Just out of curiosity, of so many of us who know second (and/or third, fourth . . .) languages, obviously many of you have shown incredible talents in reading and writing, especially in English as a foreign language. Speaking and comprehending language, from my experience, seems a lot different from reading and writing, and, I wondered, do all of you understand in speech and speak different languages as well as you read and write them?
In French, my conversation abilities I used to judge my skills as quite strong, but with a lack of practice, my conversation skills have declined. In fact, several weeks ago, I spoke briefly with a woman and her young daughter from Quebec; I kept up somewhat in conversation, with several mistakes, while the very adorable young girl laughed. Oddly, my reading and writing abilities have remained almost as strong as while I took courses in French, still practicing now and then.
