Why do some Spanish people understand English better than they speak it?
I do not speak Spanish, (I am trying to learn), but I work with a lot of Spanish speaking people. It seems that the ones that are trying to learn English always understand what I am telling them, but can't tell me what I just said. Why is that?
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Not only spanish people but anyone who are not fluent in a foreign languages, found difficulty in trying to express themselves.
is that shocking? I’m trying to learn French, and I can understand what French people are saying to me much better than I can formulate my thoughts to them.
That’s just how to the process of learning a language usually goes.
The reason of this is because the more they hear english the more they know what the other person is talking about.They cant tell you because they dont know meaninds of wordsa just how to say them. I dont speak spanish but another language so im use to it.
It’s not just Spanish-speaking people who are like this, it’s anyone who is learning a foreign language. Anyone can recognize words said to them better than coming up with them themselves. My guess is that your memory is helped to recall a word’s meaning by the clues based on context from the sentence. Sometimes it even happens in your own language – when a word is "on the tip of your tongue" – you know you know the word, and one someone else says it you can then recall it too.
Once you can come up with the words on your own, then you really know you have the words memorized!
Not only Spanish, but all languages. If you’ve studied a number of foreign words, and you want to use some of them to converse with one who speaks that language, sometimes that word will now come up in you memory, but if you hear the word, you get the meaning instantly.
It happens to you if you’re learning their language. Or to them if they’re learning yours.
this is because english is the one most complex languages
It can be called ‘performance anxiety’. I understand spoken or written Spanish much better than I can speak it. But that is because I am unsure of the words I want to use and how to phrase what I am saying properly. And with those doubts in my mind, I feel that if I make a mistake, the person I am speaking to will be hugely insulted or think I a goob.
English as a second language is harder to learn,and harder to speak,in special the grammar.
is much easier understanding than speaking. specially around work, when you repeat the same order or they are told what to do, that more that understating the language, they associate it with their duties. Unless you start at an early age is n ot easy to learn any language
Learning any language is always difficult, specially becoming proficient with it. It helps to have someone to communicate and speak with all the time and also to read a lot to acquire a vast vocabulary. Inmmigrants from any country in the world that come from a lower, working class, or uneducated backgrounds will have a harder time learning because they don’t have a large vocabulary to start with. Another problem is that new inmigrants usually tend to reside and work with people of their own background, keeping them away from the mainstream. For some non English speakers learning the language can be puzzling. One of my coworkers asked me once…why do you say Plymouth (plee mooth) and not (plaee mauth) and Plywood (plaee wood) insted of plee wood. In Spanish for instance, vocals have only one sound, a is ah, in English, the letter a could be ah eh ee or oh. Rather confusing for most people. Before I came to this country at 14, my parents sent me to private schools where I had to learn English and French. I never lived in a Hispanic neighborhood and adapted easily to the American way of life.