What is Hardest- Reading, Writing, or Speaking?

[whatupswags]

I find listening the most difficult! And no, this is not a problem for me in my native language. My auditory skills in language learning are very weak, and as hard as I try, I literally miss words and search to just grab hold of the main vocabulary. Yes, of course, this is a stage in the language learning process, but I've been living in France for almost 3 years now, so clearly, my level of comprehension should be a little bit higher. Reading and writing have definitely been the easiest for me because I can always re-read or re-write a mistake. Once something is said, it can't be taken back!

[Firelily99]

Speaking is most definitely the most difficult to learn to do.  My brain seems to freeze on me and I find myself constantly trying to find the words I need.

[MyNameIsNotDenzel]

I find listening the most difficult! And no, this is not a problem for me in my native language. My auditory skills in language learning are very weak, and as hard as I try, I literally miss words and search to just grab hold of the main vocabulary. Yes, of course, this is a stage in the language learning process, but I've been living in France for almost 3 years now, so clearly, my level of comprehension should be a little bit higher. Reading and writing have definitely been the easiest for me because I can always re-read or re-write a mistake. Once something is said, it can't be taken back!

I agree with you. I've been trying to understand spanish for several years now and I can't seem to grasp it conversationally. People say it's a matter of being immersed in the language but I think I'm just simply think I'm impaired in this area.

[Firelily99]

By far its speaking it because of having to translate from my native language to the new one.  I'm still at the tedious yet necessary early stages of trying to get the basics together.

[simmyao]

Writing of course. With speaking you can get away with making small mistakes and still be understood. With reading you can kinda use contextual clues and guess around unfamiliar words.

If you can write a perfect essay in a language, then I'd say you're fluent!

[ArchaeRogue]

The hardest for me would be listening and speaking. Unless it is a specific phrase I have memorized for several weeks, I always stutter in a casual French conversation. Usually, I have to ask my AP French friends to slow down when talking so I could understand and reply. My replies are also horrendously slow, takes me several moments to make sure I'm using correct grammar.

Easiest would be writing, for some reason. I just happen to be better at writing it down and reading it in my head. 

[Blue]

The hardest thing for me to do is always speak the language. I can master writing pretty easily, but when it comes to actually conversing.. man. I stumble and stutter, mispronounce words.. I used to have a firm grasp of Spanish, but after years of disuse, I lost it.

[Loud]

Becasue I'm very lazy about studying sometimes, I'd have to say writing. Just because of the process of learning all the new words, vocabulary, sentence structures, conjugations...

Like there are so many things regarding writing that you have to learn first in order to read and speak properly a new language.

[chiller]

The hardest thing for me to do is always speak the language. I can master writing pretty easily, but when it comes to actually conversing.. man. I stumble and stutter, mispronounce words.. I used to have a firm grasp of Spanish, but after years of disuse, I lost it.

I totally agree.  Speaking is always the hardest part for me. Especially getting the accent right (at least an intelligible accent  ). Thats why they say language learning is all about persistence and practice.

[Bloomsie]

As a visual and audio learner, speaking would be the most challenging part of learning a language. I can understand languages, write them, and even read them, but when it comes to speaking it's a different story.

I guess it's more or less because when speaking you're put on the spot. You don't have time to correlate words with latin or English to influence pure meaning. You've got to get the words out fast and as correct as possible.

[Korsakoff]

For me speaking is without a doubt the hardest part of learning a new language. I usually get the hang of writing new vocabulary and using them in sentences real quick, but speaking is another story. But that probably has to do with the fact that I'm not able to train my verbal foreign language skills very often. Even when I'm on vacation where it would be actually possible to speak in a foreign language it most likely ends in a disaster, afterwards I'm too frightened to try it again and then stick to a language I know better. I remember that I was at a restaurant in Spain and tried to order my meal on Spanish, it turned out that they didn't understand what I was trying to say.

[pipps]

For me it's writing. I feel like I can remember how to say the words and what they mean, and when I see the word on paper I know what is means. But if you gave me a pen and paper and asked me to write it out, I think I would struggle. I'm not quite sure why that is though.

[atomiczagnut]

I would definitely say listening is the hardest for me.  As others have pointed out, native speakers speak faster than you're used to and tend to run words together.  Trying to keep up and translate in my head at the same time is difficult.  The trick, according to my high school German teacher, is to stop translating into your native tongue in your head.  For example, when someone says "kugelschreiber", instead of thinking "that means pen in English", you should just picture the image of a pen in your mind, like you would if someone had said "pen" to you.  Learning how to bypass your internal translator and having your internal monolouge think in the foreign language is the key to acheiving fluency.

I'm slightly faster at speaking than I am at listening, though I still speak far more slowly than native speakers.  I will also pause a lot to think of a certain word, or just say the word in English if I can't think of the foreign one.  Still, sometimes when I'm speaking a foreign language the right words just come out of my mouth, and I'm totally surprised!

Reading/writing are the easiest for me, since I can take my time and use a dictionary.  This also helps me learn proper grammar, tenses, conjugations, etc.  I've noticed when I'm speaking, if I don't know how to say a verb in the proper tense, I'll just default to present tense.  It probably makes me sound like an idiot to native speakers, but it gets my point across.  When writing, though, I take the time to look it up and make sure I'm saying everything correctly.

[hdejong]

For me the hardest is listening. Hearing a language from a native speaker is much harder than hearing it from an instructor. The easiest for me is reading.

[True2marie]

The hardest part of learning another language (to me) is writing it.

I have found this to be true for Spanish. I struggle to write out the words correctly and misspell words. Also, I struggle with verbs.  Yet, for some reason, I am able to speak and read Spanish without a problem.

[teamrose]

I think it depends on the language. For instance being an English language speaker, any language that uses the Arabic alphabet is easier to read than speak, since so many words are derived from similar sources. If one is to speak an Asian language like Chinese or Japanese it would probably be easier to speak than read since I have no knowledge of the characters used to form the words.

[Rosa]

Well for me it's definately speaking :doubtful:.To try to speak a language that you did not grow up speaking can be quite  challenging :sweating:.You may have to form your tongue or mouth in a unique way to get the words to come out right. Sometimes you may even have to use your throat to help to sound certain words.So I'd have to stick to speaking as being the hardest for me.

[Humbleman]

For me it is speaking, but also listening.

Speaking - whenever presented with the chance to speak Spanish, or any of the other languages I am learning, I choke up. Sometimes I do know the correct reply, but I get too insecure.

Listening - native speakers speak fast and sometimes takes away letters. Therefore, whenever I listen to a language I am learning, I miss out.

We've got the same problem my friend. It's sometimes difficult for me to keep up with the pace at which some native speakers speak. I know I am catching on and improving daily, but gosh! It's so hard sometimes. I do reading and writing better. I guess I have to invest more into resources that will aid my listening skills and ability  :nerd:

[Wanderer]

Reading. I don't know why exactly, though I suspect it's because I have been reading English longer and have done more reading then I have spoken or wrote English. This language has been more ingrained into me through the method of reading, so acclimating myself into another method in this way is harder.

[sophiaseo]

I think writing, reading, and speaking are equal in difficulty, but if I were forced to choose which is the most difficult, I would say writing is the most difficult. Speaking and reading are not as difficult as writing because you have to think of your own words and sentences in writing, whereas, in speaking, no writing is needed, and in reading, the words are already there for you. Writing is also the most difficult because Chinese characters, Korean alphabet letters, and any other kind of language have different sounds. Just like English homophones and homonyms, other language sounds may be very confusing and difficult to write.

[Hurly23]

In my opinion in English for me it's the writing and then the speaking, the listening part has always been the easiest part. I remember when I started learning English when I was a little kid, I struggled a lot with the grammar and was also very nervous when trying to speak it even in my teen years. However speaking now is almost as natural as my mother language which is Bulgarian, but from time to time I still have problems with the writing, but then again am still learning.

[littleredcookbook]

What is most difficult for you in a foreign language- reading, writing, or speaking? For me it is definitely writing, especially as I progress in a language.  Very early on, while I am still getting used to new sounds and pronunciation, I sometimes find speaking harder, but that usually lasts a few months at most.

What is hardest for you and why?

Speaking is the worst for me, but I also have severe social anxiety and my mouth moves much slower than my brain, haha. Writing is easier for me because I can form and edit my thoughts before committing them to speech or paper, and when speaking an answer is expected right away. And that unnerves the hell out of me. 

[Hedonologist]

I would say speaking as it requires both the most effort and most confidence. reading is easiest as seeing a word will often remind you of its meaning, when when you are trying to compose a new piece of text it may have slipped your memory.

[zackeymane]

I think listening is the hardest, because if you've ever learned a second language, I'm sure a lot of us could agree that simply understanding what the speaker is saying is the most difficult thing. At least for me.

[lizbeth19hph]

I am teaching English to Koreans and most of them have difficulty in speaking skills. They cannot express themselves well and are having a hard time finding the appropriate vocabulary words to use in their sentences. Although some are fluent already for they have gone abroad to study English, their lack of practice regularly of the English language hinders them to develop their skills in all areas of speaking, writing and listening as well.