What skill do you find most difficult?

10 comments

1. For me it’s writing and speaking. Maybe it’s because I watch a lot of anime so listening is somewhat easy for me. Reading too because I already know kanji from learning mandarin.

   But even though I’ve learnt up to N4 grammar, I still find myself constructing simple N5 level sentences when speaking or texting people in discord.

2. Finding the desire to speak tbh
   Everything else other than writing is good

3. Speaking, because I’m socially awkward regardless of language.

   All kidding aside, I don’t live in Japan, so if I combine the total amount of Japanese speaking I’ve done in nine years of learning, the runtime would probably max out at six months. I write in Japanese often enough and I read and watch Japanese daily, but getting proficient at speaking apparently requires more than a couple of hours of conversation every three to four months. Go figure.

4. speaking and listening are way way way harder for me

   I almost never do it is why

5. Writing and speaking probably. Just because I’m not sure how to create good sentences and I’m still N4, itll probably stay like that. Listening is my greatest strength from the beginning, I have experiences with learning English and listening was a terrible torture. Like listening to somebody who was trying to speak with some kind of noodles or dumplings in their mouth, we have a joke about it in Poland. Japanese phonetics is similar to Polish and we also tend to speak pretty fast… so it’s a no problem. Reading – kanji. They can be helpful but most of the time I don’t know enough. Also it’s another “alphabet” and I had to get used to it, still can’t read katakana fluently 🤚
   if I had to choose one hardest, then writing. I can’t express myself that good in writing, can’t use gestures or modulate the voice.

6. Reading and writing for me

7. If I have to use a pen/pencil? Writing. If im allowed to use a computer, listening. Writing and reading can be done at whatever pace is necessary for accuracy or comprehension. Even in speaking you can take your time if you need to. But with listening, the time component is completely out of your control. And that’s before we throw in background noise, conversational (aka lazy) pronunciation, slang, and 方言. I have to realllly really focus for listening in a way that I don’t for the other three.

8. Output. I’m good at reading and answering questions from Genki, if they have an example.

   If someone asks me to say something. My mind goes blank.

9. I feel like I’m pretty well balanced between the four skills, but if I had to pick I’d probably choose reading. Mostly just because people tend to use more complex language in writing than they do in speaking. I also just read a lot slower than native speakers, which sometimes makes things awkward.

   The other week I was trying to read the release form at a second hand shop to sell my stuff. I could understand most of the stuff fine, but one bullet point was really tripping me up. There was lot’s passive, causative, keigo etc. I always get turned around when people start throwing around lots of させていただきます and shit like that. I’m confident I could have figured it out, but the store clerk decided I was taking too long and tried to “help” me by just telling me what to circle. I realized what the question was asking after I left the store that I would have rather done the opposite choice of the one the clerk suggested.

   So yeah, reading’s the one that feels like it’s causing me the most headaches right now

10. Speaking by far. It’s like writing except you don’t get time to think.