Hearing and Listening... what is the difference?
By ahgong
@ahgong (10064)
Singapore
November 20, 2007 11:05am CST
Have you ever wondered, we are always exposed to a barrage of sounds in our daily activities, and do we actually listen to them or hear them?
Be it the sounds of the road when we are commuting, or the music that is coming out of the radio, how often do we actually pay attention to them?
When in a conversation with another person, how often do we listen to the sound that is coming out of the other person's mouth? How often do we hear what he/she is saying?
What is the difference between "hearing" and "listening"?
1 person likes this
4 responses
@lordwarwizard (35747)
• Singapore
21 Nov 07
Usually when you talk about listening, it is understood to be more than hearing.
Hearing is just hearing. Listening is hearing with more in-depth understanding.
Most of us are not good "hear-er" to start with, so there are even less good listeners around.:P
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
22 Nov 07
I agree with you lordwarwizard.
Most of the time we are hearing the things that are going on around us. And half of the time we are listening.
I remember doing a presentation for my project sometime back. I was explaining all the reasoning to not implement certain things as it would cause a breakdown in the project, thus stalling it.
Took a whole morning explaining the intricacies of my analysis, the fella just refuses to listen. He insisted on doing thing HIS way.
"I will take note of what you are telling me. I am the customer and I paid for your services, so do it as I said". Doh~~~! You hire my services to get my expertise but you are hearing me and not listening! What a cocky fellow, I was thinking.
So okay... we did it his way and end up the broke down happened as predicted.
Luckily I recorded all my meetings in minutes and sent it out to all my superiors. This fella tried to pin it on me!
My boss was actually listening to my presentation and jumped to my defense! Heh heh...
1 person likes this
@friendship (2084)
• Canada
21 Nov 07
I think there is a different between hearing and listening. You can hear anything such as musics, the singing of birds, etc. But when you listen something, you have to pay attention to it. You need to analyze and to understand what it is. Without proper listening, you won't understand what it is, what the person is trying to say, etc.
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
22 Nov 07
True! True!
Most of the time when we are in conversation, how often do we listen to them and really analyze what is being said.
Most of the time, when we hear the words, we are forming a mental picture of what we want to see. Often we are able to interpret the basic meaning of the words as we hear them. It is only with a combination of the eyes, the sound of the voice and the tone of the conversation that we are able to determine what is being said properly.
Even with that said, there are still people who cannot fully comprehend what is being said to them. Sad isn't it?
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
22 Nov 07
ha ha ha... referring to conversations between you and your wife eh?
Most of the time we hear with our ears.
When with a love one, we listen with our hearts.
When with a colleague, we listen with our ears and our mind.
Sometimes, that listening must also be done together with our eyes. Cos emotions and body language also plays a large part in communication.
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
22 Nov 07
Yeah... we hear a lot of things in our lives. Right from the very beginning when our ears are formed in the womb of our mothers.
The listening is the skill that we have to learn when we grow older and start to understand languages.
That is where the problem with people lies. Not everyone is good at listening. We all can hear. It is the listening that is the issue.
