Learn Hardcore Dutch: Wij zitten in de woonkamer en luisteren naar muziek. - We sit in the living room and listen to music.

Wij zitten in de woonkamer literally: We sit in the living room.
But in context it usually means: We are (sitting) in the living room, describing both location and posture.
If you say Wij zijn in de woonkamer, that just states location: We are in the living room (it does not say anything about what position you’re in).

So zitten adds a bit more detail: you’re there, and you’re sitting (not standing, walking, etc.).

Does zitten always mean that someone is physically sitting down?

Often it does, but not always. There are three main uses:

Literal posture
- Ik zit op de stoel. – I’m sitting on the chair.
Location with a typical posture (like in your example)
- Wij zitten in de woonkamer. – We are in the living room (and we’re there in a sitting position; this is the default for relaxing somewhere).
Figurative / abstract uses
- Hoe zit dat? – How is that? / How does that work?
- Hij zit in de problemen. – He is in trouble.

In your sentence, it’s literal and natural: people in a living room are normally sitting.

Would Wij zijn in de woonkamer en luisteren naar muziek be wrong?

It’s not wrong, but it sounds a bit less natural in this everyday context.

Wij zitten in de woonkamer en luisteren naar muziek.
→ Very natural: says you are in the living room and you are in a sitting/relaxing position while listening.
Wij zijn in de woonkamer en luisteren naar muziek.
→ Grammatically correct, but a bit more neutral and less specific; it just says you are there and listening.

Dutch speakers often choose zitten, staan, or liggen when they want to describe what someone is doing in a place in a more vivid way.

Why is it luisteren naar muziek and not luisteren muziek, like listen music?

In Dutch, the verb luisteren normally needs the preposition naar when you say what you’re listening to:

naar muziek – to music
naar de radio – to the radio
naar hem – to him

So the typical structure is:

luisteren naar + [thing/person]

Examples:

Ik luister naar muziek. – I listen to music.
Luister je naar mij? – Are you listening to me?

Saying luisteren muziek without naar is ungrammatical in standard Dutch.

What exactly does woonkamer mean? Is it just living room?

Yes, woonkamer is the standard word for living room.

It’s a compound word:

wonen – to live (to reside)
kamer – room

So literally it’s the room where you live (spend your daily life).
Dutch makes many compounds like this.

Why is it de woonkamer and not het woonkamer?

Nouns in Dutch have two grammatical genders for articles:

de-words (common gender)
het-words (neuter gender)

Kamer is a de-word, so:

de kamer – the room
de woonkamer – the living room
de slaapkamer – the bedroom
de eetkamer – the dining room

There’s no rule you can always apply to new words; you just have to learn the article with each noun. Here, it’s simply that kamer is a de-word, so any compound ending in -kamer will also use de.

Why is the word order Wij zitten in de woonkamer and not Wij in de woonkamer zitten?

Dutch main clauses normally obey the verb-second rule (V2):

One element (often the subject) comes first.
The finite verb (here: zitten) comes second.
The rest of the sentence follows.

So:

Wij (subject) – 1st position
zitten (finite verb) – 2nd position
in de woonkamer – everything else

Wij in de woonkamer zitten could appear in a subordinate clause:

… omdat wij in de woonkamer zitten.
– … because we are sitting in the living room.

But on its own as a main sentence, Wij in de woonkamer zitten is incorrect word order.

Why is there no second wij before luisteren?

The subject wij applies to both verbs:

Wij zitten in de woonkamer
(Wij) luisteren naar muziek

In Dutch (and in English) you can avoid repeating the subject in coordinated clauses when it’s the same:

Wij zitten in de woonkamer en luisteren naar muziek.
– We are in the living room and (we) are listening to music.

Adding a second wij would be grammatically correct but sounds heavier and less natural:

Wij zitten in de woonkamer en wij luisteren naar muziek.
This is usually only used for emphasis or for very slow, careful speech.

How would I say We are sitting in the living room listening to music in a way that sounds natural in Dutch?

Your given sentence is already a very natural way:

Wij zitten in de woonkamer en luisteren naar muziek.

Dutch usually uses the simple present for what English expresses with a present continuous (are sitting, are listening). Another equally natural version is:

Wij zitten in de woonkamer muziek te luisteren.
Literally: We sit in the living room to-listen music.
Meaning: We’re sitting in the living room listening to music.

Both are fine; the original version is slightly simpler and very common.

Can I leave out Wij and just say Zitten in de woonkamer en luisteren naar muziek?

Not as a normal, complete sentence in standard Dutch.

Wij zitten in de woonkamer en luisteren naar muziek.
→ Full sentence (subject + finite verb).

Zitten in de woonkamer en luisteren naar muziek looks more like a note or a fragment, for example a diary heading or a caption, but not a grammatically complete sentence in regular speech or writing.

Spoken Dutch might sometimes drop the subject after context is clear, but that’s informal and not a good model for learners.

Why is it naar muziek and not naar de muziek?

Both are possible, but they mean slightly different things:

naar muziek – to music (music in general, unspecified)
naar de muziek – to the music (specific music you both know about, for example the music that’s currently playing at a party, or some particular piece)

In your neutral sentence, naar muziek is more natural because it talks about listening to music in general, not to a specific, already‑identified piece of music.

How do you pronounce Wij zitten in de woonkamer en luisteren naar muziek?

Approximate pronunciation using English-like sounds:

Wij – like vey (similar to English why, but with lips rounded, somewhere between way and why)
zitten – ZIT-un (short i as in sit)
in – like English in
de – duh (very short)
woonkamer – VOHN-kah-mer
- woon like vohn (long o, as in British phone)
- kamer like KAH-mer
en – un (short, like the e in pen, but reduced)
luisteren – LOW-stu-run
- lui like lowy with a rounded sound; closest: loy in loyal, but shorter
- steren like stuh-run with a rolled or tapped r
naar – naar (like naar in naar, somewhat like English naahr, with a long a)
muziek – muu-ZEEK
- mu like mew but with rounded u (close to French u or German ü)
- ziek like zeek

Spoken smoothly, it sounds roughly like:

Vey ZIT-un in duh VOHN-kah-mer un LOY-stu-run naar muu-ZEEK.