 Hi, everyone. This video marks the start of our focused discussion of the listening process through what's known as the Hurrier model, starting with the notion of hearing or the function of hearing as an important part of the listening process. So as you may recall from our previous discussion, we're looking again at this Hurrier model, which the letters just stand for the first word, for the first letter of each word that we're going to take a look at here, starting with hearing, moving through understanding, remembering, interpreting, evaluating, and responding. But again, the focus of this video and our initial discussion here is on hearing. If you recall the Hurrier model, it looks like this. It starts with hearing and then moves through those other aspects, and it really is hard to imagine listening without hearing. As we'll discuss, hearing and listening are not the same thing, but hearing is an important first part of the listening process. So when we talk about hearing, we're really talking about that physiological process of hearing, right? When sound waves strike our eardrums and so forth, and the whole physiological process that leads from that sound wave being translated into some sort of image or sound or notion in our mind, the symbolic representation of whatever it is in our mind. So again, hearing is that physiological process that happens at the very start of the listening process. But there are some differences. Hearing and listening are not the same thing, although hearing is an important part of the listening process. There are some distinct and key differences between the two. For example, hearing is a constant process. Listening is intermittent. We hear constantly whether we want to or not. We can take some steps to kind of, you know, put in earbuds or block sound waves from striking our ears, but we can't just flip a switch and turn off hearing, right? Not at least internally. So hearing is constant. Whether we want to hear something or not, it's going to be there. The sound waves are still going to be there. But listening, as we've discussed, is an active process. It's not something that happens all the time. It's not something that just happens naturally for us. It's something we need to focus on and be actively involved. So it doesn't happen all the time. We're not always listening, but we are always hearing. Another key difference is that hearing is a natural ability, whereas listening is a learned skill. Hearing you're either born with the ability to hear or not and to varying degrees, right? People may experience either total hearing loss from birth or later on in life or some partial hearing loss, but it's a natural thing. It's not something we have to be taught how to do. It's again, one of the first of our senses that comes online. We can hear from really from birth if we have that ability. Listening, though, is something that has to be learned. It's not a natural ability for us. In fact, it's in many ways quite unnatural to be an effective listener. So listening is something that we have to learn how to do effectively and learn how to do appropriately. Hearing is a passive skill, whereas listening is active, as we've discussed before. Hearing, again, it's not something we have to take steps to have happen. It happens whether we want it to or not. It's constant. It's natural. It just happens. But listening is quite the opposite. It's not. So listening is an active process. It requires our specific focus and intention. So listening is an active process as opposed to hearing, which is a passive one. And hearing is a one-way thing. It's only reception. It only has to do with perception. Whereas listening involves understanding and using that message, and as we'll discuss, then responding to that message and it involves so much more than just the one-way process of those sound waves striking our ears. Listening is a two-way process. It involves hearing and so it involves that intake, but it also involves expression and outtake in some ways and understanding. And so there's just much, much more to it than the... I don't want to oversimplify the hearing process either, but there's much more to listening than just hearing. So as we can see, hearing is an important part, an important aspect of the listening process, but it's not the end of it. So we'll take a brief look in our other video on hearing, about some of the challenges that are involved in hearing, as well as some of the ways that we can improve our listening process by improving our hearing and doing some things that can aid our hearing. But it's an important first step, but it's not the end-all be-all. But it does represent the H in the hurryer model of the listening process. If you have questions about this or anything else regarding listening, please feel free to email me. I'd be happy to chat with you there and discuss any questions that you might have. In the meantime, I hope you'll continue on our journey to becoming a more effective listener.