This chapter brings together reflections on listening in multiple languages from the field of development aid, ethnography and academic research in general. It draws on an AHRC-funded research project that sets out to investigate listening in the work of international UK-based development NGOs, who tend to present themselves as listening attentively to the voices of those they wish to empower. However, the aid field is hugely complex, with a variety of actors that require NGOs to ‘listen’ to them. By interrogating the listening of NGOs, this chapter leads us to reflect on our own listening as researchers, and makes us aware of the gaps in academic reflections on listening and the role of languages in listening processes. It proposes that allowing dialogue between researcher and researched, and critically re-examining our role as researchers can enhance conceptual and methodological developments for those working in multilingual settings.