First time I heard of active listening was in a corporate self-improvement class. People around me (the majority were extroverted bay area marketing/product fol

First time I heard of active listening was in a corporate self-improvement class. People around me (the majority were extroverted bay area marketing/product folks) were mind blown. Many had never experienced anything like it. To me, it was just... listening. (Not saying this to self-promote, I had the same experience as them in other exercises.) I do think there's a cultural distinction as well. Americans have a very intense small talk conversational culture. If you stop and think, it's a sign of weakness, so people are very good at filling the void if need be. In other cultures, speaking prematurely without anything good to say can be worse than saying nothing.