Have you ever thought about WHY we hear?
It’s actually a hard question to answer; unless you actually stop hearing, of course – and then you realise what you’re missing.
Without your hearing…
1.You no longer feel part of the real world.
The world carries on without you – you’re simply an observer because you can't partake in the conversation or get the punchline to a joke while everyone else is laughing.
2.You feel vulnerable.
You’ve lost your early warning system – you can't hear the car that's approaching the bend you're about to cross at, nor the footsteps of someone creeping up behind you, nor the growl of a dog that’s had enough fussing.
So perhaps our ears are a glorified survival tool?
For example, imagine you're crossing the road near a bend and you can’t see round the corner... you can’t see any cars coming so you assume it’s safe to cross. But then you hear the rumblings of a vehicle getting louder, getting closer – your ears have saved your life.
Something more incredible…
But there’s something even more incredible about our ears, something unique and special...
It's as if the contours and shape of your ears have been designed with a specific purpose in mind: to hear speech. Scientists have found that our ears actually ENHANCE the sound of speech, making it clearer for us to understand the subtleties of conversation.
For example, the difference in sound between an 'S' and a 'TH' is extremely small (try it!), but the healthy human ear is able to easily distinguish between them. That’s because our ears accentuate the difference.
But why is this subtlety so important? That's what we'll look at next.