Active Listening
Exercise: Match the following responses to the statements – what is paraphrasing, what is
verbalizing, what is neither one?
Statement
1. Male colleague to female
colleague:
“I don’t understand why the
boss fired Jussuf.“
2. Housewife to housewife:
“So, my husband finally
received the power of
procuration and now he
doesn’t have to ask the
director, Mr. Müller, about
every little thing anymore!“
3. Colleague to colleague:
“By the way, I’m permitted to
travel to Egypt to attend the
convention on behalf of the
company next week.”
4. Mother 1 to Mother 2:
“That teacher, Mr. Lampel,
gave my Monika a 5 in math
yet again!“
5. Customer to salesman:
“You can keep this piece of
junk of a video recorder that
only produces stripes in the
images!“
6. Boss to colleague:
“Nobody understands the
new customs regulations for
canned vegetables – how
high is the tariff really now?“
© prepared byDr. Maryam Bigdeli, MC, MBA for the Berndorf Executive Academy
Response Category
a) We don’t need to worry about that!
b) You’re annoyed about the way he
handles foreigners.
c) Be happy that it didn’t happen to you!
d) Are you wondering what the decisive
reasons for the dismissal were?
a) I notice that you’re really proud of him.
b) Yes, that Müller is an idiot!
c) So your husband can act fairly
independently in business now?
d) Well, my husband has had that for a long
time already ….
a) I was also there last year.
b) Egypt? That’s so boring!
c) So next week you’re going to go on a
business trip?
d) You’re surely looking forward to that.
a) So your daughter is at risk in
mathematics?
b) My Klausi also has a 5 in Latin!
c) There are already so many complaints
about Mr. Lampel!
d) You’re annoyed with that strict teacher ....
a) Do you even have a receipt?
b) You’re annoyed with the poor image
quality ...
c) The video recorder is producing an image
with stripes?
d) You can’t speak to me in this tone!
a) Are you wondering exactly how much
customs duty that we really must pay now?
b) Yes, those bureaucrats do what they
want!
c) Are you annoyed about the complicated
customs regulations?
d) Don’t yell at me, it wasn´t my decision!
7. Colleague to boss:
“I’d like to have tomorrow off
because my wife is having
contractions 4 weeks too
early.“
8. Client to consultant:
“And why should precisely
your appliance work better
than all of these pieces of
junk from the competitors
that we’ve already thrown
out?“
© prepared byDr. Maryam Bigdeli, MC, MBA for the Berndorf Executive Academy
a) Are you worried about your wife?
b) Where do you think this would lead to if
everybody stays home because of such a
mere trifle?!
c) Yes, my wife also had contractions 2
weeks early.
d) Would you like to take a day of
compassionate leave tomorrow?
a) Well, we have the X17 processor!
b) You can’t compare us with those idiots!
c) Have you had bad experiences with the
competitors?
d) Are you wondering what our appliances
can do better than your previous ones?