Episode 69: Why It’s Harder to Speak Than to Understand

[00:00:00] Welcome to English, please, the podcast where we explore interesting topics in under ten minutes in clear, intermediate English. I’m your host, Christopher. I live in New York City, and I’ve always been passionate about languages and how we learn them. Whether you’re listening on your way to work or while cooking dinner at home, this show is designed to help you with your English listening and comprehension skills.

Before we start, I want to mention something free. If you go to comullen.com/newsletter, you can download two guides. One has twenty-five idioms native English speakers use every day. The other has sixty common phrases. Both are totally free, and they [00:01:00] connect directly to what we’re talking about today.

Okay, let’s get into it!

A lot of intermediate learners tell me the same thing. They can watch a show in English and follow most of it. They can read an article and understand it. But when it’s their turn to talk, the words don’t come out the way they want. It feels slow. It feels clumsy. And it’s confusing because if you understand so much, why is speaking still so hard?

Here’s the reason: understanding and speaking use different parts of your brain, and they build at different speeds. When you listen, you’re recognizing. Your brain hears a word and matches it to something you already know. That’s a fast process, and it gets faster the more input you get: more podcasts, more shows, more [00:02:00] reading.

When you speak, you’re producing. Your brain has to find the right word, put it in the right order, and say it all in real time without a pause button. That takes a completely different kind of practice. Listening a thousand hours won’t automatically make speaking easy. It certainly helps, but it’s not the same skill.

Think about it like this: you can recognize thousands of songs when you hear them without being able to sing a single one from memory. Recognizing and producing are just different.

So what actually helps you close that gap?

First, talk to yourself. It sounds strange, but narrating your day in English out loud, in your head, or even to your dog, forces your brain to practice [00:03:00] production instead of only recognition. Describe what you’re cooking. Explain what you saw on a walk. Talk through your plans for the weekend, even if it’s just a grocery list. You can do this in the shower, on the subway, while you’re making coffee. The sentences don’t have to be perfect, and nobody’s checking your grammar. The point isn’t the content. The point is giving your mouth and your brain the repetition they need to work together in real time.

Second, slow down on purpose. A lot of learners rush their sentences because they feel embarrassed about pausing. But native speakers pause, too. A short pause to find your word is completely normal. It’s not a mistake. It’s just how real conversation works.[00:04:00] 

Third, repeat useful phrases until they’re automatic. This is actually why the vocabulary guides I mentioned earlier can help. When a phrase like, “I’d rather not,” or, “That makes sense,” is already stored and ready, you don’t have to build the sentence from nothing in the moment. You just use it.

And fourth, accept that speaking will always feel a little behind understanding. That gap doesn’t fully close, even for advanced learners. The goal isn’t zero gap! The goal is a gap small enough that you can still communicate comfortably.

This is actually why native speakers sound so relaxed when they talk, even when they’re not saying anything special. They stopped worrying about being perfect a long time ago. The sentence comes out, and maybe it’s a little messy, but they [00:05:00] just keep going. That’s the version of speaking you’re aiming for. Not perfect English. Comfortable English.

If you want more structured practice with real situations—ordering coffee, small talk at work, asking for directions—the English Listening Accelerator has ten lessons built exactly for this, with a repeat-after-me section in every lesson to help you practice speaking, not just listening. There’s a free sample lesson at comullen.com/listen if you want to try before deciding.

Again, I’m Christopher, and I want to invite you to join me in future episodes of English, please to hear about a variety of topics, all focused on helping you with your English. Subscribe now wherever you listen, and let’s continue this adventure together in clear, understandable English.

Sincere thanks, as always, for [00:06:00] listening.

See you soon!