[Matterwave]

Hello everybody! =) My first post here hehe.

I have a slight confusion with the exact meanings of some phrases. I will type in Romanji cus I'm still just beginning to learn and am not proficient in either Hiragana or Katakana. (Ironically, I'm probably better at Kanji since I'm Chinese XD)

Ok so, here are a few questions. These questions arise because I'm currently using Rosetta stone. It's very good at teaching things imo, but there can be cracks because it's all pictures hehe.

First of all, if I say the sentence: "Kare wa Hanashite imasu". Does that mean "He is a speaker (like at a convention or something)" or "He is speaking"? (or both?) Would this apply to sentences replacing "Hanashite" with say "ryourshite" or other words ending in "ite"?

My other question deals with contractions. Is there any real difference between me using "nonde imasu" and "nomimasu" (or similarly for other words like "hanashite imasu" vs "hanashimasu").

Thanks guys. =D