Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Communication Olympics, where kids are tested to see who can speak up and listen well. I'm your host, Walker Walter.

Speaker 2: And I'm your host, Melissa Marissa. First, we have John Rigby. Last year, he famously took out his cell phone while Frankie Richardson was telling him about how her cat, Mr. Pickles, had diabetes.

Speaker 1: It's like he didn't even care about what she had to say at all.

Speaker 2: We have our judges scoring our athletes on a scale of 1 to 10. This is the listening event, so judges will be looking for proper active listening technique. Judges are looking for eye contact and nodding. You also have to give someone undivided attention, meaning you're actually trying to understand what the person is saying. Asking questions and making acknowledging statements also leads to a high score. Let's take this to our woman on the ground, Carissa Callahan. Carissa?

Speaker 3: John is engaging in conversation with his friend, Valentina. So Steph just left me. I didn't have anyone to see the movie with, and she didn't even say sorry. Like, we've been friends since she moved in across the street. She did that? Yeah, it's like really messed up.

Speaker 4: Love that question asking. He would have gotten a higher score for restating what Valentina's original concern was and asking a clarifying question. But overall, it shows he's engaged.

Speaker 3: I have like three hours of homework.

Speaker 4: Oh no, it looks like a really, really cool caterpillar is climbing pretty close to John's sandwich. Look at those colors. This is a very cool caterpillar. Let's see what happens.

Speaker 3: ...video too, but now she's acting like we don't even watch music videos together.

Speaker 5: Oh, hey, cool. Look at this caterpillar.

Speaker 4: Hey, look at what? He wants to talk about that very cool caterpillar because he's no longer interested in the conversation, but also wants to be a good friend to Valentina.

Speaker 5: Hey, you know, that really sucks. Have you tried telling her how you feel and that you're upset?

Speaker 3: I haven't. It's pretty cool of you to hear me out like this. Let's get to Mr. Roberts.

Speaker 4: And he recovers. John clearly did the right thing by not getting distracted, even if he was getting bored. Then he nailed it with a great introspective question. Judges give it an 8.2. He was docked a few points for looking away, and we could have seen John stating the concern back to her. Back to you, Melissa Marissa.

Speaker 2: Wow, that really was a great caterpillar. Next up, we're looking for effective communication style.

Speaker 1: Like how someone sounds when they talk?

Speaker 2: Definitely not, Walker. Judges are looking for assertive communication, which means being direct and honest about what you want without using any put-downs or making someone feel bad.

Speaker 1: That's what I meant. Ahem. Ahem. Today, we're looking at Natasha Stevens. Let's jump right in as we see her being pushed to take money from her parents' money jar in the kitchen. Dude, the money's right in the kitchen. Take 10 bucks so we can go get gulpies at Fasty Mart.

Speaker 4: I don't really want a gulpy. Yeah, right. Uh-oh. We know Natasha. She's not being direct enough. She doesn't want to steal from her parents. She does really want a gulpy. If we were at my house, I'd do it. Okay. You know, maybe they won't notice. This is classic passive communication. School's very poorly with judges. Wait. Wait. It looks like Natasha might turn this around because she's literally turning around. Dude, you know what?

Speaker 2: It's not right to steal from my parents. It's not worth losing their trust. I don't know if you can come over if you're going to act like this. And by the way, I always want a gulpy.

Speaker 1: Okay. I hear you.

Speaker 4: I haven't seen a comeback like that since Skip Levinson in the 68 games. Perfect example of assertive communication. Judges give it an 8.9.

Speaker 2: She started out passively. She gave in and said yes, even if she didn't want to.

Speaker 1: Maybe she can try yelling at him next time to make him feel bad for stealing.

Speaker 2: That's what we call aggressive communication, and it, too, scores poorly with judges. When you're responding out of rage or fear, you can hurt someone's feelings, and even violate their rights. When she turned around, it was classic assertive communication. She was direct about how she felt, even if it was hard to say.

Speaker 1: That's all the time we have today.

Speaker 2: I'm Marissa Melissa.

Speaker 1: And I'm assertively communicating that we're out of time.

Speaker 2: Nice try, Walter.

Speaker 1: Okay, signing off.