Blog Post 6 - Reflection on Learning

When my department offered me ES2007S, I was in a dilemma whether to take this module that consists of 100% CA. I do know that I might make my life difficult if I do so. Judge from the description of the module info, I knew that this module's workload is quite heavy and hectic. However, at the end of 13 weeks after doing ES2007S, I did not regret to take this module, instead I felt that I had brought home a fruitful one, something that allow me to prepare for my future.

In this module, I have learned how to be an active listener as well as a good speaker. I have also learned how to communicate with a person depending on different situation, for instance, to deal with a message that can be same but was relayed in a different situation. In addition, I have learned to interpret verbal and nonverbal communication, like how to use gestures and gist to understand what a person is trying to say. Moving on to intercultural communication, I have learned to understand an individual's cultural background. Since my class consists of students from different countries, it gives me a chance to know more about a person's cultural behavior and background in his own country. Lastly, the adoption of the 7Cs in writing has taught me on how to write more effectively using the 7Cs method.

Besides the technical parts, I had also accomplished peer-teaching session, mock job interview and proposal oral presentation. In fact, I learned a lot from these presentations. The first presentation in NUS is quite an experience to me. I get to learn from mistakes during the peer-teaching feedback session and work towards a better one for the next presentation. Although mock job interview, by name, was not a real job interview, I learned to deal with the situation at some areas where I couldn't handle well, such as dealing with hard question, fluent and natural speaking, and tensed up feeling. Through this mock job interview, I get to know myself a lot more and better than usual and learn to improve myself at those areas. From the experience accumulated in peer-teaching feedback session, I tried to apply it during the oral presentation. Although the outcome is not as good as expected, I find that this is another chance for me to improve myself to be a better presenter, especially on presentation delivery and management of nervousness.

"If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way." With this quote, I hope that I can be a person capable of effective communication. The skills I learned in ES2007S will definitely be an advantage to me in future.

Blog Post 5 - Reflection on Oral Presentation

Oral Presentation on the previous Monday had allowed me to make a breakthrough in communication and presentation. Although it was not really going well as planned, I was quite glad that my fellow classmates showed enthusiasm and interest towards my team's topic by raising several interesting questions.

"Know that you are your greatest enemy, but also your greatest friend." This is a quote from Jeremy Taylor, and I find it best to suit my presentation. My greatest enemy would probably be my nervousness. I prepared my speech script well. Before the day of my presentation, I made sure that I rehearsed enough by presenting in front of a mirror. All seemed well, but when I was doing my presentation on the spot, I almost forgot my script. I did not talk about some of the important points, nor did I elaborate some notes that I made during the presentation. In addition, my legs was, for the first time, shaking quite violently when I was presenting. I was trying to calm myself down by making some pauses during the presentation. Also, I didn't make eye contacts engagement with my audiences when the nervousness drove up. 

On the other hand, by taking into account the feedback from the peer-teaching review session, I learned to redirect the audiences' attention to the screen. If I almost forgot the speech, I would try to redirect their attention by showing my hand to the screen, so that I could somehow refresh and got back to the track where I wanted to express. For the Q&A session, I felt that I didn't manage to answer fully to what my classmate raised.

In overall, I felt that I can do much better if I can overcome my greatest enemy. With this experience in delivering a presentation, I have a better understanding on what areas that I need to improve on. Hopefully after this fruitful experience and in future, I can be a more confident and less nervous presenter.

Blog Post 4 - Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

Culture is certainly quite an abstract thing. Culture exists because the ancestors before us passed down the traditions and the ways they lived to us. For instance, an important Chinese event such as Chinese New Year, Chinese believes that red colour brings good luck, prosperity and every prospect to the family, while black colour is a sign of a bad omen or anything that leads to unfortunate. Thus, other friends who come to visit Chinese during Chinese New Year have to be understanding that they should not come in dark appearance. Thus, evaluating intercultural behaviour of other people is important, since it shows that you pay respects to their culture, in return they will respect yours too.

For people who may not know, I am a Malaysian Chinese, that is, a Chinese who was born in Malaysia. Before I came to further my study to Singapore, I had been reading newspapers on a lot of issues. Particularly, I noticed that there were quite a lot of racial issues brought up by the parties or certain ministers. Those issues were quite irritating and annoying, to the point that you would be disappointed towards the current government for not taking any further action. One particular issue I felt that it was really unfair to every Malaysian is Malays claimed that they were the "Bumiputera" (aborigine or native) in Malaysia, and Chinese and Hindus came from other countries and reside at Malaysia.

When this statement was made, the number of racial problems were rising up. Ministers in parliament threw anger and disappointments to the other for raising up such issue. Residents from other races such as Chinese and Indians felt a great sense of disappointment to the government that they had been relied on for past few decades. Intercultural behaviour is even harder now for people to understand.

Another issue happened in the past was a group of 12 Muslims protesters protested against construction of Hindu temple in Muslim neighbourhood by parading a severed cow's head. As you may not know, the cow is a sacred animal to Hindus. This intolerable action had lead to anger raised by the Hindus. Although actions had been taken by authorities through fining and sentence for jail, this issue had left a severe scar to every Malaysian regarding racism.

I feel that I may have a bit carried away while writing this post, since these issues in my own country have left me a deep impression. In my opinion, if we can evaluate and interpret the cultural behaviour other people perform in life and understand their culture, we wouldn't have communication difficulties. Therefore, it is important to understand and respect other people's culture and their cultural behaviours.

Blog Post 3 - Application Letter Critique

Job Advertisements:

Computer Graphics & Interface
Senior Research Officer / Research Officer

You will be responsible for developing the software platform for a project. You will work with other team members to integrate different research modules in the platform.

Requirements:

• A Master's / Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science / Electrical Engineering or related fields
• At least 1 year of relevant working experience
• Solid experience in C++, OpenCV, OpenGL, GPU programming
• Excellent in communication and documentation
• Integrated, professional, passionate and dedicated, with innovative thinking, problem-solving and system implementation skills

Application Letter

Blog Post 2 - Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

Back then in Malaysia when I was in high school, I attended many courses and seminars on how to improve my emotional quotient (EQ). By attending those, I felt that I am more than a usual me. In some sense that I am more easy-going, do not throw emotion easily, and a more confident person. By improving myself, my social circle is growing wider, and more friends approach me as I received compliments that I am approachable, kind and helpful.

There was one particular interpersonal conflict that was still fresh in my mind. I was having my last year study in high school when that incident occurred. One day, my friends and I were going nuts. We were acting childish and started to play chasing game. There was one classmate (I shall refer him to "T") was not in a good mood. I was still playing the chasing game and I didn't notice T walking out of classroom. By the door, I knocked into him. I thought he knocked into me purposely, and so I stared at him. He glared at me too, thinking that I was at fault at the same time. After that, I didn't really care about it, as it was just small matter. I thought that it was time to stop this nonsense, so I stopped playing. I got back to my chair and continued my studies. T continued his glaring at me, and once a while angrily he pushed his chair around. The other classmates actually saw that scene, and they also felt that it was T's fault that he was trying to "ambush" me because of a personal matter. I doubted it. For quite a number of days, my classmates started ignoring T and boycotted him in class. Being observant, I observed that abnormalities in class. I actually didn't mean it  when I came to my sense, but I was the type that couldn't express myself properly. I was feeling sorry that he was treated that way.

About 3 weeks after the incident, my closest female classmates W, advised me to talk to T personally. I was quite surprised that he actually wanted to discussed the incident with me directly. We chose one early morning to talk about the incident. T originally had a scary appearance (facial gesture) and I didn't really talk much. W had a good communication skill, so she helped me to explain the actual situation. I did explain the situation and T explained to me in his usual scary facial gesture, with high and fierce tone. I knew that I have to apologize to him, since it was my fault for causing such misunderstanding. I apologized to him sincerely, and gave him a handshake to indicate the ending of this small incident.

From this incident, I knew that I shouldn't let my emotion sway around, causing such disgrace and misunderstanding. That's where emotional intelligence in effective communication comes in. I may not be a good communicator, but I always apologize whenever I knock into someone, or someone knock into me. It doesn't matter who is at fault, as long as we maintain the concept of peace and also do not stir up the relationship.If emotional intelligence is greatly promoted, would you think that conflicts can be reduced and this world will become a better world?

Blog Post 1 - Why effective communication is important

The first time I walked into S9A-01-03 room, I know that I will bring something fruitful and useful back once I step out of this room. ES2007S - Professional Communication, is a module that I am taking and studying in this room. Frankly, I am not sure why Computer Engineering department decided to map ES2007S with EG1413 (Critical Thinking and Writing), which is a writing module. Even though I was supposed to have taken a module that enhance my writing capability,  I knew that ES2007S will bring me something fruitful upon attending the sectional teachings. 

During my first lesson, Ms Lim Lay Hoon started off by an introductory presentation, in the mean time she explained various attributes that we should be developing, such as get your hand dirty, get a peak sky view, and more. We had the first game - or rather an activity - "Survivor" in ES2007S. The rules were quite similar to the actual reality show, where three out of 4 professions will be allowed to stay while the others that are deemed "useless" will be casted away. In this activity, we were paired up to brainstorm and come up with ideas to promote ourselves so we will not be disqualified. The funny part on this "Survivor" is that we get to listen to many funny and hilarious ideas and proposals. The first day ended with laughter and satisfaction. 

On the second lesson, we had another two set of skill-builder sessions and activities, which were interpreting non-verbal communication cues and active listening. We get to learn to interpret non-verbal cues and listen actively. There are areas where people couldn't interact and communicate well with each other, so this is one of the parts where I find most useful in how to deliver your message well across. In spite of the prior preparation of the self-introduction, I felt that I did not present well as I was lost for words during the presentation. By going through this module, I hope to polish up my presentation and communication skills, so that I can interact and communicate more effectively with my friends.

Just two days in attending this module, I find effective communication skills really important. If a message cannot be delivered across properly, one can misinterpret the message wrongly, causing further misunderstanding and disputes. That was probably what I thought of me in the communication with others in the past. By learning and acquiring these effective communication skills, I hope I can be a better and more confident person in conversation and presentation. Last but not least, I hope to meet more new friends in my social circle, and in the mean time foster the bonding and friendships between them.