by Ben Tracy

(WCCO) Men and women do have different experiences and expectations with communication. Women think men don't listen and men think women talk too much.

Are we even speaking the same language?

"We're in separate worlds," said Dr. Sharon Preves, who studies gender differences at Hamline University.

"Women learn to be much more verbal," Preves explained.

As girls, the verbal areas of their brains develop faster and more fully than boys'. Studies show women talk almost three times as much as men. The average woman speaks 20,000 words a day while the average man speaks just 7,000.

"Because they have to repeat everything at least three times to get a man to understand it," a woman said.

It is actually because women bond through conversation.

"Learning deep, intimate, private things," Preves said.

While men bond through shared activity, such as playing basketball with their buddies.

It often makes women better listeners.

"Very, very emphatic listeners ... women get that kind of expression from female friends, family members and they come to expect that," Preves said. "When I ask you what I've just said, you could probably say it back to me, but there hasn't been an affirmation that I'm looking for ... so women sometimes feel as if they are not being heard."

In general, women are more process orientated, while men focus on the end result.

"We end up expecting an awful lot from one another when we don't speak each other's languages," Preves said.

Studies show men do interrupt women's conversation more often and men also start new conversation topics more than women do. Experts think that's because men are taught from an early age to be more assertive.

It may also have something to do with a shorter attention span.