From ES2007S, I learned two aspects of communication that I have never paid attention to---one from the book, the other from my lecturer and class mates. The two aspects complement each other, and benefit me in my work and daily life.
From book, I learned that communication is not only about open the mouth and talk; there are a lot of theories and tips to help to achieve effective communication. When we talk, we should adjust the tone, pace, accent to make sure the audience can follow. When we listen, we should rephrase the talk in mind and respond to the speaker. When we write, we should follow 7Cs (Courtesy, Correctness, Conciseness, Clarity, Coherence, Cohesion, Concreteness, and Completeness). So here, I will follow Concreteness to say that I did benefit from this course. I followed what I learned from the course to write a resume and cover letter to apply for an internship position, and was selected for an interview. After giving a good impression to the interviewer, I got the offer.
From my lecturer and class mates, I learned that communication is not a one-time effort. It takes time to practice the rules and tip to achieve effective communication. Ms Kim always says our class is the quietest one in her three classes. She tried a lot to motivate us to apply the knowledge we learned in this course to communicate with each other, but we still kept our mouths closed most of the time. Until the last three to four lessons, we started to talk, joke and laugh in class. Especially in the last lesson—although it was a test -- we did not feel any stress but cheer up for each other. When we looked back the way we went through, we did apply the rules of effective communication when we read and replied to each other’s block, communicated in class and so on. AS time went on, we got to know each other better and built up friendship.
At the end of the post and also the course, I want to say thank you Ms Kim, thank you all my class mates. I wish you all the best!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Biodata
I am a fourth year student in National University of Singapore, with major in Statistics and Minor in Financial Mathematics. I am expected to graduate in May 2009 with 2nd upper honors degree.
Besides study, I joined various Co-Curricular Activities to enrich my University life. I lived in NUS Temasek Hall for 3 years, so I joined several hall activities. I was the vice head of the photography committee in NUS Temasek Hall, where I learned semi-professional photography and photo shop skills. I joined Chinese Production Committee and played as 2nd main character in the annual Chinese show. Besides Hall activities, I also joined school activities. I was the Chairperson of IEEE NUS Student Branch Membership Sub-committee. And I volunteered to help at NUS Career Centre as a Career Guide.
From these activities, I gained leadership skill, organizing skill, inter personal communication skill and became a good team player. I do believe these experience will benefit me in my work in the future.
Besides study, I joined various Co-Curricular Activities to enrich my University life. I lived in NUS Temasek Hall for 3 years, so I joined several hall activities. I was the vice head of the photography committee in NUS Temasek Hall, where I learned semi-professional photography and photo shop skills. I joined Chinese Production Committee and played as 2nd main character in the annual Chinese show. Besides Hall activities, I also joined school activities. I was the Chairperson of IEEE NUS Student Branch Membership Sub-committee. And I volunteered to help at NUS Career Centre as a Career Guide.
From these activities, I gained leadership skill, organizing skill, inter personal communication skill and became a good team player. I do believe these experience will benefit me in my work in the future.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Reflecting on the Research Project Experience
I have just finished the final edit of the findings and interpretation part of our report. As I read through the sentences, the whole process of report writing came up to my mind. It was not easy to propose, conduct survey, analyze data and write a report in 3 weeks time, but three of us worked together and made it happened! I was proud to tell that I did enjoy a positive learning experience, in terms of report writing, group communication and team work.
Report writing skill was one of the most significant things I learnt from this project. From setting objective and hypothesis to writing conclusion and explanation, as well as following the APA format of the report, this project taught us everything. I believed it would benefit us through our work and study in the further. Besides, effective group communication as a whole was another aspect of learning in this project. It did not only contain sharing information with others, but effective listening to group members’ opinions and comments. Most important, when agreement couldn’t be achieved by discussion, it required us to submit to the group leader’s decision and try our best to support it. Here, team work played a crucial part. We split the report into three parts, and each of us took charge of one part. For each part, we discussed the idea together and the person in charge recorded it down and drafted it in the report. After this, we worked in a team to edit and finalize the draft. In this way, we concerned every member’s opinion by discussing the report in a group, and saved time and troubles in writing report by asking one member to draft each part.
Since group communication as a whole and team work contributed to the success in our project, we would extend them to our oral presentation. In contrast, we would try to avoid the weak area in communication encountered in this project. For example, during discussion, we focused too much on details but lost the idea in general. This not only wasted our time but misled us from the project. We believed that after avoiding this, we would achieve a success in oral presentation.
Report writing skill was one of the most significant things I learnt from this project. From setting objective and hypothesis to writing conclusion and explanation, as well as following the APA format of the report, this project taught us everything. I believed it would benefit us through our work and study in the further. Besides, effective group communication as a whole was another aspect of learning in this project. It did not only contain sharing information with others, but effective listening to group members’ opinions and comments. Most important, when agreement couldn’t be achieved by discussion, it required us to submit to the group leader’s decision and try our best to support it. Here, team work played a crucial part. We split the report into three parts, and each of us took charge of one part. For each part, we discussed the idea together and the person in charge recorded it down and drafted it in the report. After this, we worked in a team to edit and finalize the draft. In this way, we concerned every member’s opinion by discussing the report in a group, and saved time and troubles in writing report by asking one member to draft each part.
Since group communication as a whole and team work contributed to the success in our project, we would extend them to our oral presentation. In contrast, we would try to avoid the weak area in communication encountered in this project. For example, during discussion, we focused too much on details but lost the idea in general. This not only wasted our time but misled us from the project. We believed that after avoiding this, we would achieve a success in oral presentation.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Evaluating Intercultural Behavior
It happened last summer, when I went back to my hometown in China for holiday. I got together with my High-school class mates at KTV, and we spent a great time there. By the time we left, one of the gentlemen class mates paid the bill. It was 250yuan in total and there were 5 of us, so I passed him 50yuan subconsciously. He did not accept the money, but stared at me and asked: ‘What do you mean?’ I could tell, from his tone, that he was angry about me! Other friends also stared at me as if I was a stranger to them. I then realized that I made a mistake by breaking the Chinese culture!
In China, people treasure friendship and they believe in “share and share alike(有福同享，有难同当).” So when some friends eat or play outside, they would like to treat each other to show close friendship. Usually, one friend would pay the bill for all; another would pay next time, so on and so forth. They don’t care about gain and lost with friends and don’t “go Dutch”. So when I paid my friend 50yuan for myself, I hurt them by being “clear” with them.
For the first time, in my hometown, I experienced the difference in culture norms and values. After 4 years staying in Singapore, I am used to the western culture here. For Singaporeans, go Dutch with friends is very common. Being “clear” with money doesn’t mean being far away from friends. Instead, it avoids a lot of troubles caused by money, which makes the friendship more sincere. I appreciate it and enjoy “go Dutch” with friends even when I went back to China. But my carelessness hurt my friends. It reminded me again, that the fundamental rule of intercultural communication is to respect each other with their culture.
In China, people treasure friendship and they believe in “share and share alike(有福同享，有难同当).” So when some friends eat or play outside, they would like to treat each other to show close friendship. Usually, one friend would pay the bill for all; another would pay next time, so on and so forth. They don’t care about gain and lost with friends and don’t “go Dutch”. So when I paid my friend 50yuan for myself, I hurt them by being “clear” with them.
For the first time, in my hometown, I experienced the difference in culture norms and values. After 4 years staying in Singapore, I am used to the western culture here. For Singaporeans, go Dutch with friends is very common. Being “clear” with money doesn’t mean being far away from friends. Instead, it avoids a lot of troubles caused by money, which makes the friendship more sincere. I appreciate it and enjoy “go Dutch” with friends even when I went back to China. But my carelessness hurt my friends. It reminded me again, that the fundamental rule of intercultural communication is to respect each other with their culture.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Potential Research Project Proposal
Nowadays, environmental problem has become a global issue; saving natural resource by recycling is promoted as the responsibility of every citizen. Therefore, the recycling bins are “invited “into NUS. There are two kinds of recycling bins—yellow bins are for cans recycling and green bins are for paper. We believe that if everyone would recycle his (her) daily recyclable garbage, day after day, we will save a lot of natural resource. However, things do not go as well as they are expected. Some students throw everything into garbage bins, as if they can’t see the recycling bins; some don’t bother to separate cans from paper, but throw them into the recycling bin whichever is near to them; some even throw food or tissue paper into recycling bins which gives the cleaners a big trouble. Based on this problem, we would like to conduct a research to find out the usage level of recycling bins among NUS students.
An attitudinal survey is necessary in this case because we want to know the percentage of students who use recycling bins; for those who don’t, what are the reasons? Is that because they don’t they believe in recycling, or they don’t bother to separate recyclable from unrecyclable garbage but simply throw everything in garbage bins. On top of that, we want to find out how many students use recycling bins correctly. We will ask a couple of questions to test their knowledge level of recyclable items, for example, are food and tissue paper recyclable? The analyzed data will be reflected to Office of Student’s Affair (OSA) for further implementation.
An attitudinal survey is necessary in this case because we want to know the percentage of students who use recycling bins; for those who don’t, what are the reasons? Is that because they don’t they believe in recycling, or they don’t bother to separate recyclable from unrecyclable garbage but simply throw everything in garbage bins. On top of that, we want to find out how many students use recycling bins correctly. We will ask a couple of questions to test their knowledge level of recyclable items, for example, are food and tissue paper recyclable? The analyzed data will be reflected to Office of Student’s Affair (OSA) for further implementation.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
A conflict at work
I encountered this conflict with my colleague during my internship in an organization at Woodland. As I lived in NUS, it took me 2 hours per trip for traveling. Although I left work at 6pm, by the time I reached home, it was 8pm plus already. My supervisor was very nice to me, she allowed me to leave half an hour earlier as long as I finished my work. So, I was quite enjoyable for my first two weeks at work -- doing my job “fast and sweet” and arriving home by 7:30pm to have dinner with my roommates.
However, things changed after another intern came in. He was responsible and attentive to work, but sometimes he was so attentive that he stayed at work until 7pm and later. I didn’t know whether it was because he lived in woodland, 5 minutes from work, or he really loved the job; he seemed to be fine with stay late and even made it later and later. I didn’t pay much attention at first, but as time passed by, I started to feel uncomfortable to leave when he was still working. I can’t help thinking, what would the other people think of me? My supervisor would think I was neither dedicated to my work nor a team player. My colleague would think I threw all my work to him and left earlier myself. I would become the “bad person” in the office. So I offered to help him, but found there was nothing much I could do. He was slow not because there was too much work, but he was too careful to everything. Actually, he also urged me to leave earlier because he understood I lived far from work.
I was put into this situation that I had no problem with my colleague, and neither of us did things wrong. But I couldn’t just ignore it because it bothered me. What should I do?
However, things changed after another intern came in. He was responsible and attentive to work, but sometimes he was so attentive that he stayed at work until 7pm and later. I didn’t know whether it was because he lived in woodland, 5 minutes from work, or he really loved the job; he seemed to be fine with stay late and even made it later and later. I didn’t pay much attention at first, but as time passed by, I started to feel uncomfortable to leave when he was still working. I can’t help thinking, what would the other people think of me? My supervisor would think I was neither dedicated to my work nor a team player. My colleague would think I threw all my work to him and left earlier myself. I would become the “bad person” in the office. So I offered to help him, but found there was nothing much I could do. He was slow not because there was too much work, but he was too careful to everything. Actually, he also urged me to leave earlier because he understood I lived far from work.
I was put into this situation that I had no problem with my colleague, and neither of us did things wrong. But I couldn’t just ignore it because it bothered me. What should I do?
Monday, August 25, 2008
Effective communication skills
In the highly developed society, communication is every moment everywhere. Effective communication skills help us to achieve success in work and gain happiness in life, which is why I think it is important.
Effective communication can bring me a good start in my career. I am in my last year in NUS, and the most important thing to me is to find a job that I dreamed of. There are three steps to achieve this. First of all, I need to send out an impressive resume and cover letter so that I can be shortlisted from thousands of candidates. Great non-verbal communication skill, more specifically, excellent writing skill, decides whether I can make my first impression to HR fresh and outstanding. In the interview followed, I need to clearly articulate my skills, key achievements in the past and how I am going to add value to the organization. If I am “lucky” enough, I may even have to go through a networking section with the CEO and managers, to convince them I am the most passionate, smart and dedicated employee they are looking for. In each of the steps above, I need effective communication skills to support me. Without that, no matter how desirable and suitable I am for the job, the employer wouldn’t know.
Effective communication skills help me to gain friendship. As a foreigner in Singapore, I want to fuse into the local environment and make friends with people around me. Effective interpersonal communication is the bridge bringing me to them. By sharing experiences, exchanging opinions, chatting and joking, I can overcome the difficulty in culture difference, and make them like me and treasure me as a friend. Besides, for my old friends in china, I keep in touch with them through phone calls. Since we don’t have much time to spend together, effective communication through phone plays a more crucial part in our friendship.
After all, effective written skills, oral and interpersonal communication skills benefit me in various ways, and make effective communication the essential component of my life.
Effective communication can bring me a good start in my career. I am in my last year in NUS, and the most important thing to me is to find a job that I dreamed of. There are three steps to achieve this. First of all, I need to send out an impressive resume and cover letter so that I can be shortlisted from thousands of candidates. Great non-verbal communication skill, more specifically, excellent writing skill, decides whether I can make my first impression to HR fresh and outstanding. In the interview followed, I need to clearly articulate my skills, key achievements in the past and how I am going to add value to the organization. If I am “lucky” enough, I may even have to go through a networking section with the CEO and managers, to convince them I am the most passionate, smart and dedicated employee they are looking for. In each of the steps above, I need effective communication skills to support me. Without that, no matter how desirable and suitable I am for the job, the employer wouldn’t know.
Effective communication skills help me to gain friendship. As a foreigner in Singapore, I want to fuse into the local environment and make friends with people around me. Effective interpersonal communication is the bridge bringing me to them. By sharing experiences, exchanging opinions, chatting and joking, I can overcome the difficulty in culture difference, and make them like me and treasure me as a friend. Besides, for my old friends in china, I keep in touch with them through phone calls. Since we don’t have much time to spend together, effective communication through phone plays a more crucial part in our friendship.
After all, effective written skills, oral and interpersonal communication skills benefit me in various ways, and make effective communication the essential component of my life.
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