Competiton #5
16 February 2026Competition | Activity for everyone
Listening
Welcome to this week’s competition. Every Monday at 10am UTC, a new competition opens and the winners are announced on Friday at 2pm UTC. If you win, you’ll earn three stars, and your entry will be pinned to the top of the discussion.
This week, you’ve been practising your listening skills. When listening and trying to understand someone else’s opinion, what is an important question you should ask yourself?
To enter the competition
- Choose one question you would ask yourself
- Explain why is important for good listening and understanding
You may want to start like this:
I think an important question to ask myself is [your reflective question]. This would help me understand others better because [what you might learn about others].
Comments (9)
As far as I'm concerned, an essential question to ask myself while I am in class is: am I listening to my partners to understand and learn something new, or am I just waiting for my turn to speak? This might help me understand others better due to the fact that if I'm not paying real attention to my partners, little will I know about their own opinions. Consequently, I only focus on my own interests and when someone makes me a proposal or suggests me something, as I don`t know others points of view, I will accept if it is in favour of my opinion.
If I ask myself this question, I will learn to listen to others, accepting more opinions and be open-minded.
I believe one important question I should ask myself is, “What am I assuming right now, and could I be wrong?” Asking this helps me understand others more clearly, because misunderstandings often happen when we listen through our own perspective instead of the other person’s reality. When I pause to examine my assumptions, I give myself the chance to truly hear what someone is saying rather than what I expect or believe they mean. This shift helps me become a more thoughtful and patient listener.
This question is essential for effective listening because it encourages humility and open-mindedness. Instead of immediately agreeing, disagreeing, or planning my response, I become more receptive to different viewpoints. It also reminds me that everyone has unique experiences, struggles, and backgrounds that shape how they communicate. Recognizing that my first impression may not reflect the full truth allows me to listen more carefully and ask clearer, more meaningful questions.
Questioning my assumptions also helps me notice when my own mood, bias, or past experiences affect how I interpret others. For example, if someone sounds upset, I might assume they are angry with me when they could simply be stressed or tired. By challenging that assumption, I can respond with understanding instead of defensiveness.
Overall, this practice leads to more respectful and meaningful conversations. People feel safer expressing themselves when they feel heard, and I grow as a person by learning from others rather than just reinforcing my own views.
An important question I should ask myself when listening to someone else’s opinion is: Am I truly trying to understand, or am I just waiting for my turn to speak? Real listening means being open to ideas that may be different from my own and making a sincere effort to see the situation from the other person’s point of view. It requires patience, respect, and genuine curiosity, because every opinion is shaped by personal experiences, culture, emotions, and beliefs that may be very different from mine.
When I slow down and focus on understanding rather than judging or interrupting, conversations become more meaningful, calm, and respectful. I may discover new information, learn a different way of thinking, or even change my own perspective in a positive way. Good listening also helps reduce misunderstandings and conflict, because people feel valued and heard when someone pays real attention to their words.
In this way, listening is not only a basic communication skill but also an important life skill that builds trust, encourages cooperation, and creates stronger relationships between people with different backgrounds and opinions. By practicing careful and respectful listening, we can grow as individuals and contribute to more thoughtful, peaceful, and understanding communities.
I think an important question to ask myself is, Am I actually understanding what they're trying to say?
Sometimes when someone is talking, I just nod or say yeah, but I might not really think deeply about their words. If I ask myself this question, it's reminds me to pay full attention and not get distracted. It also helps me not judge them quickly just because I have a different opinion.
Good listening means trying to see things from their side, even if I don't fully agree. When I do that, the other person feels respected, and the conversation becomes more meaningful.
I think an important question to ask myself is : am I being too quiet around others? This might help me understand others better doe to the fact that if me being quite makes them feel as though I'm not interested in their conversation than I want to focus on that. If I'm not responding/replying fast enough I want to change that. I want to make them feel like I am there with them in there darkest and happiest of times. From their point of view they see me as a quite and lonely person but I would want change that. If I talk more and look more interested I will change myself.
If I ask myself this question, I will speak more, I will respond and reply more and change the perspectives around me.
I believe that one of the important questions that I can ask myself is " Do I get the main point of what the other person is saying, or am I getting distracted by the details that I do not agree with?" This question is important because it encourages me to get the main point of what the other person is saying instead of getting distracted by the details that I do not agree with or that are based on assumptions or biases that the other person might have.
I think that sometimes we get easily distracted or drawn into certain words or ideas that we do not agree with or that we find offensive or disagreeable. This can cause us to lose the main point of what the other person is saying or the main idea that the other person is trying to get across.
However, if I ask myself this question, I can then practice active listening because I can then get the main point of what the other person is saying while also paying attention to the words that the other person is using. This can then help me understand the reasoning or the feeling that the other person might be using or expressing while giving their point of view.
I can then use this opportunity to learn from the other person and get a different point of view, while also gaining new insights from the other person.
If someone was talking about their opinions, and I had a strong opinion and I had prepared what I’d be about to say, I would (try) ask myself, “is there any way this can come across as rude?” I don’t want to sound rude when sharing my opinion that contrasts with someone else, because they might get annoyed and start being rude because I used the wrong tone or wrong words.
I want to understand other’s opinions and their views and aspects of different topics, so I try to listen without interrupting, and then get my point across after them. If they say something I’m interested in during the beginning of the sentence, I’d say something like, “going back to when you said ——, I think ——.” I would try drag the conversation back to the thing that I have prepared something to say about. If I’ve made my point and no one has anything else to say, I’ll try change the subject to something else (change the subject as in a different thing inside of the main thing).
Thank you.
I think an important question to ask myself if “am I listening to everyone in the class”
I think listening is very important even if you think you have a good opinion it’s still important to listen to others.
They might have an even better idea or you might have an answer to there question. Even if you think that you’ve got a really good answer and that no one is capable to have a better understanding then that’s not fair you should always listen. And if you don’t listen at all you wouldn’t know what everyone’s talking about!
I think an important question to ask myself is: “Am I listening to understand, or just listening to reply?”
This would help me understand others better because, in real life, many disagreements don’t come from people being irrational, but from people not feeling heard. For example, in debates about politics, religion, or even everyday issues like school or work, it’s easy to mentally rehearse a counter-argument instead of engaging with what the other person is actually saying. When I focus on understanding first, I’m more likely to recognise the values or experiences shaping their view, even if I still disagree with their conclusion.
There is also a parallel with chess. If I play a move while fixated only on my own plan, I often miss my opponent’s threats. Strong players, however, first ask what their opponent intends before deciding how to respond. Listening works in the same way: understanding someone’s position is not passive, but strategic. It allows for better judgement rather than impulsive reaction.
Philosophically, this reflects the idea that understanding precedes evaluation. Thinkers like Socrates emphasised questioning as a way of uncovering meaning rather than winning arguments. By asking whether I am listening to understand or to reply, I remind myself that good listening is an active discipline; one that leads to clearer thinking, more respectful dialogue, and deeper insight into others.