Professional Communication '08

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Blog Post #7:
Reflection

As this module comes to a close, I have personally learnt several useful communication skills. Despite the tight academic schedule, ES2007S has prepped me to become a better communicator. Through the use of communication cues of people such as body language as well as understanding different types of communication networks, I have learnt to convey ideas across more effectively.

The different roles we assumed for the research group gave us clear indication as to what our respective responsibilities were. It gave us a chance to practice our communication skills. For instance, we had to convey our research topic ideas to the rest of the team in a clear and concise manner. We also trained our active listening skills when taking minutes during meetings and evaluating other group’s presentations.

Though I did not get to practice speaking much, I still had the chance to learn to communicate via writing. I have applied for a part-time job for the December holidays and the skills I have learnt in drafting the resume has clinched me that job.

This module has been of significant value to me as I have become a well-rounded individual in terms of communicating with others. I have gained much confidence from this course and I know the skills I learnt here will be viable when I head out to work in the future.

(7) comments
Post a Comment

9:46 PM -wendy-

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Blog Post #6:
Biodata of Wendy

I am currently pursuing a Bachelor Degree in Science, majoring in Chemistry, who have achieved a Diploma in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Technology in 2006. I have worked for companies like Singapore Science Centre Special Project Team as sales assistant, promoting products and managing of stocks and Exxonmobil Singapore Refinery as Reliability Engineer and the Maintenance Analyst’s assistant for my industrial attachment with an A grade.

Besides being known as a helpful and motivating counselor among my friends, I have a wide range of organization team and stage performances under my belt. I am chosen to be the President of my Voice Ensemble consecutively for 13years since 1993, having approximately 100students under my supervision. My stage performances include , starring as the lead singer Graduation Ceremony in 1997, Leader for NDP performance in 2000 and organizer for Public Concert at Singapore Polytechnic in 2002.

(7) comments
Post a Comment

8:33 AM -wendy-

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Blog Post #5:
An Interpersonal Relatioship Experienced Learnt

Working through the research project together with my teammates for more than 3weeks, three of us had known each other better. Under such a tight schedule, we were glad that we still managed to work out the research report on time. One of the most memorable learning experiences I had learnt was, building better interpersonal relationship with one another. I personally felt that interpersonal relationship is the most wonderful experience for me because without this leaning relationship pillar, everything will just toppled off.

Straight after mid-term break, Wilson and I were super busy with our mid-term tests.
Yi Hao had taken the initiative to start the ball rolling by helping us in searching some literature reviews for our project. I felt, it was nice of him to do so, however, I was guilty for not doing anything. I did approach Yi Hao, telling him I’m sorry for not helping out much for the literature review, which was due on one of the tutorial lessons. As my mid-term exams were coming to an end, I took the initiative to help out on the research project. Wilson also contributed to the project eventually.

After working with them for weeks, I found out that Yi Hao and Wilson slept super late at night, they tend to do their work at late night. Whenever they had discussions, it was held like 2am in the morning. However, I had already gone to bed. This difference in lifestyle did not hinder us from doing our research project, but we get used to each other sleeping habit. For example, Wilson will get the file send to my email and I will get it read through the next morning.

Through this research project, I discovered that by accepting your teammates’ strength and weakness is a success to this project work.

(5) comments
Post a Comment

9:03 PM -wendy-

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Blog Post #4:
An Intercultural Scenario I personally faced

One of the intercultural scenarios that I shared with my group is about my friend, Cindy, during her 21st birthday party. Friends and relatives were invited to her birthday party, which was held at her apartment. Since Cindy was the limelight of the day, she dolled herself up beautifully.

Being her good friend, Cindy told me that she secretly invited her pen pal, Joseh, to her birthday party who is from the United States. Cindy is meeting him up for the very first time. Not long after, Joseh arrived, dressing up in a full-blacked old-fashioned way. Cindy's mum being more traditional is rather agitated as she find black is not an auspicious colour. This make Cindy kind of frustrated. After greeting Cindy with "Happy Birthday", he went on passing her a birthday present which was a huge clock with her favourite cartoon character Minnie Mouse. She gave him a hard stare, right into his eyes, and shouted at him, "What kind of present is this!" And went up to her room, slammed the door hard behind her. All of us were stunted about what had happened.

Cindy's Dad quickly reacted to the situation by asking the guests to continue the party. I approached Joseh on behalf of Cindy, telling him that he should not wear black-coloured clothing as it is inauspicious in Chinese Traditional Culture. Furthermore, giving a gift like clock, means cursing someone to die. Joseh was pretty sorry upon hearing what I said; he went up Cindy's room and apologized to her. Telling her about his ignorance about her cultural norms, hoping she would forgive him. Cindy did forgive him in the end and received a huge Minnie mouse jigsaw puzzle as her present instead. Both of them are still pen pal until now.

That incident was indeed a memorable one. Moreover, being a NUS student, frequently we have to communicate or do projects with people from different countries. Thus, I find that interacting between different individuals from different cultures is quite important. With a better understanding of the different cultural norms, it will make us communicate more effectively.

(5) comments
Post a Comment

9:28 PM -wendy-

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Blog Post #3:
Research Project Topic

Hectic working lifestyle and stressful educating system are what most Singaporeans faced recently. As a working adult, they need to cope with stress that arises from example, submitting of project’s report on time. However, from my point of view as a student, stress starts to pile up when exam is near or handling with relationship problems. All these factors mentioned tend to make one feels completely breakdown emotionally.

According to Singapore Channel NewsAsia’s News, although Singapore is a small country but according to social workers at a workshop, there is an increasing number of teenagers turning to self-mutilation to deal with their problems. Knives, lighters and pens are just some of the objects that teenagers use to hurt themselves.

In the news, Wu Mei Ling, centre director, Student Care Services, said that some of the teenagers need to mutilate to externalize the emotional pain as the pain is too excruciating. Some of the reasons why teenagers self-mutilate are mainly because of coping with divorce, low self-esteem and relationship problems.

Being a science student, giving a presentation in front of the whole lecture hall or even voicing out answer is something that will tend to make me feel stress. And yet, the courage to self-mutilate myself is not there. Question is, is there more reasons to why teenagers are self-mutilating themselves? It will help to solve the problem easier by knowing the main root to the problem on why there are an increasing number of teenagers self-mutilating themselves. Social workers said that more girls than boys tend to self-mutilate because female teenagers tend to be more emotional when dealing with these issues. Is it true?

It’s been an issue concerning about Singaporean’s teenagers that is brought out nowadays, I personally feel that a survey has to be carry out to find out what are the reasons that Singapore teenagers are self-mutilating themselves as well as to find out why do female teenagers tend to self-mutilate as compare to male. The objective of this report is to inform all teachers to bring across the awareness of increasing number of self-mutilation cases in Singapore to the student and to organize programme for teenagers on how to reduce their stress. Hypothesis: Do teenagers self-mutilate themselves under great stress?

(3) comments
Post a Comment

6:53 PM -wendy-

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Blog Post #2:
An interpersonal conflict situation

Interpersonal conflict situation is unavoidable in our every day life; be it in school, home or workplace. During my poly days, I was chosen to represent the school in a crystal growing competition. The group consisted of Stella, Stephanie and me as the group leader. We were chosen as we had a good understanding of using lab apparatus and possessed excellent lab techniques.

During the first meeting, Stephanie was late. We tried to contact her numerous times but in vain, and hence we commenced without waiting for her. An hour later, Stephanie eventually came strolling in to the meeting room. As Stella was a very good friend of mine, I knew she detested people for being late. However, since this was the first meeting, we let the matter slip by.

For the subsequent meetings, Stephanie continued to be unpunctual. The tension between Stella and Stephanie started to build up; they began working individually and avoided communications. As their group leader, I decided to approach Stephanie to advise her to be punctual for upcoming lab sessions and to interact more with the group. However, a cold stare and uninterested facial expression was all I got in return. I could sense that Stephanie was unhappy about working with the both of us. The cause of this arises because both Stella and I were more meticulous with our work; and Stephanie think that it was not up to her pace.

The week before the competition, our lecturer came to check on us, and was glad on our progress. Stephanie, however, claimed all credits to herself and she was praised by our lecturer in front of both Stella and I. Eventually, we were very disappointed and frustrated.

As a group leader, what should I do? In retrospect, if you were in Stephanie’s shoes, how could you have contributed more to the group instead of stealing the limelight?

(5) comments
Post a Comment

6:09 PM -wendy-

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Blog Post #1:
Why devolping effective communication is important to us?

Developing effective communication skills is a useful tool which everyone should integrate into their lives. Learning to be an effective communicator knows no bounds, and anyone regardless of age can become one. Question is, how? Well, in order to achieve that aim, one would have to examine the various areas that could bring about effective communication. Learning how to avoid barriers which hinder active listening, interpreting nonverbal communication cues of people such as body language, understanding how the different types of communication networks and channels function are just some of the sure-fire ways to improve one’s communication skills.

Effective communication plays a vital role in various situations, whether it is in the family, one’s social circle or workplace. For starters, being an effective communicator allows one to broadcast his ideas through to others clearly and confidently. This aids in allowing others to understand one better and allows one to become more persuasive when desired. Secondly, it opens a plethora of opportunity in terms of employment. By efficiently conveying one’s positive aspects in a job interview, the prospective interviewee would be able to gain a head-start in securing a career. Lastly, it helps to clarify doubts about certain issues or situations. For instance, one may paraphrase a question correctly to acknowledge a speaker in a conference. In my personal opinion, being proficient in communicating can be very useful in meeting more friends. Perhaps chatting up with someone whom you are interested with in a bar?

As a side note, although effective communication skills are important, one should not neglect the other half of the story, which is to practice active listening. Communication involves a two-way exchange of information. One needs to encode the message before speaking and to decode the reply one receives. Only through practising can one become a good speaker and listener!

(6) comments
Post a Comment

6:29 PM -wendy-