I was curious about how much of each activity (listening, speaking, reading and writing) forum members partake in in Japanese. So here is a short survey for those interested.

1. Please arrange each activity (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in order from easiest to hardest.
2. Now list them in order of which you do the most often. "Activity done the most ----> activity done the least."
3. This part is for fun of comparison. Repeat both 1 and 2, but in regards to the four "activities" in your first language.

Any interesting observations you'd share in response to your "line-ups"?

Here's mine:

1. Please arrange each activity (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in order from easiest to hardest (in regards to comprehension and fluency/comfort level).
Reading, listening, writing, speaking
2. Now list them in order of which you do the most often. "Activity done the most ----> activity done the least.
Listening, reading, writing, speaking
3. This part is for fun of comparison. Repeat both 1 and 2, but in regards to the four "activities" in your first language.
A. Easiest to hardest in my first language, English: Listening, reading, writing, speaking
B.Done most to least often in my first language, English: Listening, speaking, reading, writing

An observation I made: speaking is the least easiest for me in both languages, but speaking is done the least often in Japanese, and is done the second most often in English. And listening in Japanese is done more than reading, but my easiest activity is reading.

Interesting!

1. Please arrange each activity (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in order from easiest to hardest.
Reading, Listening, Writing, Speaking
2. Now list them in order of which you do the most often. "Activity done the most ----> activity done the least."
Reading, Listening, Writing, Speaking
3.
A. Easiest to hardest in my first language, English: Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking
B. Done most to least often in my first language, English: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing

Although I still do a heck of a lot more reading and listening than writing (and my nonexistent speaking), I've become increasingly skeptical toward the "input your ass off" methodologies of Antimoon, Krashen and AJATT - at least, to my style of learning.

I'm specifically in the process of observing the results of output for my Japanese. Increasingly, I'm finding that outputting Japanese gives me a far better understanding and insight into the grammar of the language, which sort of passes in one ear and out the other when I'm getting my input on. Grammar bits I've output correctly have become so much more natural, whereas before they'd resemble blobs of hiragana that I'd instinctively skip over or ignore. Not to mention, output also shows me exactly what I need to work on, what I need to learn. There are probably all obvious points, but seeing how stigmatized and discouraged outputting is in some circles, I think it's important to note my observations (tentative as they may be).

I think it's reasonable to assume that my Japanese skill will eventually look more 3A, especially as I focus more on listening. Currently, my listening still usually lags behind while my mind processes the information, sometimes going through the whole "digital to analog downscaling", Japanese-to-English mental translation thing. It's frustrating, but that's what happens when you devote most of your study time to reading, eh?

It's fun being my own experimental guinea pig!

1. Please arrange each activity (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in order from easiest to hardest (in regards to comprehension and fluency/comfort level).
Reading,writing, listening, speaking
2. Now list them in order of which you do the most often. "Activity done the most ----> activity done the least.
Reading, listening, writing, speaking
3. This part is for fun of comparison. Repeat both 1 and 2, but in regards to the four "activities" in your first language.
A. Easiest to hardest in my first language, English: Reading, listening, , writing, speaking
B.Done most to least often in my first language, English: Listening, speaking, reading, writing.
My main problem is that I live in a small town in the countryside and since I starded studying Japanese the number of times I've met a motherlanguage Japanese are close to zero. So no chances to chat a bit with anybody. Speak in front of a mirror is pretty boring...

C-c-c-combo breaker.

I actually just had a discussion with my language partner last night about whether speaking or writing was harder. My conclusion: Neither.

Speaking requires quick thinking, but doesn't require any reading skills.
Writing requires that you be able to read kanji for what you're writing, but you can take your time to do it.

1. It's actually difficult to answer that accurately. I find listening easier in that it's more passive than reading, but on the other hand I don't expect the same level of comprehension when listening. It also depends on the content. Difficult content is easier to read because unknown words are easily understood by seeing the kanji and guessing words meaning from context.

2. Listening, reading, speaking, writing.

3.1 Reading, listening, speaking, writing.
3.2 Reading, listening, speaking, writing.

This is a problematic question because there are so many different types of each. For instance, I don't find it very hard to write Japanese when I'm just talking to friends on gmail chat, but recently I had to write a grant application essay in Japanese and that was extremely difficult. Talking to the head of the OSU Japanese department is harder than chatting with friends, and reading an academic article on Genji commentaries is harder than a 攻略 web page for a video game.

1. Reading, listening, speaking, writing

2. Reading, listening, speaking, writing

3.

- A. Listening, reading, speaking, writing

- B. Reading, speaking, listening, writing


I've hardly ever written by hand, so that's easily my biggest weakness. Typing is much easier than speaking though.

wccrawford Wrote:I actually just had a discussion with my language partner last night about whether speaking or writing was harder. My conclusion: Neither.

So you would've had equal difficulty having that same discussion through IM or in greater chunks through e-mail? I don't see how reading makes up for the difference in processing time and volume. If anything, I'd say the difficulty in writing comes from the complexity of the language and relative lack of frequency of the words/expressions used.

1. Please arrange each activity in order from easiest to hardest.
Listening
Reading
Speaking
Writing (Academic or casual writing?)

This order kind of changes a lot depending on the subject but generally listening is at the top followed by output. Reading can take a dive depending on the subject and kanji/vocab used in the material I'm reading.

2. "Activity done the most ----> activity done the least."
Listening
Reading
Speaking
Writing

3.
A. Easiest to hardest in my first language, English:
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing

B. Most to least often in my first language, English:
Reading (Too much internet)
Writing
Speaking
Listening (I live in Japan)

1. Japanese activities, easiest to hardest: reading, writing, speaking, listening.

Reading certainly isn't "easy," but I can do it at my own pace, use a dictionary, guess at the meaning of unknown words, etc. Likewise with writing -- I have the time to sort things out, albeit amateurishly. Speaking is very tough, but in the beginner/intermediate stages of any language, I generally find I can make myself understood -- I just can't understand the torrent of words that come back at me. Listening requires decoding on the fly, when the speaker may be too fast for me. I find this skill the toughest of all.

Incidentally, my list would be identical for Spanish, and then some. For me, by far the hardest thing about Spanish is to understand casual conversation at normal speed. By far the easiest thing is to read it.

2. Japanese activities done most --> activities done least: reading, listening, writing, speaking.

I read for at least a couple hours a day -- double that if you count time SRS'ing sentences and the like. I listen to example sentences, or an SRS'd source (right now "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time"), or to radio broadcasts or other media -- but not as much as I read. I write a bit, mostly just words and a few sentences. I almost never get a chance to speak, except out loud to myself. Sooner or later I will work up the courage to try a language-exchange via Skype, or maybe the weekly chat that one of the users here runs.

3. Easiest to hardest in English: Listening, speaking, reading, writing.

4. Most to least often in English: Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing. When I'm working on a writing project, writing jumps to a higher spot on the list.