40 years ago, I spent a semester in Germany, became quite adept at understanding German but speaking it was always difficult. Just finished 100 days on LingQ and am close to my understanding skills all those years ago. I even read novels now and enjoy them. But I want to fluently speak. Would appreciate hearing suggestions from those who struggled with and overcame this limitation.
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A classic issue - and no doubt for any target language.
You might find it useful to look at the latest YouTube video [in German] from Dr Gareth Popkins, a polyglot, who has addressed this issue under the heading ”So lernst du Deutsch aktiver - und nutzt es wirklich” [This is how you learn German more actively - and actually use it].
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And another video which you might find helpful to activate vocabulary. It focusses on how to transition from passive to active usage. It also discusses concepts such as “input bulimia” and “cognitive overload”… The discussion is in German but the YouTube video has English subtitles.
So wächst dein actives Wortschatz schneller!
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Unless the loanword is used in its original form, including the pronounciation, which in some contexts is done with english loanwords, ct becomes kt. And it’s nominative case (scrap that, unimportant) male, not neuter. Correcting you, just so I can correct myself. 
Here are a few things that helped me:
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For German specifically, one big issue was that I wasn’t remembering word genders from input alone. I downloaded anki decks for a1, a2, b1, and went through them. I went through pretty fast because I knew these words passively, but I needed to work on the English → German direction.
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The second one applies to all languages that I have studied; simply speak more. I spoke to myself when I was alone, describing things that I was seeing, or having arguments with imaginary people, and when I couldn’t come up with a word that I needed, I made a mental note of it and looked it up later. I found conversation partners with tandem and worked with them. And I paid for some conversational lessons.
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For speaking wise.
Reached a good level in mandarin through talking with yourself and using google translate to correct your mistakes. For accuracy, do shadowing, which is the action of mimic real native speaker audio in real time.
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I noticed that. Then realised it is the video title!
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Good advice here already.
I’ll mention a couple of things from my experience:
- Back in the 1990s, I learned Japanese in college classes where we spoke from day one in daily conversation classes in addition to the traditional classes. My speaking skills were better matched to my comprehension that way. In contrast, I have been learning Spanish using an input focused method since 2020. I didn’t even bother to set up a real conversation for a couple years, and boy did I FEEL that gap once I did. It is frustrating to be able to understand so much without being able to produce. That gap will be there at first, but you will progress quickly practicing/training your output.
- Input is a cheat code in many ways, but I’ll echo @toomanysusans experience, and say the things I struggled to produce after all that input were the parts of the language that parts that varied most from English. (Gender, reflexive, subjunctive, prepositions, past tense) I could understand them, but it takes practice to produce them with automaticity.
- The suggestions by others above are great. I’ll add that practicing written conversations with AI because you can get immediate feedback and explanations, language islands (to bring some focus) and drills (worked wonders for me with prepositions) have been great in addition to speaking practice.
Good luck and happy learning!
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I had exactly the same problem with Italian. I could understand a lot, read texts, and know grammar rules, but when it was time to speak, everything disappeared.
Years ago I was around A2 level and speaking felt very difficult for me. Now I have reached C2, and looking back, the biggest change came when I stopped only studying and started using the language regularly.
Speaking clubs, short conversations, language exchanges, and even talking to myself helped much more than passive study. At first I spoke slowly and made many mistakes, but fluency came after many imperfect conversations.
Another thing that helped was repeating common phrases out loud until they became automatic. Then speaking felt more natural and less stressful.
So if you already understand a lot, you are closer than you think. Speaking is often the last skill to unlock.
If you are learning Italian, I also found useful materials and speaking practice here: https://online-fda.com/
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Thanks for the link @svetlanart. I am studying Italian now for a hobby/interest and am around B1 level after about 1 1/2 years of doing conversation practice and may possibly apply it to work since I am already in the automotive sector like I have done for Japanese. I agree about using the language and not just studying. I have quite a few Tandem language exchange partners and have done lessons on iTalki in the past. How do you rate the Italique Academy? What about AI or other avenues? Sometimes I cannot arrange a time since I am 6 hours behind Italy and local in-person or online school times for lessons conflict with work and other commitments. I had several iTalki tutors including the one I liked the best drop the times I was available so it was very difficult. I have a super awesome Tandem partner, just had a chat today, and some others I regularly text on the app and have talked to on and off. It’s hard when work and family items pile up. Maybe you are in Europe so that’s not as much of an issue? What’s your status? I suppose at C2 you are in Italy or using it daily?
I did a lot of things to go from reading and listening which I built up from LingQ with many podcasts in the app for both Italian my main focus and Japanese which is a daily maintenance only / kanji review language for me.
I think trying lessons with tutors and doing language exchanges of in my case English for Italian were helpful. Also as a review the higher levels of Pimsleur for the developed language like Italian, may be good. It helped me after struggling so much with some basic articles and preposition issues. German also has up to level 5. I liked to practice to be able to answer immediately, and I liked being able to do it in the car.
I am using the Akelius app which is monolingual and seems to help with my grammar agreement issues and being able to explain things with Italian only. The app is free - the desktop version is much better, iOS has issues with crashing and not showing all the options. It is aimed at kids but for me it is not as demeaning as other purported free apps and you can skip the songs and crosswords if you want.
They have German too and you can learn from not just English though as I said at least at B1 it is nearly 100% in the target language except for some menus.
I echo others in trying to find some speaking opportunities whether tutors, exchanges, and some AI prompts - which you can do verbally even instead of writing.
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你好，请问平常练习口语表达，你是直接用谷歌翻译看怎么说，还是直接说了对比谷歌翻译看哪里错了？
- Think of everything you say during the day, either try to say it in German as best you can, or note it down so you can practice later. You want to be able to say the things you say on a daily basis, or that would be most useful. Your own phrasebook (you can start with phrasebooks as a starting point for some things, but best to build your own)
- Describe every little thing you are doing or did during the day or previous day. Good for practicing telling someone about what you did. Get down to the most minute detail. Do it in the present and past (present perfect mostly for spoken German).
- Write a daily journal and or “say” a daily journal. Basically #2, but maybe focus on other things you’re thinking about…the news, a fun trip, or other things.
- Language Islands - work on various themes. Things that are most important to you to be able to say.
- Every time something pops into your head in your native language. Try to say it in German. Instead of talking to yourself in your native language, talk to yourself in German (or both).
- Look at some text, or maybe something that you’ve read. Try to either translate it as best you can, or instead try to say it as if you’re telling a friend about the topic. Mostly on things you’re interested in or could come up in discussions…news, a good book, about a tv show or something.
- Make sure you practice questions too. What would you ask someone about, or what are the questions associated to the things your talking about. Anticipate what someone might ask you about what you are talking about. Or what would you ask another person.
- I’ve never tried this, but you could record everything you say during they day. Or maybe conversations. That might give you other ideas to think about and practice. You can also ask Chat GPT to come up with conversations or good phrases/vocabulary etc. to know about a given topic. Then practice trying to say some of these things if you think they’d be useful.
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Not in terms of speaking but overall, how did you get from a b2 to a c1/2? If you might tell me, thank you!
直接说了对比谷歌翻译看哪里错了兄弟。提高准确性
Yes, I am in Europe and time is not a problem.