Fellow language learners,

I was wondering as to what your thoughts are on the balance between comprehension and output, mainly writing, in your studies. I've recently completed over half of the core 2k after first doing RtK volume 1, and I've noticed that while I'm able to read the words I've studied, I seem to have a lot more difficulty reproducing them in most cases. Now of course it's natural that my ability to write the compounds would lag behind, since I've been focusing on readings, but I'm wondering if continuing this way will only increase the gap, or if my production capacity will also increase, albeit not in the same manner. Production is very time consuming, and since my goal is to be able to read Japanese media with native level fluency, I've decided to atleast ignore that aspect of Japanese for now. If you have any thoughts on the subject, or experiences you'd like to share I'd like to hear them.

It's natural. Your comprehension will always far exceed your output. It's the same in your native language. Think about it.

Ryuujin27 Wrote:It's natural. Your comprehension will always far exceed your output. It's the same in your native language. Think about it.

Yup, perfectly normal.

Plus, writing is a different skill than reading. Both need to be practiced. Even the Japanese are slowly losing their ability to write thanks to PCs being so easy to type on.

Well I'm not disputing the fact that comprehension always far outstrips production, but what I'm interested in is whether learning to read kanji compounds also translates into an increase in writing capacity. For instance, I remember reading something in a thread on here a while back that there is apparently a person on this forum who knows over 10 k flashcards and still can't produce a Japanese sentence. If I understand AJATT correctly than sufficient exposure to a language should also make you capable of expressing yourself in that language eventually. But from some of the things I've read on here it seems that's not always the case.

wccrawford Wrote:

Ryuujin27 Wrote:It's natural. Your comprehension will always far exceed your output. It's the same in your native language. Think about it.

Yup, perfectly normal.

Plus, writing is a different skill than reading. Both need to be practiced. Even the Japanese are slowly losing their ability to write thanks to PCs being so easy to type on.

I remember hearing a few stories about people after finishing college or university. Barely write by hand anymore. They speak/listen/read way more than they physically write.
Since we have the srs, it will go much smoother in terms of active memory(remember reading/active-recall of kanji)

Kuma01 Wrote:Well I'm not disputing the fact that comprehension always far outstrips production, but what I'm interested in is whether learning to read kanji compounds also translates into an increase in writing capacity. For instance, I remember reading something in a thread on here a while back that there is apparently a person on this forum who knows over 10 k flashcards and still can't produce a Japanese sentence. If I understand AJATT correctly than sufficient exposure to a language should also make you capable of expressing yourself in that language eventually. But from some of the things I've read on here it seems that's not always the case.

I think of it as being like the difference between being able to read music and actually being able to play it. Being able to read is necessary but you have to practice writing as well to actually get better at it.

wccrawford Wrote:

Ryuujin27 Wrote:It's natural. Your comprehension will always far exceed your output. It's the same in your native language. Think about it.

Yup, perfectly normal.

Plus, writing is a different skill than reading. Both need to be practiced. Even the Japanese are slowly losing their ability to write thanks to PCs being so easy to type on.

I consider typing to still be writing, since you are still producing and articulating the language. Of course, remembering how to hand write kanji is a different matter.

I feel like is more important to understand more than you speak when you learn a language, because for the most part, if you want to communicate, you can explain a lot of what you want to say using basic, error-filled language and still be fairly well understood. I think you can get a lot farther in terms of communication with basic production and an ultra high level of comprehension then you can with with intermediate production and comprehension.

kainzero Wrote:I feel like is more important to understand more than you speak when you learn a language, because for the most part, if you want to communicate, you can explain a lot of what you want to say using basic, error-filled language and still be fairly well understood. I think you can get a lot farther in terms of communication with basic production and an ultra high level of comprehension then you can with with intermediate production and comprehension.

Also eventually thanks to your "ultra high level of comprehension", output will get better faster as you begin to really use it. Just because you know what sounds right and wrong, you'll be your own "native" speaker to judge&analyze your output.

Kuma01 Wrote:I've noticed that while I'm able to read the words I've studied, I seem to have a lot more difficulty reproducing them in most cases. Now of course it's natural that my ability to write the compounds would lag behind, since I've been focusing on readings, but I'm wondering if continuing this way will only increase the gap, or if my production capacity will also increase, albeit not in the same manner.

"Production" means different things for different people here, so I'm not sure what do you mean. If you mean being able to kanjify a sentence (going かな→漢字), then I think there should be no gap. I have been training both かな→漢字 and 漢字→かな for some time now, so I don't know if the gap would naturally decrease over time, but I don't think it would.

If by "production" you mean being able to create your own sentences from scratch, then a gap is very natural. I would not worry much about it until I was already able to read fairly well.

Production is a part of the language, but I have come to agree on Khatz opinion that building a lot of receptive ability is important first. The more I am able to understand the more I am able to carry on a conversation, even if that conversation consists of "Yes, no, I understand, cool, interesting, etc." - people like a good listener anyway.

In relation to the topic, yes they will outstrip each other, but it is not true that the relationship is always the same as what we find in our Japanese*. I have met at least 10 or more English learners* who could talk all day, but had no idea what you were saying to them and usually ignored that anyway (probably how they got into that situation.) Remember: "You are what you learn."

*Considering the website we are all using and the tools we tend to employ it is natural that a lot of us are more receptively skilled.
*They are a rare breed of learner though. Most people are pretty much the same as us.