It is every kid’s dream. Here I was with my new learner’s permit sitting behind the wheel of the family car. The light turned green and I was just beginning to press down on the accelerator. “Don’t go!” my father said sternly. I looked ahead, but saw no reason to not go forward, so I pressed down on the pedal. “Hit the brake!” shouted my father. His loud voice startled me to the point that my reflexes took over. I stomped on the brake just as a huge cement truck came screaming across the intersection through a red light. It jumped over the sidewalk, smashed a fence, and finally came to rest against a pile of dirt in a nearby construction site.

My father had done what I neglected to do. He had looked both ways and saw the fast moving truck and could see it wasn’t slowing down. I was so excited to be driving, that I was focused only on the changing light. It was only one of the many times that I have been grateful that I have listened to my father’s advice, even those times when I couldn’t quickly see why.

Please remeber that listening and hearing are two different things. Listening needs your full attention and takes a lot of effort and energy.

Dear Professor & Members,

You are right, hearing is simply the act of perceiving sound by the ear. Listening however, is something you consciously choose to do. Listening requires concentration so that your brain processes meaning from words and sentences. Most people tend to be "hard of listening" rather than "hard of hearing."

Regards,

CHRM

"To win...you must stay in the game" - Claude Bristol

Dear madure, chrm, ganoba & members,

All of us can hear, but all of us cannot listen. Does a knock on the door sound the same all the time? What if you are alone and you hear a knock at late night? What happens when you hear a knock while you are expecting someone whom you like? Listening can be effective when we penetrate our senses towards active listening. This involves listening with a purpose. It may be to gain information, obtain directions, understand others, solve problems, share interests, see how the other person feels, even show support.

Regards,

srini

Since we've already discussed on the perspectives of listening and hearing, its time to have a practical test observation for self.

Let's do a test of our listening ability. Get a paper and pen. You have two minutes to do this. If you take more time, you need to improve your listening skills. Read all the instructions below before doing anything.

• Write your name in the top right corner of the paper
• Draw five small squares in the top left corner
• Put a circle around each square
• Put an X on the lower left-hand corner
• Draw a triangle around the X you just made
• Sign your name at the bottom of the page
• On the back of your page multiply 70 x 30
• Write the answer to the above problem adjacent to your signature
• Check whether you have done all the above correctly

Now that you have finished reading carefully, do only the first instruction.

So did that catch up with your hearing skills or listening skills ?

Regards,

CHRM

"To win...you must stay in the game" - Claude Bristol