Why it’s easier to speak fluently in English than to write well in English
“And that appears to be not a problem restricted to nonnative speakers: I spend a few minutes every day visiting various global Internet fora in English, and I won’t hesitate to say that my English- writing skills are remarkably better than those of many of their contributors who are native English speakers.”
My reply to Mwita Chacha:
You are hardly alone in finding it easier to speak fluently in English than to write well in English. It’s actually a universal experience that’s true not only to learners of English but of every language as well. This happens because of the big but not well- appreciated difference between spoken language and written language, a difference that I’ll now explain as simply as I can but hopefully without being too simplistic about it.
When we speak, we simply repeat familiar phonetic sounds to convey ideas that have been clearly imprinted in our minds over time by just listening to those who speak the language, in much the same way that young birds learn bird language from the sounds made by their parents and the rest of the flock. The medium for speaking is the sound itself and our message gets instantly validated by our own ears and also by listeners other than ourselves. The communication loop is therefore short and joined almost instantaneously.
In contrast, communicating in writing is a much slower, highly abstract, and complicated process. We need to harness the many tools of written language— vocabulary, spelling, sentence construction, punctuation, grammar, structure, paragraphing, orthography, typography— and map them on a physical surface ( paper, board, or computer screen) to make sense and to convey our ideas clearly to ourselves and to the absent or unknown reader. I’d say that just to learn to write passably well in a particular language is a no mean feat, but that to write so well as to become a great writer in English like William Shakespeare— a native English speaker— or Joseph Conrad— a nonnative English speaker from Poland— is nothing less than a stupendous achievement.
So I’d say there’s no reason for you to fret that it’s not a breeze making yourself as fluent in your written English as in your spoken English. Mastery of written English is a long , continuing process. From your postings, though, I can see that your written English is already way above par. Through sustained reading of excellent books and more practice in writing, you’ll no doubt eventually become as fluent in your written English as you are now in your spoken English. Then perhaps— who knows?— you’ll begin to see your byline in leading English- language periodicals or in your own nonfiction books or novels, in much the same way that the novelist Michael Crichton did after getting his medical degree from Harvard.