Thread: Reading, writing, listening or speaking?

I choose listening. I think its the most difficult of the four. Its especially satisfying if the people you are listening to think you can't understand them!

Pejko, the word is merry-go-round. Merry just means happy. Marry is a different thing altogether.

Welcome back, Leof and Vadim!

Originally Posted by Leof

I'd choose to think in the foreign language.

Now look at that: he's only just gotten back, and already he hits the nail right on the head!

Yes, that sums it up perfectly: fluency is when you think in a language, and you have to master the other four first to be able to do that.
I change my vote to "thinking" too!


Volk: - I speak one language with my family, another at work (and with most friends), and a third during weekends (when I do some teaching, as a hobby). I use all three languages so regularly that I only ever think in the language that I happen to be speaking at that moment - that is, I don't think about speaking, I just do it. I don't "translate" from one to the other (sometimes, in French, I do - I don't have total fluency there for more than normal everyday conversation; specialized words I have to translate, or ask for a translation.)

What DOES happen when I'm really tired is that I open my mouth and another language comes out than the one I intended to use...

Also, my German speaking skills are ......errrr....basic - and these days, I sometimes find myself talking baby-Russian to Germans without realizing it. Much to the astonishment of the German, of course.

So I think you sort of jump from "language-brain-segment" to "language-brain-segment" as you go along.... ...... as long as you use a language often enough, you start thinking in it.