Why are “we learn” and “we are learning” the same in French, but can mean slightly different things in English?

I’m teaching myself French, and I’m curious as to why “we learn” and “we are learning” translate to the same thing in French, but they mean slightly different things in English.

Nous apprenons = “we learn” and “we are learning”.

Nous comprenons = “we understand” and “we are understanding”.

“We are learning” sounds normal, “we learn” sounds weird, “we are understanding” sounds weird, “we understand” sounds normal.

Idk, I just want to learn more about why that is. Linguistics? Grammar? Is there like grammar etymology? Why is “we learn” and “we are learning” the same in French, but different in English?

Okay, try a different verb. “We run”, “we are running”. “We run” insinuates that we run regularly, but not necessarily right now. “We are running” insinuates that we’re running right now. Whoa, but you can say “we are running in a race tomorrow” and that means in the future, “we are going to run in a race tomorrow”.

What is this called? Why is it different in French and English? Has this phenomenon ever caused something funny to happen? What are other weird language things like this? Any books or articles about this? Thanks!

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