Listening: An art or acquired skill?

I'm sure you all know the difference between hearing and listening, so I'll just skip to the listening part. Listening is when your paying attention and interpreting what your hearing. This naturally occurs when your listening to something that interests you. Sadly, this also means that you barely pick up and remember anything you heard that doesn't interest you.

This can be especially inconvenient in school, college or any situation that requires you to pay attention and learn something. In college, there are subjects that have to be taken by us not because we want to, but because we have to. This can make students feel resentful towards the subject and refuse to listen to anything taught in it. While students may not realize it, but sooner or later, they will have to start listening or they will fail that subject and will have to retake it.

This is where listening becomes an acquired skill. Students will have to find ways to make themselves pay attention and be interested in the subject. They could read the textbook more and realize that the subject is quite interesting or surf the internet for information about it and find interest in it. Thus, the students will slowly start getting used to paying attention and listen properly without concentrating so hard in every class.

In the end, listening can occur naturally if you genuinely enjoy the topic of discussion and the interest is there, but it can also be "turned on" on purpose (mostly during academic activities) and usually people who can do that for any subject, regardless of how interesting that subject is, excel pretty well academically.