54904
Regarding videos made by some Taiwanese organisations about the plight of the
people of 福島県:

> ビデオの中では、事故のあと、前にいた町にまた住むことができるようになった人や、津波で夫が亡くなったお年寄りの女性に話を **聞いています** 。  
>  In the videos _we are hearing/ have heard_ stories, after the accident,
> from a person who has again become able to live in the town she once lived
> in, and from an old lady whose husband died in the tsunami.

The [full
text](http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10011241491000/k10011241491000.html)
may be helpful here.

I'm confused about either the meaning or the conjugation of 聞く in this
sentence and who the subject of the verb is. I would expect it to translate as
either "You/one will hear... " or "You/one can hear...", where the implied
subject is the reader of the article, but that would be either 話を聞きます or
話を聞くことができます wouldn't it? Neither "You are hearing" nor "You have heard" really
seem to fit the sentence well at all.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-02T17:47:05.213
54901
2017-12-03T02:12:36.873
7944
question
grammar conjugations
Meaning of 聞いています in this sentence
An insightful question, this is (and you know I do not say that very often).

First, the implied subject. It is the people who have produced this video; It
is **_not_** the viewers.

So, in English, it would be "they" as it is the news reporter that is speaking
here. It is not "you" the audience.

Moving on to the tense and the meaning...

The meaning of the expression 「話{はなし}を聞{き}く」 in its dictionary form is " **to
listen to someone's story", "to listen to what someone has to say", "to
interview someone** ", etc.

Finally, the tense of 「聞いています」. It is the equivalent of " **(they) have
interviewed** ".

It is **_not_** the same tense (present progressive) as in
「今{いま}、ラジオを聴{き}いています。」("Someone is listening to the radio now.")

Context is everything in Japanese.

EDIT: You yourself answered a question regarding the very same tense here:

[Difference between "verb(past) + こと + ある" and "verb +
ている"](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/44595/difference-between-
verbpast-%e3%81%93%e3%81%a8-%e3%81%82%e3%82%8b-and-
verb-%e3%81%a6%e3%81%84%e3%82%8b)
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-02T21:54:54.537
54904
2017-12-03T02:12:36.873
2017-12-03T02:12:36.873
54901
answer