[maus42]

Why it would be?

I sometimes have trouble conversing in crowded places if there's lot of other people having their conversations loudly. Not much trouble, though, but listening to the only one thread of discussion requires bit extra mental effort.

Then there are people who don't speak clearly, and you have to ask them to repeat what they said...

And all this in my native language. I find dealing with written forms of any foreign language I know much easier than the spoken language. (Both "understand" and "produce by myself".)