I’m learning Italian right now and I’ve noticed that it’s much easier to read a sentence and comprehend it than for me to translate the same sentence from English into Italian myself. Does anyone else agree with this and does anyone know why?
In: Biology
It’s a lot easier to recognize words and puzzle piece the sentence together than to generate all of the translation accurately from your mind. Other things in the sentence are provided for you – syntax, grammar, etc where you would have to add them in on your own when translating on your own.
You have to think a lot quicker when you’re speaking. The other person may say things in a different order than the one you’re used to, or use different phrasing and words you don’t recognise, and all that time you’re trying to work it out while also attempting to formulate your reply.
Also a native speaker usually speaks at a lot faster rate, running words together that you’re used to reading as separate entities.
When you’re listening to an English speaker you know where the gap between words exist and so you’re able to distinguish words from each other whereas you’ve not been exposed to that much Italian so you don’t hear the divides between words making it harder to interpret.
I’m having the same problem with the same language believe it or not. I’ve got some Italian tapes in my car which I listen to. I think over time it’ll make it easier to understand.
A big challenge to comprehending spoken language is understanding where one word stops and the next begins. When you read “The rabbit jumped out of the hat,” the spaces separate the words so that you can interpret each one at a time. If someone says the sentence out loud and you don’t know which words to listen for, it may sound like “Thara bujumpt outathahat.”
(Not all written languages have spaces like this, but they have their own ways of breaking up sounds.)
Oh I think I know this one! You have a higher receptive vocabulary then expressive vocabulary when you’re learning a new language. Listening and comprehension come before being able to speak. Many EL (English language learners) will go through what’s called the “silent period” where they may understand the vast majority of what is being spoken before they will speak themselves. Same is true for other languages I assume.
– people don’t speak as slowly as you’d read a language you don’t know well
– accents. there are even native italians who say they can’t understand sicilian italian, so imagine how tough it would be for you to listen to words being spoken much more differently than you learned them
– when people speak, they typically get a bit lazy with formation. say things that aren’t 100% grammatically correct, and oral language typically has far more slang/dialectal phrases than written language has.
Reading is a very passive way to experience language: the words are already there for you with correct spelling and correct syntax/grammar. All you have to do is recognize the words (or even part of words) and you can guess the meaning of a whole sentence.
Speaking is a much more active process: not only do you have to come up with the words but you have to pronounce them correctly and use correct syntax/grammar. So it’s way easier to guess the meaning of words you are somewhat familiar with, than it is to come up with these words in the right order on your own.
Receptive vocabulary > productive vocabulary. This is true even when we are toddlers learning our first language, we understand a lot more than we can produce.
I know this will be a short explanation, but you can’t mishear the written word. You also don’t have to be worried with your own pronunciation.
Passive and active command of a language is always different, and not only in foreign languages, but also in your native language! Passive command entails reading and listening. Active command encompasses writing and speaking.
When you hear a speaker use the word “proclivity” for example, you know what he means (passive command). but you may never consider using this word yourself (active command). In the context of a foreign language, you might hear someone use a word whose meaning you extrapolate through context, but if you were trying to convey a concept in a conversation, you wouldn’t (yet) know that word and therefore not use it.
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