Millions of people in Germany travel long distances every day to balance living in the countryside with a job in the city. According to the Federal Statistical Office, nearly a quarter of Germans have a commute of between 30 and 60 minutes. Five percent spend even more than an hour commuting. But it’s not just the actual travel time that can be exhausting at times. The noise level in the train station concourse and on the platform is also a challenge and can cause real auditory stress.

How well can your ears hear amid the noise at the train station? Give it a try right now. That’s exactly why the German Hearing Aid Industry Association has developed a new online hearing test. Listen to the audio sample and try to understand everything amid the noise level of a train platform. If you’re able to do so, you’ll be able to answer the questions at the end of the test correctly. Afterward, you’ll receive the test results along with recommendations for next steps. Of course, this doesn’t replace a professional hearing test with an ENT doctor or an audiologist. But it does give you an initial sense of the state of your hearing. With our other listening scenarios, we’ll put your hearing to the test at a stadium, at the airport, or during a conference call.

Do you find it difficult to follow a conversation at the train station or to understand the announcements on the platform or on the train? Then it’s time to see an ENT doctor or an audiologist. If they do diagnose hearing loss, modern hearing aids can help you.

That’s because hearing aids offer many smart features that help you cope with noisy situations and echoes in large spaces (like train stations). With them, you’ll understand what’s being said much better. They can even suppress distracting noise. They automatically detect the direction from which speech is coming and focus the sound accordingly. This way, you’ll be able to understand announcements on the train again. At various train stations, such as in Berlin, tests are also underway to transmit announcements directly into the ears of hearing aid users—another benefit. You’ll also be able to follow the conversations of your fellow passengers more easily, if you’d like to. This makes your daily commute a little easier and less stressful.

Modern hearing aids can also be helpful while driving. You can learn more about this in our article “Hearing Aids and Driving.”