Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jraph 1002 days ago
"We heard you" sounds like an idiom though, for which the difference between hearing and listening is not really relevant.

(English is not my primary language, but I've seen on Linguee at least one occurrence of "We heard you" translated into the equivalent French phrase, which does use the literal translation of "listen")
3 comments
Macha 1002 days ago
In common language, I think that's true.

In carefully worded corporate PR speak, it has unfortunately been sullied by those particularly using it to appear to be listening to feedback without making the changes that the feedback wanted.

link
johnnyanmac 1001 days ago
They are synonymous, and in reality it doesn't matter much for the PR here. but there is some idiomatic and metaphorical differences between the two that can be hard to explain to someone that is ESL. "hearing" is receiving sound to your ears. "listening" is understanding those sounds. People in this case really want to be understood.

Also keep in mind that "We're listening" is another common PR response.

link
nonrandomstring 1002 days ago
Forgive me. its very much psychoanalytic babble. You sort of need to get that context before it really makes sense.
link