Can anyone describe the reasons that you would use one or other? Thanks.

見る　is the catch-all.
観る is watching something for enjoyment (movie, nature, sports, etc.).

You'll also see the difference in compounds

意見 - 'View'point
観光客 - Sight'seer' /Tourist

are 聞く and 聴く　the same way?

聞く is general hearing
聴く is listening (with attention paid)
If you have any more questions you should direct it to the 大辞林 on Yahoo! dictionary or the Windows IME.

http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8...4410500000

well i try to look on the windows IME for the definition, i just cant understand it usually because it is in japanese and it's easier to ask her than take 30 minutes decrypting it.
Maybe bad but in the interest of time....

Just like when people ask for info they could easily got on wowhead.com in general chat... lol, because people are there to answer. Sorry for the WoW analogy.

But really if you can't understand simple explanations in Japanese, you should really try to focus your studies elsewhere like in actual reading. This may seem interesting, but the deal is that people tend to ask small and random questions a lot while missing the big picture. Instead of getting caught up on this and that, try to understand a wide variety of things vaguely before going into specifics. 　

well i only ask because i come across it. And I just finished RTK about 2 weeks ago after 4 months of it, and have been going through Tae Kim's guide now. I am trying hard =( .