Hearing, Listening, Understanding - What's the Difference?

Hearing -

Listening -

Understanding -

What's the difference?

Good question!

Let's talk.

Hearing is something that happens with your ears and your brain.

Sometimes when people are old, their hearing is not good. They wear hearing aids. They ask people to "Speak up!" or say, "Please repeat that." They cannot hear well.

My mother wears two hearing aids. She has hearing loss. The little bones in her ears that help her hear - the stirrup, the anvil, and the hammer - are soft. She inherited this problem.

What does inherit means? It means receive from your ancestors - your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents. You can inherit money. You can inherit disease.

When you see a word with her, you know it has to do with family and passing things on - heir, heredity, inherit, disinherit, etc.

She inherited this hearing problem. Thank goodness, I did not inherit it from her.

My mother does not have a listening problem.

What is listening?

Listening is giving your attention to something or someone.

Listening is trying to understand.

Sometimes my daughter has a listening problem.

I tell her "Put away your clean clothes. They are in the laundry basket in your room."

But - does she put away the clean clothes?

Many times, no.

She is not really listening. She is watching TV or listening to a book on CD or drawing. Her ears work. Her brain works. She can hear just fine. But she is not listening to me. She is not giving me her attention. She is attending to something else - the TV, her story she is listening to, the story she is writing.

Attention - noun

Attend - verb

Attendance - noun

Attentive - adjective

Many husbands do not listen to their wives. Many wives do not listen to their husbands.

Some children do not listen to their parents and some parents do not listen to their children. Bosses don't listen to their employees and employees don't listen to their bosses.

It is difficult to listen all the time, isn't it?

It is tiring.

Sometimes we must "turn off our listening ears." It is too hard, too much, too exhausting to listen all the time.

Do you ever feel that way about English?

It is too hard, too much, too exhausting to try to understand?

Your listening ears shut down. Your ears close up. That part of your brain shuts down and you stop listening. No more! No more! No more!

Many ESL students have a listening comprehension problem with English.

What is listening comprehension?

What is comprehension?

Comprehension is understanding.

Comprehend - verb
Comprehension - noun

Listening comprehension: Understanding what you are listening to.

Dimitri has good hearing.
He can hear English words.

He has good listening skills.

He gives English conversation a lot of attention. He listens closely.

But he understands only a little.

He does not know many English words.

He has low listening comprehension.

I don't have listening comprehension for Chinese or Russian.

I know only a few words in Chinese and Russian.
If people speak Chinese or Russian to me, I can hear them. I can listen to them.

But I do not understand.

I do not comprehend.
I have no listening comprehension. I have no understanding.

If you want to improve your listening comprehension, I recommend that you listen to books on CD or MP3 files.

You can borrow books on CD for free from your public library.

You can listen to the books while you drive, ride on the bus, do the dishes, or clean your house.

It is okay if you do not understand every word.

You are absorbing the sounds and patterns of English when you listen.

You are improving your listening comprehension.

You can also listen and read at the same time. You can borrow the book and borrow the book on CD.

If you listen and read at the same time, you will not improve your listening comprehension very much. But you will improve your vocabulary and English a lot.

You can ask the librarian for help.

Tell the librarian what kinds of books you like -

non-fiction - books that are true - about history, gardening, auto repair, politics, or religion

fiction - books that are not true - stories about the present, past, or future

The librarian will help you find a good book that you can understand.

The young adult section of the library has many books that are good for ESL students.

The books are interesting and the English is a little easier. Not super easy but easier.

You can also listen to children's books on CD.

The English in children's books is easier.

I like the Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne. The English is not too difficult. The books are about 3rd grade level Englsh. The children in the stories visit many countries and cultures. You can improve your listening comprehension and vocabulary and also learn about other countries, cultures, and events in history.

The Magic Treehouse books are available on CD or in book form at your Public Library -

for free.

You can also buy them from bookstores or online.

(Support your local bookstore! In San Francisco, I love Green Apple, Red Hill, Phoenix, and Dog-Eared Books.)

If you have children, you can listen to books on CD together while you travel. Listening to books on CD is great for your brain and their brains. Listening to stories increase imagination, vocabulary, brain power, attention span, and listening comprehension.

Your children may not always listen to you but if they listen to books on CD, they will improve their ability to listen to you when they choose to.

And if you listen to books on CD, you will improve your own listening comprehension skills.

Now if you have hearing loss, that is another matter.

Unfortunately, I cannot help you with that one.