles. Polish is alot like russian, I catch alot of words and understand some times what we are doing or what the problem is and just go ahead with it. I cant speak back to them because I cant remember the words as I need them (in both russian and polish).
Making the sounds with your mouth takes practice, moreso if the phonemes (basic sound blocks) of the language are alien to your mother tongue. And if you’re learning a tonal language like Chinese, you basically need to re-learn your inflection habits from scratch because otherwise you’ll be unintelligible just from using the wrong tone.
Added to the fact that you don’t need to worry about incorrect grammar when listening (assuming the speaker knows the language), and it should be clear why it’s a lot easier to hear a language and understand, than it is to get that language to come out of your mouth.
Try getting drunk. A good friend of mine is a bartender who spent many years working with Spanish-speaking staff, though he himself did not speak Spanish. However one time he got blackout drunk and began speaking fluent Spanish.
You shall be having comprehend what we communicating despite we bad bad speaked or you bad bad understand language.
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