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How feasible is it to understand a language, but cannot speak such language. The understanding might not be to 100% perfection, but still understand it to a great level. If I understand a language, isn’t it normal for me to be able to speak it at least?
Our brains retain the ability to comprehend human speech throughout our lives. If you have enough exposure to a language, in a context where you can make sense of the babble, you will understand it. If you never have the opportunity to speak it, that doesn’t diminish your ability to understand it.
My mom and brother both speak Spanish. I don’t. After many years of listening to them speak Spanish, I know what they are saying, but I still can’t say anything in Spanish. If you hear a language often enough, especially first hand and in context, you will start to pick the pieces together; through gestures, expressions and situations that the speaker is in. Even if it is something simple like realising that the speaker is annoyed, happy or talking about numbers, it will help you to understand.
This happens in every language, it is called receptive bilingualism. Listening skills are different from speaking, reading or writing skills. Usually some people are better at listening but not at speaking, or they are better at writing but not at reading. As infants, we can understand what people are saying, but learning to speak takes time. In that same way, we first learn to understand a new language and then we learn to speak it, but you have to practice speaking to get it right. Speaking a new language entails training your mouth and mind to work together to express yourself in that new language.