Blog Post 7

After reviewing Blog Post 1, my opinion about the value of effective communication skills is generally the same. I still believe it is of great importance in both social and professional settings as the lack of such skills will lead to misunderstandings and even conflict. However, after the duration of the course, my understanding of the scope of effective communication skills has definitely broadened. I will explain what I mean in the next paragraph.

Firstly, I have realized that effective communication skills do not just mean knowing what to say or how to say it for the other party to understand what I mean. It is also not just about overcoming barriers to communication, knowing how to listen or knowing how to behave(non-verbal cues). It is such a complex skill that requires a myriad of techniques which need to be complemented by nurturing my own EQ in order to achieve. Effective communication also requires me to understand what not to say at times and when to say what. For example, I need to understand the cultural context of other people or even the formal code of conduct during a meeting at work in order not to say something insensitive or speak up at an inappropriate time respectively.

Furthermore, I have learnt that effective communication skills do not merely encompass verbal communication, but have many other aspects that require a completely different set of demands to be fulfilled. For example, written communication possesses different channels which serve different functions and all written messages require the 7C’s of communication to be effective. On top of that, both effective written and verbal communication skills need to be utilized when searching for a job. This is applicable to produce an impressive resume with a convincing cover letter and making a good impression at the job interview respectively. Lastly, a whole new set of requirements need to be fulfilled in order to give a persuasive oral presentation. On top of just enunciating my words well, I have to watch my pace, tone and even enthusiasm to bring my point across. Proper visual aids and impeccable timing of coordinating the points on the slides with what I am saying are also crucial to help the audience follow my presentation.

Therefore, this module has really taught me much about effective communication and it has also shown me how much I can yet improve. Effective communication is truly an art. It is an art that would change our lives if we can master it. Ultimately, I believe that practice makes perfect. I am sure my oral presentation group members can relate to this.

Blog Post 6

I am a Singaporean and attended Maris Stella High School and Temasek Junior College (TJC). I am currently an undergraduate at the National University of Singapore (NUS) majoring in the Life Sciences. Academically, my interests lie in Physics and Biology. I picked up rock-climbing when I joined the TJC Climbing Club and am currently in the NUS Intervarsity Climbing Team. My greatest achievement in this sport was winning Team 1st in the national bouldering competition, Pumpfest 2008. I am also working as a part-time lead instructor at Climbasia where I am involved in planning and conducting courses for students and adults who have signed up. My other hobbies are cycling, reading and listening to rock music. I am a level-headed person who loves to make people laugh.

Blog Post 5

The research project has been an enriching and tedious at the same time. This project has not been more demanding than any other projects but the workload and time constrain imposed by the other modules have made it quite a challenge to balance everything. Therefore, the research project has given me insight about working more efficiently with other people who have different working styles and habits.

I feel that one of the most important aspects to discuss is being a team player and building good rapport with the other members of the group. I believe that everything will go more smoothly if the distribution of work is fair and everyone is happy with what he has been entrusted to accomplish.

Teamwork was crucial for us to meet the requirements during the different phases of submission because everyone from our group had different schedules in this semester, so we had to make compromises to accommodate and make up for one another’s hectic periods. For example, my team-mate had supportively shouldered the responsibility of fine-tuning the layout of the project when I had a test to prepare for in that week. In return, I also did my best to help out with the writing of a draft when he had a test in the week. This way, the combined effort of everyone ensured that reliable work was produced on time.

Another helpful benefit of good teamwork was that we discovered what each member of the group was more comfortable working on and was naturally more proficient with. This refers to distributing different tasks such as scouring papers to write up the literature review and using Microsoft Excel to create charts for the results section, which require different interests and expertise. With that insight, we delegated the sections of the project accordingly and this enabled the smoother completion of the work. Hence, this informed method of work distribution allowed us to optimize the team dynamics to ensure that everyone is motivated do fulfill their responsibilities on time and in the best way they know how. However, we made it a point to review one another’s sections as this was a group project and three brains are always better than one.

Ultimately, I would like to say that I am pleased with what we have produced and I enjoyed working with my team-mates and really appreciate all the effort they have put in. All the best guys!

Blog Post 4

People from different countries have different cultural values and these differences may lead to misunderstandings or even conflict when people from different cultures. Hence, it is important that we understand the other person’s culture or learn to be empathetic towards different cultures in order to be better prepared to communicate more effectively and avoid intercultural conflict. The intercultural scenario that I have chosen is one in which I was in a foreign land and had difficulty communicating with a local.

I visited Japan in May this year and this was one of the main incidences in which our lack of comprehension of the Japanese language presented itself as a real handicap. There was no actual conflict in this situation but a certain degree of embarrassment and unnecessary stress for both parties could have been avoided if my family and I had better understood the Japanese culture.

I was exploring a small shopping centre with my parents and we decided to buy some groceries on our way back to the hotel. We could not find any supermarkets so we decided to ask a Japanese lady who was shopping with her daughter. We asked her in English and both of them could barely understand what we were looking for. Next, they replied in incoherent English which led to our difficulty in understanding them. Hence, the most distinct barrier to communication in this situation was clearly language. This could have been avoided if I had brought a Japanese phrasebook with me to aid in my communication with the locals.

Following that, my family spent some time repeating what we were looking for and the Japanese lady gave us a general direction after conferring with her daughter in Japanese several times. It was clear that we could not understand each other throughout the few minutes but the lady tried her best to help us while struggling with our language and smiling sheepishly all the time. She only apologized and stopped trying to help us when we thanked her and went on our way. It would have saved both parties a significant amount of effort and stress if I had better understood the Japanese culture and realized that they are not accustomed to saying ‘no’ even when they cannot help you. Therefore, I could have thanked them for their assistance sooner when I realized that they simply could not understand us. At that point, I merely thought that the Japanese lady was very helpful and patient with us and did not realize that she may have felt at a lost but just could not bring herself to tell us she could not help.

One more point was that the lady gave us a bow when she apologized but we did not bow back but gave a slight nod of the head and gave her our thanks. In hindsight, it would have been more polite if we were to adopt their custom and had returned the bow.

In conclusion, it is important to be aware of the different cultural norms and values in order to communicate better with a person from a different cultural background and avoid conflict as we can better understand them. By the way, we failed to locate the supermarket that day by the way.

Blog Post 3

I have a few Muslim friends and it was after they shared their opinion with me that I realized that there are too few stalls around NUS canteens that serve Halal food. Taking the Science canteen for example, there are effectively two stalls that do serve Halal food and they are namely the Malay and Indian food stall. I am Catholic so there is no restriction to my choice of food and I already feel bored of the various stalls there are at Science. Therefore, I would patronize the canteens of the different faculties on different days of the week. I cannot imagine how restricted the Muslim students in school must feel. Fortunately, Megabites has been added which provides some variety to the Science canteen, but Science is considered lucky as other faculties have just one or two Halal food stalls.

One might argue that there are not that many Muslim students anyway so we do not need that many Halal stalls, but I beg to differ and I feel that even though they may be a minority group, they deserve to have a wider variety of food than what is currently available. Besides, many types of food that the Chinese eat can be made Halal as long as it does not contain pork and if a little effort is put into purchasing Halal meat. On the other extreme, I am not proposing that every stall in NUS canteens be made Halal as that is not feasible because many Chinese and Japanese dishes contain pork.

Therefore, my research question would be “Are there enough Halal food stalls in NUS canteens?”

An attitudinal survey is necessary to assess if the general consensus amongst the students (both Muslims and non-Muslims) is that there should be more Halal food stalls in the canteen of the respective faculty that they frequent the most. Both Muslims and non-Muslims have to be included in the survey to get a fair representation of how our student population feels as the two groups may have contrasting opinions about the issue. Once the consensus of the majority opinion is compiled from the attitudinal surveys, our findings can then be shown to the Office of Estate and Development in NUS to propose for the introduction of more Halal food stalls.

Blog Post 2

I can’t really think of a good story about my past conflicts so I have created a scenario for everyone to ponder about.

John is an only child and as a result was quite pampered by his parents. This has somewhat led to the development of a slightly self-centered nature and he tended to take his parents for granted, although he still loved them dearly and is a good-natured boy at heart. At the same time, John’s father was slightly over-protective of his son because that was the only way he knew how to show that he cared for John. He would be overly worried for John whenever he read about some new virus infecting certain Singaporeans near Little India or warn him not to go to Pasir Ris park because a crocodile was just discovered there. He would also constantly remind John to be careful when crossing the road even though he was already over 20 years old.

All these reminders came across as nagging to John and he could not help but feel that his father does not even have the confidence in his son to already know all these simple things, making this a sore spot for John. Ultimately, on one day when John was already stressed about his exams, his father started warning him about another of his unreasonable fears, causing John to totally lose his patience and snap at his father saying,’ I know! I know! Will you just stop nagging me?’

His father did not reply and just walked away. John could clearly see that he was hurt but he still felt that he had the right to lose his temper as it was necessary to stop his father from continuing to nag.

Was John’s reaction reasonable? Was there a better method that John could have used to bring his point across?

Blog Post 1

I feel that effective communication skills are crucial in life if we want to better understand what people mean when they speak and to allow ourselves to be properly understood when we are trying to bring a point across. This is important in both professional and social settings and its usefulness cannot and should not be underestimated. With this is mind, developing these skills is especially important to me as they will be of great benefit in the workplace in the future and also improve my interpersonal relationships.

At work, the importance of understanding your superiors and avoiding being misunderstood by colleagues cannot be overemphasized. For example, when your boss is disseminating information to you, practicing active listening or even trying to pick up on his nonverbal cues can aid in your understanding of what he means and even what he expects from you. This will prevent you from failing to fulfill any expectations he may have of you and you will appear to your superior as a more competent employee. On the other hand, communicating well with your colleagues at work is also important to build rapport and make it easier for them to realize what you expect from them and vice versa.

In other social settings, like at home, familiarity should not be an excuse for the lack of effective communication skills as this will strain whatever relationship we have with our family members. Many of the socio-cultural barriers do not exist at home but this still does not mean that we can take communication skills lightly as misunderstandings still do occur and disputes at home hurt the most because they are closest to our hearts. These are some of the few reasons why the development of effective communication skills is important to me.