[8] Reading Won't Improve Your Speaking

In today’s episode, I cover reading and talk about whether or not it’s actually helpful in learning to <span style={{textDecoration: underline}}>speak a foreign language.

To be honest, I consider it a waste of time in many cases.

Summary:

• There’s technically no such thing as a “written language”.
• You can’t find a single place on earth where writing is the primary form of communication between people.
• Since language is 100% spoken/audio (or signed), why spend so much energy learning literacy?
• Meaning association should always be sound-based, not written word-based.
• Literacy skills come <span style={{textDecoration: underline}}>after spoken fluency, not before.
• Literacy is a great way to expand vocabulary and build articulation – but only after you’ve already learned to speak.

Related blog post:

I talked about reading for foreign language learning in this blog post a while back.

For a completely non-literacy, listening based approach, use Glossika (read my review).