Speaking is learned only by speaking a lot; no amount of study substitutes for it.

Added to korrents 7 Sept 2026 · How quotes work · Something wrong? Tell us

Where this collides

• Cannot both be true

  Learning a language happens through exposure to language you can mostly understand; classroom drills feel productive and build nothing.

  Lewis says speaking is learned only by speaking a lot and that no amount of study substitutes for it. Kaufmann says learning happens through exposure to language you can mostly understand, and that drills which feel productive build nothing. This is the input-versus-output argument in its plainest form, and both men have decades of languages behind their answer.

• Cannot both be true

  There is no best method in general, but there is a best method for each particular learner, and finding it is the work.

  Lampariello says there is no best method in general, only a best method for each particular learner. Lewis makes exactly the universal claim Lampariello denies is available — that speaking is the one thing that works, for everyone. A claim that no universal answer exists and a universal answer cannot both stand.

Shared subject first, then similar wording. They may agree or disagree.

• Speaking badly is not a failure on the way to speaking well; it is a stage that has to be passed through on purpose. BLBenny Lewisby 12 Oct 2012
• Conversation with native speakers teaches a language far better than a classroom. DPDavid Perell24 Sept 2021
• Communicating clearly is less about the number of words used and more about focusing on the right ideas and directions. TSTobias Sjösten3 Jan 2024
• There is no threshold of vocabulary to cross before speaking begins; the change is a decision, not a level reached. BLBenny Lewisby 12 Oct 2012
• The hard part of speaking from the start is not the gaps in what you know but making peace with not knowing the simplest words. BLBenny Lewisby 12 Oct 2012

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