Sometimes hearing isn’t enough. Even for those of us who are blessed with excellent hearing, understanding what is being said can still be a challenge. This is not about language – this is about how our hearing functions and how it can be affected by factors beyond our control. Acoustics – the physical properties of the environment we are in, can play a major role in how sound ends up.. well… sounding. Background noise, psychological factors, the combined performance of the many components involved in human hearing, all play a part in how well we are able to understand what is being said – whether someone is speaking to us directly, on the phone, on a video call, in a movie theatre, on the tv… Our ears are only the beginning.