What is your strongest language skill?

[markystar]

When it comes to studying languages, there are several important aspects to consider.

Two main categories are accuracy and fluency.
Accuracy is speaking/writing with a minimal amount of grammatical mistakes. In short, grammatical accuracy.
Fluency is the ability to speak quickly, regardless of grammatical accuracy. Of course a perfect balance of both is what you should strive for, but it's not always easy.

Beyond that, there are the basic language skills.
reading
writing
listening
speaking

with japanese, writing kanji is important, so i'm making two categories, writing (using phones or computers) and handwriting (using a pen or brush to write characters).

So this week's poll question is:
What is your strongest language skill?


after voting, leave a comment putting your skills in to fluency/accuracy perspectives, etc...

[sTeVe aUsTiN]

My strongest skill is probably listening, thanks to jPod!

Speaking is also tough for me. I can't seem to make my brain connect to my mouth.

Handwriting? I'm not even considering it because I can only use a computer or phone to write.

[elau1986]

speaking and listening are my strong points I think

but my writing skills need improvements, Kanji is not that much of a problem in terms of reading, but when it comes to writing....

[Psy]

Thank you for the great definition of fluency, markystar. Most people use the term incorrectly! Anyway, for me, my Japanese goes in this order:

Reading (where much of my practice comes from)
Handwriting (not attractive, but I can pen out legible characters that some Japanese cannot)
Listening (Getting better recently, JPod sure hasn't hurt!)
Writing (A step above my speaking)
Speaking (... ugh. hazukashii (汗))

A language learner's job is never done.

[kitty-chan]

For me, I get most of my practice trying to read things.
Maybe listening is my second, because of JPOD101.
There are no Japanese people where I live, so I never even tried to speak it.


reading/writing
listening
hand writing
speaking

[Taurus]

I don't even feel qualified to answer this. My speaking is stilted, my listening is lame, my handwriting is non-existent - although I did manage to write a postcard to my girlfriend's nephew the other day. I would like to choose reading as my strongest suit, but unfortunately my limited knowledge of kanji rules that out too.

[Javizy]

I'll have to go for listening. Since I started learning the language with Jpod, listening to Japanese has become a daily habit. Lately, I can seem to understand just about every syllable (assuming they're clearly spoken), to the point where I'm able to look up words I don't know, which has made the likes of Miki's and HERO's blogs very accessible

Like Kitty-chan, most of my studying is done through reading, but even though I know what all the (jouyou) kanji mean and how to write them (go Heisig), without furigana my reading is very limited, at least when compared to my listening, although it seems to be improving quite quickly (I could read most of Hiroko's latest blog ).

[Sean]

I read more than anything else, so that's my strongest ability. Although I haven't had a lot of practice as it, my writing has benefited because of it. But sometimes I don't remember the readings of the words I can read and understand (or don't stop to check them if I'm too interested in what I'm reading/can't at that moment), so my listening isn't as good as it could be (with writing, I'll just write two words using the kanji I want and delete the ones I don't need). Speaking and handwriting are my worst, since I've had fewer oppotunities to practice those.

Reading
Writing
Listening
Speaking
Handwriting

[Ulver_684]

When it comes to studying languages, there are several important aspects to consider.

Two main categories are accuracy and fluency.
Accuracy is speaking/writing with a minimal amount of grammatical mistakes. In short, grammatical accuracy.
Fluency is the ability to speak quickly, regardless of grammatical accuracy. Of course a perfect balance of both is what you should strive for, but it's not always easy.

Beyond that, there are the basic language skills.
reading
writing
listening
speaking

with japanese, writing kanji is important, so i'm making two categories, writing (using phones or computers) and handwriting (using a pen or brush to write characters).

So this week's poll question is:
What is your strongest language skill?


after voting, leave a comment putting your skills in to fluency/accuracy perspectives, etc...

Mina-sama!

listening
speaking
reading/writing
handwriting (see above)

[spidey]

My strongest language skill is BODY LANGUAGE.

Webbing someone to the wall really helps get the point across!

[untmdsprt]

私のぎよう：

読む
書く
聞く

でも、日本人は英語を話したくて、私は日本語を話せません。

[rooraa]

I never considered about having a strong language skill but I picked reading; however, that doesn't apply (yet!) to Japanese seeing I only know about 10 hiragana letters. And I'm sure my handwriting is atrocious LOL

[JonB]

In context listening. I am good at guessing sentences from one or two words and context.

My four year old is way more advanced than me on speaking

[zombiecide]

I'm best at reading context -both written and spoken- and guessing at subtext, and worst at forming sentences myself, regardless of medium.

[untmdsprt]

Just how would you measure fluency? Would you measure all four aspects of the language? Or would you measure certain ones? I have two Japanese friends, one is full blooded the other not. The full blooded one is more fluent in reading and writing in English, the other is more fluent in speaking and listening.

As for me my strong skills are reading, writing, listening and then speaking. Speaking is the hardest part because nobody will talk to me in Japanese, and they expect me to respond in English. If say by a certain time the first three improve to a native level, but the speaking didn't, would I still be considered fluent?