From chaos to meaning: listening tips

From chaos to meaning

"I like to listen. 

I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. 

Most people never listen". (Ernest Hemingway)

The world around us is full of sound, and noise, and silence. It depends not only on physical characteristics of waves but also on whether or not what we hear has meaning. Sounds surrounding us from our very early age, starting inside the womb, are clear and familiar, possess a comforting tone and tend to create the feeling of safety and belonging.

What we hear in a foreign language, on the contrary, could provoke disgust, anxiety or even fear, just because we don't understand the meaning of the sound, which therefore turns into noise.

And if we want to restore that comforting feeling of belonging, we search for hints to which sense that noise might have, we strive for meaning, as we desperately want to turn the noise back into meaningful sound.

Have you ever noticed how the perception of songs change (for better or for worse) when you start to get what they are about? Want to improve your listening ability? Listen to your favorite songs in a foreign language. What can be better? Relax, listen, enjoy and learn. Sing along, too!

Has it ever come to your mind that a book you read in the writer's language and its translation are in fact two different books? Umberto Eco's manual on translation entitled "Saying (almost) the same thing" containing lots of ambiguous examples is vivid proof to this. And yet, if you want to feel at home while reading and listening in another language, try audiobooks. A book whose content you know could bring new colours and notes when you hear its sound in the original language. 

Do you tend to be aware of what is going on in the modern world? Why don't you listen to the news programmes in a foreign language?! This allows to practice listening and get to know about the recent events and developments in a range of categories, from politics to culture, from sport to technological innovations.

And, most importantly, remember to listen to people talking in their language. Weird at first, their speech will eventually become clearer, words will get shape and meaning will appear from the chaos - to make you feel safe in another culture and open to new knowledge and adventures.