The difference between absorbing and creating while learning a language. As I have recently discovered with my Spanish, taking the language in is the easy part. I can listen to Spanish songs, read the lyrics, and understand what they are saying. I can understand the basics of an overheard conversation and read Wikipedia articles and short stories with no problem. However, it is so much harder- and I think this is true for many people with many different languages- to actually internalise it. I find it hard to write and speak in Spanish because I don't think in Spanish? Why not? Well, I don't need to. My family and friends all speak to me in English. I am surrounded by English films, radio, etc. So this is why I've joined this site. I realise that little will happen for my learning Spanish unless I actually start practising and using it with people. So that's what I aim to do.