Krish is studying abroad in China, which he is using as an opportunity to improve his Mandarin. To his surprise, he can barely understand his Chinese classmates when they are walking down the street in Beijing. “This is way harder than listening to the conversation tapes from class!” Krish thinks. Explain Krish’s listening difficulty in terms of barriers to listening.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary, but Krish’s main listening difficulty likely comes from different types of noise. Since Krish is attempting to listen to a language he does not speak natively, he might be experiencing high degrees of semantic noise. On top of that semantic noise is the physical noise from the streets in Beijing. This compounds Krish’s listening difficulty. He may also be suffering from message complexity, as it’s likely his classmates are using some words that are more complex than the ones he learned in class back home.