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.

Last edited by Nuriko (2010 June 16, 2:03 am)

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...

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.

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. 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.

Last edited by Groot (2010 June 16, 11:01 am)