I don't think anyone can hear any real difference between a soft and a hard consonant other than natives in a Slavonic language...
See also the problem in English with "a" and "e" (i.e. the classic example of "my dad's dad" vs "my dad's dead").
But the thing is that with an effort, you can always learn the correct pronounciation. And as your vocabulary grows, you will automatically recognize more and more words and "hear" the correct sounds.
Cz → like in 'China', can be transcribed [czajna]
Ć → like in 'chill', can be transcribed [ćyl]
Now, Sz → like in 'shark', can be transcribed [sza(r)k]
And, Ś → like 'attention', can be transcribed [-śyn]
What do you think? ^^
In my case, they are China [czajna], chill [czil], shark [sza(r)k] and attention [-sz(ö)n]... Well, a Polish speaker may occasionally judge them as "ś", "ć" etc., but they are quite accidental as there is no such distinction in my language. And there's no such soft/hard distinction in English, either, so that transcription above is quite pointless.