Communicating with Native Speakers
For some reason, I can read more than I can really speak most of the time. Some of my friends email to me in Spanish, and most of the time I can understand them. Sometimes I can't understand a Native Speaker because they speak so fast.
When I worked at the City Market, I felt so proud of myself when I was able to kind of communicate with a Spanish speaker. He was looking to buy some watermelons, and I was able to tell him which were yellow and red watermelons by myself. My friend Maria and I developed a plan where she would tell me what the person was saying and I would respond. She understands more Spanish than she can speak. I can respond better if I know what they're talking about. Then my friend Maria thought I was a Native Speaker, which is how we developed our plan. She was part Spanish and I guess I don't have any part of Spanish in me (which I really doubt...) and my friend Jeff commented on how I was "more Spanish" than Maria and it was strange to him how she was and I wasn't....
Is it normal for most people to be able to read more than speak? Maybe because it is easier to be able to spot cognates and such?
I think it's easier to respond to someone when you actually know what they're talking about...Right?
12 Answers
Hearing vs Speaking vs Reading. I know where you're coming from. I honestly believe that we use different parts of our brain for each of those tasks, and that learning one of them does not make us proficient in another. Speaking takes more than knowing what to say. It also takes training the vocal muscles to cooperate with the head knowledge. And when it comes to listening, well, have you ever listened to someone from Nigeria speak English? For many Nigerians, their native language is English but, whoa!, do they ever have a different accent. It takes a bit for ones ears to adjust to that and be able to understand. In a similar way, I think that understanding spoken Spanish takes time. Time for the ears to connect to what the brain knows.
I started learning Spanish from books, although I also did my best to speak to and listen to my new Hispanic friends right away. However, I still picked up on the Reading skills much faster than those for Hearing or Speaking. Even after two years of fairly intensive learning, I would listen to a conversation and my mind would be interpreting the thoughts like this: "So when the _ _ _ _ went _ _ _ _ then _ _ _ _ and I thought _ _ _ _ because _ _ _ _, What do you think?" 
Uhhh...
My wife and I found that only over time, and making a very conscience effort to converse with the native Hispanics in our area, were we able to tune our ears and train our vocal muscles to get the Hearing and Speaking parts down. No, not down. We are by no means fluent yet. I would say we are conversational. Fluent may be years more to come. But we're having fun in the meantime! 
I have experience of studying 5 foreign languages, so I can tell, you can always read, then understand while listening more than you can speak by yourself. When reading you avoid the difficulties of grasping different accents, take your time to understand. And when listening you understand more, because you actually know more words than you remember to use speaking yourself.
Talking to native speakers of some language is always a great experience, because you get a chance to practice 'proper', live language, not the one from the book, learn different accents. I felt confident in English, as I was succesfully using it at work and studies for a long time, communicating with people from around 20 countries, mostly European. But I still remember the shock then after all this I was sent to work to England and I suddenly found out I couldn't understand a thing in local English. It took about 3 months untill I could pick up the phone without stress 
I think for most people it's a lot easier to read a foreign language than to hear it spoken. Reading allows you to ingest it at your own pace and go back over it where necessary.
For me, definitely, reading is easier. One thing I do is read out loud to myself every day so that I can hear myself reading. That also really helps my pronunciation, but it drives my wife crazy.
Reading Spanish is much easier for me than understanding spoken word or speaking.Funny story, I was listen to the radio the other day, and there's this song and it goes, "...el perfume de tu -----" and it was a word that only sounded like one word I know, miel.Now, that doesn't make any sense.So, the other day I was doing flashcards on here, external body parts, and I learn a new word I've never seen! Piel,skin,now that put that word in the lyrics I've been hearing and that makes sense!So, yes SEEING a language is key to learning for me.
Someone posted this link on the forums some time ago:
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spe/beg01.html
I have kept it in my favorites and it has been a big help! Thanks, someone (I wish I could remember who...) 
I think expressive language will always be harder than receptive language. Even babies, when they first acquire their native language, can understand what is said to them long before they can speak.
I also agree that reading is easier than listening. In addition to all the reasons given, there's the fact that in conversation (in whatever language), people tend to run words together and take verbal shortcuts (examples: gonna, dunno, tá bien, tónces). In writing you can always see where one word stops and the next word starts.
One technique that I've found helpful is to listen to a recording several times before I allow myself to look at a transcript. Each time it's like a little more of the fog clears away.
p.s.If you are interested in listening practice, another good site is www.notesinspanish.com which has various levels available.
I totally agree. Some people (like me) prefer the written out things to try and guess from cognates and context clues to try and figure something out.
I think it's harder because, when conversing with people, you don't have the luxury of moving at your own pace, unlike reading.
I would like to mention at this point our lovely chat. We often go and talk, voice, when there are several people around, apart from that we chat, both English and Spanish.
Pues, entiendo mucho de lo que dijo aqui y no se por que crees que el espanol es mas rapido. Porque no lo es mucho! El espanol es poquito mas rapido pero en realidad, Pues, soy un nativo de MX y el espanol es normal. Pero, de hecho, la razon que no puede entenderlo cuando hablando es porque, tal vez no sabe las palabras o que necesita escucharlo mas. Solo escucha los videos y telenovelas y trae entenderlo. Es mas divertido asi. jajaja Hago eso para el ingles. jaja
Hello Sarahis, i can help you, for speaking spanish, you ask me your questions and I will answer, OK ?? bay, jesua.
No doubt about it, reading is easier. I'm glad to hear that you're able to put your learning to practical use. Isn't it cool when you get that opportunity especially when you don't screw it up.
