Im having some issues with the usage of こと in verbs. Our teacher explained
this form very quickly and i don't think i managed to understand how it works
and what it's supposed to express. She told us NOT to think of verb + こと as
the infinite form (es: to sleep, to eat) but just to consider it a different
kind of form. Basically, she told us that it's used when you're trying to
express a habit or describe a しゅみ. For example:

> 私のしゅみは音楽を聞くことです。

But there's also

> でんしゃのなかでよくＪポップを聞きます。

which seems like it's expressing a habit too, but there's no こと though. Or for
example, another phrase with しゅみ which doesn't have the こと form:

> 私のしゅみは外国語のべんきょうです。

There's a しゅみ but it doesn't use that form.

So, how does this form work exactly? And what is it supposed express?
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question
grammar nominalization
Usage of こと in verbs
Hobbies are listed as nouns or a series of nouns (Reading, writing, etc). こと
helps you do this, by turning the verb into an substantive noun clause.

> 私のしゅみは音楽を聞くことです。

There is no problem with your first example.

* * *

> でんしゃのなかでよくＪポップを聞きます。

While this might be an ongoing activity, is not being listed as such. 'I
[listen to music] every day' vs. '[Listening to music] is my hobby'

```

    でんしゃのなかでJポップを聞くことがしゅみです。
    
```

* * *

> 私のしゅみは外国語のべんきょうです。

This phrase already has 外国語の勉強 used as a collective noun, so no change is
necessary. If you had it in verb form (V+する）it could also be stated as
follows:

> 私のしゅみは外国語を勉強することです。

* * *

So, think of it as adding '-ing' to the verb. Run➡running, etc.
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answer
First, it should bear emphatically pointing out that "verb + こと" has little to
do with expressing what your hobbies or habits are. Sure, you may happen to
use it when telling your new friend that you often listen to music or like
learning languages, but you are only using it in order to meet a grammatical
requirement. What こと does, specifically, is to turn a verb phrase into a noun
phrase (or "nominal", hence it's nickname: "nominalizer"). With that in mind,
let's look at the example sentences one by one.

> 私のしゅみは音楽を聞くことです。

What we have here is a copular sentence, in which 私のしゅみ is the subject (marked
with "は", meaning it's also a topic), "音楽を聞くこと" is the predicative expression
and です is the copula. An equivalent sentence in English would be "My hobby is
listening to music." You have to turn the verb phrase 音楽を聞く into the noun
phrase 音楽を聞くこと, because a verb phrase cannot be the predicative expression in
a copular sentence. 私のしゅみは音楽を聞くです。 is no more grammatical than "My hobby is
listen to music." is.

> でんしゃのなかでよくＪポップを聞きます。

Unlike the sentence above, there is no copula in this one. It is made up of an
omitted (presumably) first-person subject (私) and a predicate with the non-
copular verb 聞く (here in the polite form 聞きます). An English equivalent would
be: "I often listen to J-pop on the train." There is no こと because there is no
copula and therefore no need (in fact, it would be ungrammatical, or at least
change the meaning of the sentence) to turn the verb phrase into a noun
phrase.

> 私のしゅみは外国語のべんきょうです。

So the copula です is back with this sentence. But we don't see こと. Why? Nannde?
Well, that's because we don't have any verb phrase to nominalize to begin
with! 外国語のべんきょう, you see, is already a noun phrase. (The noun べんきょう is a
verbal noun that you can turn into a verb by attaching する, so that you get
べんきょうする 'study (verb)', which then can be turned back into a noun (phrase) by
attaching こと to it, resulting in べんきょうすること 'studying'.) An English version
would be "My hobby is study of foreign languages." or perhaps bit more
naturally, "My hobby is studying foreign languages."

So there you have it. That's broadly how each sentence works. You might have
misunderstood your teacher when she explained the use of こと to you.
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answer