August Blog

                                                                                                                                             Emma Walter

In Chapter 4, the chapter on Compassionate and Critical Listening, the concept of the difference between hearing and listening was brought up. Hearing is just a subconscious noise that your ears are open to, however there is no processing involved. Listening, on the other hand, is actively participating in what you are hearing. The 'noise' being heard is being processed and you react and respond accordingly. For example, say you are in Starbucks in the SUB and there are a lot of people talking. You are sitting with a friend. The people talking is just background noise that you hear. However, the friend you are sitting with is talking and you are listening to what they are saying. That is the difference. This is a very important concept, because it's something that will carry through situations for the rest of our lives. Listening is something we will have to do all the time; in jobs, in every day conversations, in interviews, etc. It is really important that we learn how to actively listen, so we become one with the conversations we encounter, instead of just being rude and passively 'hearing' noise. This is how we make connections in life and learn!