Hearing versus listening
By mariamac
@mariamac (145)
India
February 3, 2012 10:47am CST
I see many a times people confused with this term of listening. They say they are listening but actually they are just hearing us. Don't you agree with me? Hearing things is different from listening. To listen you have to hear, make meaning of it, understand it, and then the brain analysis it. When you hear, its just a sound of a person, a thing, a animal or anything that you hear but if you don't pay attention to what you are hearing then its not listening, and so people if they just hear and dont listen,do not get the right message across, when you ask them what they heard, because its just a voice or a noise that hit their ears, they just heard it. So when you say i am hearing and when you say I am listening are two different things. Don't you agree?
2 people like this
6 responses
@fannitia (2167)
• Bulgaria
4 Feb 12
I agree with you of course. But what I see around me is many hearing people and only a few listeners. The listening requires not only ears and brains. Listeners are people who care about the others. More and more people today don't care to listen or they listen only their own voices.
1 person likes this
@maezee (41988)
• United States
3 Feb 12
There is most definitely a difference between the two! You can 'hear' but zone out at the same time. I sometimes (always) do this by accident (I blame it on the Attention Deficit Disorder) - and I will often times have to have the person repeat what they're saying! LOL
1 person likes this
@mariamac (145)
• India
4 Feb 12
I guess this happens to almost all of us i guess. We zone out and then to understand the topic make the person repeat although we are all into the given topic and put all are efforts to be as attentive yet we are not able to be attentive all the time.
1 person likes this
@crimsonladybug (3112)
• United States
5 Feb 12
You're absolutely right. There is a distinct difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is automatic (assuming you have the physical ability) but listening requires active participation.
One time on a television program I watched, one of the characters said to another character something that I thought was very clever but also fits with this discussion very well. He told her "You don't hear people, you EAR people," as a way of telling her she didn't listen well.
@Woody7189 (247)
• United States
9 Feb 12
I agree with you completely. Most people hear what we are saying, but many do not actually listen to what we are saying. If a person is listening then they will pay attention to the words and the ideas that we are trying to share.
@WakeUpKitty (8694)
• Netherlands
3 Feb 12
To make it simple:
you need ears to hear (sounds/voices/words) but you need your brains to understand what is said (= to listen).
1 person likes this
@mariamac (145)
• India
4 Feb 12
Yes you could sum it up to that. But, just give a thought over it. what about people who have hearing disabilities, how would they be dealing in such a situation. Obviously, they too as all normal human beings tend to zone out, so there are no words, sounds, voices to hear then how will we differentiate?
1 person likes this
@Bluedoll (16773)
• Canada
9 Feb 12
I will agree that hearing versus listening are different. I agree also that what you sometimes get back when you ask a question and what you meant are very different.
Where do you think the burden of responsibility lies for establishing an understanding of what is being said. Is it the one doing the listening or the one doing the talking?
@mariamac (145)
• India
11 Feb 12
thank you Bluedoll for your response. I feel the one listening. Because the one who is talking knows the subject and has the idea of what he intends to put across but for the listener unless he listens and understands he won't understand what the person talking is actually trying to say or what his idea is or view is. So the burden i guess lies equally on both shoulders, for the person talking to make it interesting that the listener listens and does not get lost and for the listener to grasp what the person opposite is trying to convey.
