In a new language you’ll understand way more than you can say for a long time. That gap is normal, not stuck.

CREATIVITY

WHAT THIS MEANS

Recognising words and producing them are two different skills that develop at different speeds. Understanding is pattern matching with context helping you; speaking means retrieving the right word, in the right shape, fast enough to stay in a conversation. The first runs ahead of the second for everybody, which is why you can follow a film and still freeze ordering coffee.

Practise the slower half on purpose, out loud and badly. Say three sentences a day to somebody, or to yourself in the kitchen. Short and frequent beats long and rare, because the thing you are training is retrieval speed.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Where do you understand far more than you can yet express?

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