[Opinion] The Power of Listening

The head of a private academy in Gangnam that teaches students how to write essays for college entrance exams told me that the academy had banned its students from speaking for a month. This seemingly bizarre rule had an interesting reason behind it: Students these days simply lack the ability to listen to others. Whenever there were debate classes, students either insisted on expressing their arguments without listening to others or interrupted others in the middle of their speech.

When these students return home, conversations are held, but it’s hard to find family members listening attentively to each other. While parents believe that their sons and daughters ignore what they say, teenagers also complain that their parents fail to listen to them, as well. Similar thoughts are held between husbands and wives.

Things were different back in the old days. Listening attentively to others was a universal virtue. Ancient Greek philosopher Zeno said, "We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say." However, this is easier said than done. No wonder Confucius finally “made his ears obedient organs to the reception of truth” at the age of 60 after “having no doubt” at 40 and realized “the decrees of heaven” at 50. American author Oliver Holmes once said, “It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.” Nothing has changed since he said those words. It is still more challenging to gain wisdom than knowledge.

Listening attentively to others also requires training. If people fail to learn how to listen attentively to others in their childhood, they are likely to have a hard time changing their ways in adulthood. The fewer listening skills a person has, the fewer abilities that person has towards learning. Consequently, the person will not do well at school because listening carefully to a lecture is the very foundation of learning. A college professor once complained that when he gave out assignments on certain topics, half of his students submitted essays on an unrelated topic.

Some local Japanese governments introduced a “Japanese listening test” for public high school entrance exams. Similar to English listening tests, students are required to listen to a passage and choose the main topic among the choices given, or write their thoughts on what they have heard. The reason for adopting the listening test is due to an increasing number of students around the country are failing to listen to others.

The same goes to the discussants in the current affairs programs on TV who are so busy expressing their own opinions that they fail to listen to other participants. If they actually listened to others, they might become good role models for children to follow.

Editorial writer Jeong Seong-hee, shchung@donga.com