Communicating with ES2007S friends :D

Oral Presentation reflections

2009-04-13T19:52:00.001+08:00

This is the first formal oral presentation that I did in NUS and honestly I was very nervous the night before. So to prevent myself from thinking too much, I went to bed very early. I feel a good night's sleep has helped me to think straight and I felt more assured. (*Thank you so much for giving me the morning call Nadiah :D)

My team practised many times for this oral presentation and as a result I was able to internalize my script which helped to calm my nerves before the presentation. I feel that I did better than I expected overall (haha or maybe because I was already prepared for the worst). I tried my best to maintain eye contact with most of the class and my confidence is boosted every time I see someone smile or nod. I believe my pace for the speech was appropriate that I wasn’t going too fast or too slowly and I didn’t need to refer to my notes even though I brought them for ‘security’ reasons. As for the volume of my speech, I have to admit that I was not too sure as I was too engrossed in giving the presentation. As a result I kept looking at Brad who was sitting furthest away from me and I felt reassured each time he nodded.

Ok so now for my weaknesses, I think I kept looking back at the screen to see if the animation was working and to remind myself of the next point. This is not very good as it disrupted the flow of my presentation and may also distract the audience. Also, I wasn’t so sure about the usage of “is” or “are” when am speaking so I had to think temporarily about whether things like “is attitude a countable for uncountable noun?” during my speech. However, I feel that the biggest problem with my presentation was that I became distracted easily when someone entered the class or whispered something to another. Hmm I think it was quite obvious when I paused and tried to recall which point I was going to talk about next. I think my hands were pretty numb too as I didn’t gesture much at all as I was holding the notes.

Hmm but on a brighter note, I was really happy that it’s all over! Haha and I feel it was better to be the first group to present as you can relax and enjoy other groups’ presentation afterwards

My reflections

2009-04-12T00:01:00.002+08:00

Returning to my first post on the importance of communicating effectively, I feel that my initial reasons for wanting to improve my communication skills didn't change but my understanding of communication did. I came to learn more about the various aspects of communicaion like verbal or non-verbal cues and I am definitely more sensitive to these little details when communicating with my friends or even when coming across a commercial or publicity poster!

To be honest, I didn't come in with any goals for myself to achieve at the beginning of this module but I feel that this course have taught me things that were beyond what I expected and it's really quite sad that our classes are coming to an end when am just beginning to get close to many new friends. Like I said, am the kind who takes time to 'warm' up to people so hopefully we can all keep in touch in the future :)

Like i said in my first post, the reasons for my keen interest in improving my communication skills are: To aid in the mutual exchange of ideas and to avoid painful/frustrating misunderstandings from repeating themselves. These are still my main focus in life and this module has equipped me with the "HOW To" part of the communication process. As a result, I am more confident to expressing myself as well as to understand others.

I practised my listening skills during the class discussion part; I sharpened my writing skills in the blogging section; I learned to organize and present my strength effectively in the resume/cover letter writing segment and I have become more aware of my body language in the mock interview portion. I am VERY nervous but also kind of looking forward to hone my delivery skills in the upcoming oral presentation part. But more importantly, this course has allowed me to meet new friends and has also given me the chance to rewind and observe other things apart from my hectic schedule. I think I mentioned before that "I get to understand myself better through the interaction with others" and this was proven to be true again through the doing of the research report.

I want to thank Nadiah and Roy lots for being so understanding and committed :D This project wouldn't have been completed so smoothly otherwise! Also, I am most grateful to Brad and all of you for helping to learn some skills that will be applicable and beneficial to me throughout life. To those who are graduating soon, I sincerely wish you all the best in your pursuits and for those(like me) who will be hanging around for a while more, hope to keep in touch!

My Biodata

2009-03-22T19:48:00.003+08:00

My name is Zhang Jing Yang and I am currently a second year Life Sciences undergraduate at the National University of Singapore (NUS). I will be graduating in May 2011 with a Degree in Bachelor of Science (Honors). My Life Sciences course is characterized by its equal emphasis on both theory and practical trainings which enabled me to be competent in handling the various laboratory and research equipments. After graduation I hope to join the Biomedical research industry so that I can apply the knowledge and skills I have learned.

I was born in the China and have completed my primary school education there before I came to Singapore to pursue a more bilingual education at Crescent Girls’ School and Anderson Junior College before my admission into NUS. I feel grateful to have lived for considerable amount of time in both China and Singapore as this experience has certainly allowed me to appreciate the cultural similarities and differences between these two countries. I am indeed fortunate to be exposed to many different ideas and practices which helped me to be more open-minded.

While I am able to work independently, I also enjoy teamwork because I like social interactions which always help me to understand myself better too. I was a member of the Hockey team during my secondary school days at Crescent and it was during my four years there that I truly understood the meaning of teamwork.

Upon entering NUS, I was given more opportunities to develop my leadership and organizational skills. I am the current publication director of Biological Sciences Society, 37th executive committee. I interviewed, selected and led a subcommittee of 5 members in the revival of our society’s official magazine the Mudskipper 2009 issue. Being a lover of graphic novel and Japanese anime, I have recently joined the Comics and Animation Society. I was the marketing director of Competition Subcommittee and I gained valuable experience in marketing as well as planning through the organizing of Graphite2008, a drawing competition.

More importantly, participation in the many activities in NUS has enabled me to practice good time management skills which will no doubt be useful in the future. The accumulation of experience is what gives me satisfaction in life and I hope to see and learn more whenever possible.

The words that were not said

2009-03-16T00:29:00.002+08:00

Body language can tell us a lot more about how a person truly feels than spoken words. For example, the shaking of legs usually meant the listener was bored or distracted, biting of the nails usually shows one is nervous while the sudden darting of eyes to the left when answering a question is often believed to be an indication that the speaker is lying.

Talking about this I can't help but be reminded about the famous TV debate between Mr R Nixson and Mr JF Kennedy. I remember watching a documentary on History Channel discussing about how President Kennedy's poised and confident image during the 1960 Presidential Debate played an undeniable role in his eventual success. In the past, such debates between the candidates were usually broadcasted on radio but in that fateful year of 1960, the debate was decided to be televionized. This way, the candidates were judged not only by what they said during the debate but also inevitably how they delivered the speech. Well thanks to technology, you can check out the video below which will help to explain what am trying to say much more effectively :p

Just by looking at the way they were sitting at 0:26, Mr Kennedy was sitting upright with his legs crossed and his hands on his lap, showing that he was comfortable and self-assured whereas Mr Nixson was fumbling in his pockets and looking rather awkward to be in his seats. If you listen to their responses to the questions you will find that Mr Nixson definitely is just as(if not more) experience and capable than Mr Kennedy, but his body language seemed to speak otherwise.

I remember attending a group interview in NTU, each interviewee's body language certainly was just as important as what his/her answer was. I have to admitt that am not a very confident speaker and I could actually tell that the interviewer was not impressed by what i was saying as she was checking her watch and she changed her sitting postures a few times when it was my turn... I think you can imagaine my anxiety at that time right? Haha I felt quite disappointed for a while but the lessons that i learnt was priceless.

Am sure that you guys must had experienced similar scenarios whereby a person's body language revealed something that she/he didnt intended to, do share with us so that we can all become better observers and communicators :)

Intercultural differences

2009-02-28T01:05:00.003+08:00

I think it is almost impossible to talk about culture without touching on the issue of religion. These two concepts cannot be separated as religious beliefs play a very important part in shaping cultural practices. This naturally brought me to think about Singapore, where we have the unique scene of people from different religious and cultural backgrounds living amicably together. Apart from sharing a fundamentally similar pursuit in life , I feel that this wouldn't have been possible if Singaporeans were not sensitive to each other's cultural differences. The following incident was a perfect example to show this.

Personally, secondary school was the most enjoyable period of my life and I remembered that my class will often organize post-exam celebrations. There was once that a class BBQ gathering was held at East Coast and Annie (one of my friends) was in charge of preparing the food. Annie was rather excited to be the organier that year so she put in a lot of effort to select the BBQ ingredients and even volunteered to marinate the chicken wings using her mother's secret recipe. During the gathering, many of my classmates thanked Annie for being a good organizer and they asked her to share the recipe of her marinated chicken wings. All was well until Annie revealed that white wine was an essential ingredient for seasoning.

Zak who was the only Muslim girl(and also the only non-chinese member) in my class was very surprised to hear this and exclaimed:" You mean there was alcohol used?!"

For a moment Annie was puzzled as to why Zak was so agitated, but she immediately realized what she has done. She has totally overlooked the fact that alcoholic drinks are strictly prohibited in Islamism and she felt very sorry for being so insensitive to Zak's custom. She quickly apologized to Zak and suggested that perhaps Zak can eat something else during the BBQ. Zak, who had always felt slightly out of place for being the only non-chinese member in the class, smiled quietly and told Annie it was alright. However, we could tell that she felt a little disappointed and perhaps alienated from the rest of us because of this. To help lighten the atmoshpere, some of us suggested that why not the whole class(40 people) pool money to buy a pizza for Zak and everyone was agreeable.

We didn't tell Zak about this plan so that we could gave her a pleasant surprise and she was touchd that the class didn't think about her differently because she was from a differnet religious background. The rest of the afternoon was relaxing and enjoyable and everyone talked more openly about the differences in their cultural and religious practices. Zak told us that the reason the consumption of alcohol was prohibited in Islamism is because it(and so is gambling) was believed to be the root cause of many misdeeds and crimes. Someone also shared that some buddists were also against the drinking of alcoholic beverage as it was believed to be unwise.

Thinking back, I am really glad that my class avoided a potentially awkward situation so nicely and naturally. And that incident certainly left a deep impression on me as i realized how important knowledge and sensitivity to cultural differences are while communicating with others.

P.S: Haha i know this is a very small incident but i thought it was very relevant :)

Business Correspondense Critique

2009-02-14T16:26:00.007+08:00

Dear students

We are pleased to inform you that the summer programmes in Hong Kong, South Korea and Canada are now accepting applications. A summary of the programmes are provided below for your easy reference. Interested students may visit our International Relations Office website at http://www.xxx.edu.sg/iro/xxx/students/prog/summer/index.html for more information.

Summer Programmes 2009

Name of Programme Date Description Application Deadline
Hong Kong
Chinese University of Hong Kong International Summer School 30 Jun - 3 Aug 2009
(5 weeks) It offers Chinese Language (both Putonghua and Cantonese), Business, Humanities and Social Science courses that focus on Asian or Chinese perspective. Exchange student can choose up to 2 courses, subjected to 1 language course only.
http://www.xxx.edu.sg/iro/xxx/students/prog/summer/cuhk/index.html Exchange Student
24 March 2009
No of places: 3

Fee-paying student
30 Apr 2009

Korea
Korea University International Summer Campus Programme 29 Jun - 7 Aug 2009
(6 weeks) The International Summer Campus (ISC) Programme provides an excellent opportunity for students to learn about South Korea through academic and cultural immersion. Each ISC course condenses a full semester into 6 weeks. At the same time, selected students will be given an opportunity to intern at Chaebols or reputable Korean companies.
http://www.xxx.edu.sg/iro/xxx/students/prog/summer/ku/index.html
Exchange Student
18 February 2009
No of places: 4

Fee-paying student
31 March 2009 (Internship Deadline)
30 May 2009 (ISC Programme)

Canada
University of Alberta Summer School Spring Semester (2 May - 13 June 2009)
Summer Semester (4 July – 15 Aug 2009) Spend up to 6 weeks at the University of Alberta this summer for an exciting hands-on, cultural and academic education experience in the best part of Canada during the best part of the year. Over 600 courses to choose from that merge classroom learning with interactive learning activities and field trips.
http://www.xxx.edu.sg/iro/xxx/students/prog/summer/ualberta/index.html
27 February 2009 (Spring Semester)
3 April 2009 (Summer Semester)

UA summer programme application form
<< File: Application Form_UAlberta Summer School.pdf >>
UA scholarship application form
<< File: SS@UA-AwardApp.doc >>
No of places: 5

Please submit the completed application form to the Science Dean’s Office (Blk Sxx Level x) by the Faculty’s stipulated deadline. Please adhere to the deadlines strictly and we look forward to receiving your applications. Thank you.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at xxxxxx@xxx.edu.sg if you need clarification.

Regards,

Undergraduate Programmes Office :: Faculty of Science :: University of XXX :: 6516 xxxx (Tel) :: 65-6777 xxxx (Fax) :: xxxxxxx@xxx.edu.sg(E)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background Information: This email is sent to all students from the Faculty of Science and its purpose is to encourage students to send in their applications for the 2009 Summer Exchange Program for Science Faculty organized by the Undergraduate Programme Office.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think on the whole this Email is courteous and informative. The tone used was friendly and formal which is appropriate and thus pleasant to read. I especailly like the first paragraph which not only gave me an overview of what the purpose of this Email is but also provided me with a link that i can access in case I needed more information about the exchange programme. The Email is rather concise in description for each program and is divided into a 3 sections based on the location of exchange, for example HongKong, Korea and Canada were bolded to indiccate the beginning of a new section.

However, as I read on I become confused and almost overwhelmed by the large amount of informaion. I understand that this is supposed to be an informative Email, but I think its clarity can be greatly improved if the content was presented in a more organized format and in a more coherent manner.

Firstly, after reading through the whole Email I realized that the 'Deadlines' for applications for Summer Exchange Program to the various places offered were different. Applications for Korea has the earliest Deadline on 18 Feburary followed by that of Canada on 27 Feburary(Spring Semester) and finally that of HongKong on 24 March. I think it will be more useful for readers,who may be considering to apply, if the information was listed in chronological order starting with the section on Korea which has the soonest Deadline for application.

Secondly, I finally understood that the summer program for each of the places(Hong Kong, Korea and Canada) were open to 2 categories of students namely 'Exchange student' or the 'Fee-paying student'. While the number of places open for application for 'Exchange students' were specified, the numbe of places as well as price for 'Fee-paying students' were not given at all. This missing information could be important for some applicants when making their final decisions. Also, application Deadlines for 'Fee-paying student' are different from that of 'Exchange student' and this was not clearly shown in the email. I feel that the format of the Email can be improved as below:

Korea
*Exchange Student
No. Of Places:4
Deadline of Application:18 Feb
Description:Blah blah blah
Weblinks: www.xxxxxxxxx.html

*Fee-paying Student
No. Of Places: XX
Deadline of Application: 31 March(Intern) and 30 May (ISC)
Description:Blah blah blah
Weblinks: www.xxxxxxxxx.html

Another problem is that for the Exchange to Canada, both Spring Semester and Summer Semster were open for application but ONLY the link for application for Summer Semster is provided while that for Spring Semester is ommitted. I feel this is a rather serious error and it made me doubt the accuracy of information in this Email. To make things for confusing, a link for Application for Scholarship to the Canada University was included at the end of the section. I feel this is very incoherent and rather out of place as Summer Exchange Program and Sholarship Program should not be discussed together in the same email since they are different programs.

However, the Email redeemed itself a little towads the end by telling readers that they can feel free "to contact us at xxx" should they need more clarification.

Solution to the Conflict

2009-02-12T23:15:00.003+08:00

Hi a big thanks to all you guys who dropped by to read or comment on my entry :D Your kind words of encouragement and useful suggestions are certainly very much appreciated by me. I think there is indeed true that "A problem shared is a problem halved." Haha so thanks to all you guys that i think my problem is now only a tiny fraction of what it used to weigh on my mind.

However back then i wasn't as mature(hmm can't say i am now still :p) so I was really rather upset and hurt to know that I was disliked by someone to this extent. I decided not to report this to the teachers as i feared it will only worsen the situation and also because i was afraid the teachers would tell my parents about this. I tried to avoid further conflict as best i could by keeping a low profile in class and by staying out of the girl's sight as much as i could. But luckily i was able to make friends with other friendly and kind people in the class who were in the same CCA as me. And i was really touched when they actually stood up for me when others were gossipping about me by pointing out how superstitious it was to believe in things like 'jinx". And indeed after the boys(who used to sit beside me) recovered and came back to class, fewer of my classmates treated me coldly as they could tell it was just a conicidence. I was on better terms with many of my classmates except for the girl and her gang. Unfortunately i never had the courage to ask the girl personally why she disliked me so much. I only heard from some friends that it was because the boy(my study partner) that my form teacher assigned to help me improve my mathematics was the boy that she had liked for a long time. My teacher's arrangement which was aimed to help me blend in with my class better ironically contributed indirectly to my really horrible experience...lol but of course i don't blame them or anything.

Looking back now, I really don't have any hard feelings towards any of the persons invovled because I know we were all young and ignorant then. I sincerely hope that nobody will ever have to go through such situation though. I also realized that we can't expect everyone to like us just like we cannot bring ourselves to like everyone. The key word is compromise. Also, "never do to others what you would not like them to do to you."

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict Edited

2009-02-01T02:07:00.008+08:00

Many cases of interpersonal conflict often stemmed from the lack of understanding between people involved. Misunderstanding brews mistrust which in turn may lead to arguements. Unfortunately for me, I was once caught in such a situation.

I lived in ShenZhen(a southern city in China that is really near HongKong)for about 4 years and I attended a secondary school there for a year before i came to Singapore. It is a general misconception to think of China as a big country with a homogeneous culture because it is actually really home to 56 diferent ethnic groups each having its own cultural practices and languages. Ok anyway my point is, the main language that was spoken in ShenZhen was Cantonese, a language that i was not able to speak at all. Even though lessons were conducted in Mandrain but almost all my classmates liked to converse in Cantonese during breaks. Perhaps my awkwardness and quietness had made me the topic of class gossips that i soon realized that many people in the class were behaving strangely whenever they see me. For example, everytime i approached a group of classmates who were talking merrily, they immediately stopped talking and looked at each other nevously until i walked away.

It wasn't long before i found out from a friend in class that the reason others were behaving strangely around me was because a certain girl has been spreading rumours about me in the class. Basically, two guys who were sitting next to me in class have fallen sick consecutively and that girl was telling others in class that I was a jinx that brought bad luck to others. I felt really angry at that time.

Having identified the root of the problem i was troubled about how to solve this. I wondered if i shall report this to the teachers but was afraid that would only make the situation worse. I also thought of explaining it to the whole class but that didn't seem feasible too. I believe this situation may also be applicable to other senarios such as being the minority in a work place and been misunderstood by your colleagues. How will you deal with such a situation?

Communicating effectively

2009-01-25T00:24:00.006+08:00

Sometimes I wonder what our world will be like if there was no conception of language, no doubt that many brilliant ideas would have simply shriveled up with the passing of time. To me, an idea is only meaningful if it can be shared. And sometimes, an idea that is miscommunicated is worse than not having an idea to begin with! “No man is an island” said a wise man a long time ago and there is indeed truth in it as every one of us will meet and interact with many different types of people as we grow up. I certainly don’t want to misunderstand others or be misunderstood by others because of my lack of effective communication skills.

I recall the days when I first arrived in Singapore, wa that is actually 8 years ago and I was enrolled in a secondary school. I have to admit that I was literally “lost in translation” as English was the primary language used inside and outside classrooms when all the English I knew was “What’s your name?” and “How old are you?”. Well and yes the latter I soon found out was not useful or appropriate to ask strangers at all. At that time I was a rather quiet person but I still managed to befriend a few nice people because despite being a bad speaker, I was a rather good listener. When a friend talks to me I listen attentively and pay attention to her various non-verbal gestures such as a clenched fist or a frown. Language was a major barrier to our communication at that time but I was happy to at least provide a listening ear.

Non-verbal communication is just as important as verbal communication if not more important i feel as it allowed me to 'listen' to the words that were not said which sometimes is far more precious. However, I soon realized that one cannot forge better friendships without mutual exchange of thoughts. Many times I was saddened and frustrated when I failed to express my ideas to others and lament over the ending of a certain friendship which could have bloomed into something more. But thank goodness my love for reading fictions helped me to improve my English quickly and I became much closer to my friends. In fact, I felt that through mingling and communicating with others I got to understand myself better as well.

You may think that’s the end of the story but it’s just the beginning as I realized that there can still be cases of miscommunication even among people who speak the same language because of differences in values, cultural practices, variations in accents(such as the poor Italian tourist in the video below) or very often, poor delivery of speech. Living in PGP residence has allowed me to meet many fellow studetns from other countries and I realized that difference in culture is another big barrier to effective communication. For example, my Japanese friends values courtsy a lot when meeting someone for the first time while being too courteous when meeting an American friend may seem too formal and measured. It's amazing we got people from 65 different countries living together and all speaking in English in PGP actually, finding the right mode of communication for different people will be key in making more friends.

Thinking ahead a little, as university students I have to prepare ourselves for the transition from students to workers soon and effective communication in the office will be absolutely essential. Understanding the subtle differences in oral and written communication when meeting different audiences will not only help us to complete tasks better but also allow us to enjoy the process. For me, it is always interesting to meet new people so in short, effective communication is important to forge closer ties and as well as to facilitate efficient exchange of ideas :D

Funny Video on miscommunication

2009-01-24T21:39:00.003+08:00

I happened to chance upon this video when i was just watching random stuff on youtube and it's really really funny! 'Sinking' Vs 'Thinking'.