What is Hardest- Reading, Writing, or Speaking?

[trenchant]

In every language I've tried to learn, it's always been speaking that's the hardest for me to master. When writing, you have ample time to think about conjugations and edit mistakes to your heart's content, but everything must be thought up on the fly when speaking.

Of course, I also think it's speaking that helps a person most effectively master a language, since you're training your brain to think in that language instinctively.

[TheJamal]

I think if you're learning a new language, that it becomes a case by case basis. Some people might think Reading is easier and some might think writing or speaking might be easier.

For a language your comfortable with, I imagine speaking would be the most difficult because you're almost always interacting with another person or group of people when speaking. That tends to add some sort of extra importance to it.

[Poikanen]

The order is like this for me: Speaking->writing->reading, from hardest to easiest. When you're writing, you can use help from books and translations etc. But when you are talking with someone, you have no time to check words and need to just improvise. That's what makes it difficult.

[jiiensamxx]

That would be speaking. A few languages tend to have a different meaning on a few words once you get your tone wrong. And there are some that is written and spoken in a different way, Korean for instance.

[skywatcher]

I'm not sure, it's always been speaking for me. Writing is hard, too, but it's different if you're pouring your mind's content from paper to an actual audience. If you're not prepared, things can easily get misinterpreted, compared to writing which can easily be fixed.

[Elly]

Maybe it depends on the learning style.

If your learning style is not developed in visual-abstract information, then reading will be more difficult.

If your learning style is tactile-kinaesthetic, then writing should be very easy!

Actually speaking the language can depend not only on your personal learning style (auditory and intrapersonal intelligence) but on the support system that your society has. If everyone around you who speaks the language that you want to learn is, for whatever reason, really mean...then that can balance out an auditory learning style, unfortunately...

[The Babylon Project]

This a difficult answer that probably  depends on the language you are learning. In Russian, for exemple, students must learn a new alphabet (printed or handwriting). Also, Russians don't pronounce as they write. For exemple, sometimes the letter "o" is pronounced as /a/, as well as the letters "e" and "a" are sometimes pronounced as /i/.

You can know more about Russian language here www.babylon-project.com

[Sly14Cat]

Well that depends on the language. For English, it seems that many have a better time learning to speak it than anything. Some languages are much harder to learn to write though, especially the East Asian ones like Chinese or Korean that don't have a standard alphabet from which words are derived and you have to memorize the characters. I find Chinese easier to read than to write or speak, because I can see certain characters and remember the meaning, but two hours later I'll forget how to write it.

[MrHurricane89]

As a hearing impaired person, I find speaking and listening the hardest.

Writing is a lot easier, although sometimes, especially when writing business or inquiry letters, I have to look up the accepted phrases and words online.

Reading comes the easiest for me.

[tikilalalove]

For me, speaking is the hardest. Because when you write, you were able to delete when you did wrong. When you read, you can re-read the phrase if you didn't understand what the phrase or paragraph says. But when you speak, you will not be able to erase it especially if it already hurt someone's feelings or vice versa.

[Gelsemium]

For me, speaking is the hardest. Because when you write, you were able to delete when you did wrong. When you read, you can re-read the phrase if you didn't understand what the phrase or paragraph says. But when you speak, you will not be able to erase it especially if it already hurt someone's feelings or vice versa.

I'm with you tika, no question that for me speaking is the hardest, it's like the act that sums up everything you've learned and you have it or you don't. Also, speaking involves a correct accent and that's something hard to achieve.

[hansenlaw]

When learning a new language I think Writing is the hardest, reading is the second hardest, and speaking is the least hardest.

I speak 2 languages fluently, but I've slowly lost the ability to read or write either language because of lack of practice.

[Peninha]

I think that this depend if you are in the country or not. If you're in Japan learning Japanese, possibly speaking is the easiest part because you hear it all day. But if you are in your native country speaking will be the hardest.

[secretgoldfish]

The hardest for me is speaking, and will probably always be, I think. I know how to pronounce things, but my accent really gets in the way. Readding is what I find easiest. After I've read a lot of text in a certain laguage writting become a lot easier.

[srb1006]

For me, writing and listening tend to be my biggest challenges. Writing is difficult until I master the phonics of the language, since it's all about what letters make what sounds. This is especially true with language that include symbols on their letters. Listening just takes me a little extra time.

[Gelsemium]

I think that this depend if you are in the country or not. If you're in Japan learning Japanese, possibly speaking is the easiest part because you hear it all day. But if you are in your native country speaking will be the hardest.

I agree, if you are in an environment where the language is spoken you will have that part made easy. If you're not sure, it's harder and it will be easier eventually to learn how to read and write.

[Wolf]

For me, it's reading. This usually happens when it comes to internet comments and stuff like that, probably because they use a more informal tone? I'm not sure why. xD

[Lasonax]

I tend to be bad at speech, but good at the other parts.

It generally breaks down to the fact that I write/read/listen WAY more than I speak myself, no matter what language it is. As far as japanese goes, I'm not even trying to learn how to speak nor write it, so... There's that.

With german I was around A level (highest mark) when it came to writing/reading, but my speaking was lacking a lot, so I didn't get an A as a final mark in german class.

[kate23]

For me, it's speaking. I find it takes a little practice to get the pronunciation right with French.

Although, with Japanese it's definitely writing/reading. But I haven't really studied Japanese yet, just learned a few words, so obviously I haven't learned the script or anything yet. Pronunciation doesn't seem too hard though.

[whnuien]

When I was still learning I felt that reading, listening, speaking, and writing were all equally difficult to me to be honest. But I overcame each over time and I was getting better year by year.

Nowadays I feel that writing is the hardest part because I could easily ignore the importance of grammar if I write just by following what is in my mind. But I try to keep practicing, double-checking my sentences, and so on so I can become better because I really do love writing.

[AmYy]

For me it's definitely speaking. I'm a kind of person who learns grammar of a foreign language quickly as well as writing, but when it comes to speaking, everything gets so mixed up in my head and I can hardly speak.

[Peninha]

For me it's definitely speaking. I'm a kind of person who learns grammar of a foreign language quickly as well as writing, but when it comes to speaking, everything gets so mixed up in my head and I can hardly speak.

Yeah, I think that speaking is the hardest too, but just imagine you're learning French and you're in France, I think that speaking would be easier than writing maybe.

[hoodoowytch]

For me, the hardest thing is, without a doubt, speaking another language. I can learn to read and write another language fairly easily, but speaking it is a whole other ball of wax.

I have problems with detecting all the sounds of a word. The inflections and nuances of the sounds of a language and it's words. So, reading and writing another language actually comes easier to me than speaking a language. It's the same with my own native American English. It's much easier for me to write and convey what I am trying to say to a person than speaking it. I use A.S.L. a lot too. 

[CrystalMarie]

The hardest thing for me is writing. I am american so I am still trying to get use to the idea of "femine" and "masculine" words. Also, I am working on knowing which ending should go at the end of verbs. I am getting better at it but I am definitely better at just speaking and reading.

[Canadien]

Speaking is the most difficult for me, particularly when engaged in conversation with someone else. For me, this is because it's so high paced as compared to reading and writing (which are at your own pace). Unlike reading and writing, speaking must be done fairly quickly and smoothly, otherwise you won't make sense. As I'm continuing my studies in French, I'm trying to improve on my speaking abilities by partnering with classmates and friends. Reading and writing I can practice on my own, but speaking often requires a partner to converse with.