#ALSO this is sad but beginners often overestimate how much they understand when they're listening

[languagelvlup]

A lot of people who start learning a language will say "oh, I understand more than I speak." I also fell into this trap, but now I'm not so sure about it. Shouldn't our speaking and listening abilities both draw from the same body of language knowledge in our brains?

Sure there might be a word that you can recognize but wouldn't be able to come up with on your own…but for me it was more like

"I finally managed to score a new job! I couldn't have done it without the help of my supervisor Sarah. It's gonna be challenging, but fun. I'm looking forward to it!"

I understood the key words and thought "Wow I never could have said all of that, but I understood the conversation!"

But actually, maybe I COULD have said "New job! Sarah helped me. It's challenging but fun!"

All this to say…if you think "my listening is better than my speaking, I need to practice speaking", then consider that maybe what you actually need to do is build your vocabulary and gain a better understanding of more grammar. This is 100% the case for me.

If you do not have the tools to speak at the level you want, you will not gain these tools by speaking more. Words you don't know are not going to suddenly appear in your head. You've gotta learn them in movies or dramas or anime or books or comics or social media posts (or flashcards if that's your cup of tea). And THEN you will be better the next time you try speaking.

TL;DR In most cases, input (listening/reading/studying) in your target language will help your speaking more than "speaking practice" will.