Final Reflection on Learning

Time really flies. It has been more than 12 weeks since the start of ES2007S and I still remembered that during bidding period, Redonnia and I were contemplating on whether we should take ES2007S as a module. Some of our friends have warned us that the workload of this module is rather heavy and consistent efforts are required throughout the whole semester. However, looking back, I am glad that we decided to go ahead to take this course because it was one of the most useful modules which I have taken in NUS. Personally, I have gained a lot of experiences when it comes to presentation and personal skills. 

Before taking this module, opportunities for me to give a powerpoint presentation to a class were rather limited. Moreover, those presentations usually focus more of the contents being delivered rather than giving feedbacks on how one should improve on his or her presentation skills. Being a nervous speaker, I used to hope that I could get it over and done with by quickly finishing up my speech. However, through this module, I have learnt a good communication-related skill which is oral presentation. It is not just saying your speech as you need to know how to engage your audience with eye-contacts as well as speak in appropriate tone in order to deliver what you wish to say effectively. I was also taught how to cope with the ‘butterflies in the stomach’ during presentation because it boils down to having ample preparation and practices. Having sufficient preparations will make us feel more confident of what we are presenting to the audience, and practising will help us to improve on our presentation skill. Therefore, I would say that it has equipped me with the relevant skills on presenting effectively.

Furthermore, in the past, I was quite apprehensive in speaking up in class because I was self-conscious of how people will look at me, or whether I will appear foolish by giving those comments. Hence, after ES2007S, I find myself constantly learning in the process as it trained me to adopt the most fundamental skill in effective communication which is to speak up. In addition, the atmosphere within the class was encouraging in the sense that everyone in the class was open to differing opinions. Thus, we often had interactive and meaningful conversations which allow us to understand one another better. For instance, I still remember there was one lesson whereby we were asked to state the qualities which we valued the most in a friend and surprisingly, many of us had the same quality in our minds. Through all these activities, it makes me realise that we should not constantly be afraid to speak up for fear of being judged because at the end of the day, it would hinder us from learning and interaction with other people.

Overall, I would say that ES2007S is an enriching module which prepares and equips me with the skills essential for the future workplace like how you should present yourself in the interview, be more accepting to the diverse workplace and more. It has been a wonderful experience and would definitely encourage some of my juniors to take this module! :)

Reflection on Oral Presentation

Finally, our group has finally completed our oral presentation. I personally find that suicide is a topic which most people are less empathetic because only those who are closed to suicidal victims will truly understand how the pain they feel. Thus, I was glad that our group decided to work on this topic and being able to provide solutions in hope to address this issue. 

Much time was spent in editing the slides and I have decided to include Amanda Todd story so that it could allow the audience to understand the three main problem statements (lack of warning signs, taboo on suicidal victims and taboo on counselling) which I wish to convey better.  However, I find it rather challenging to link them up together with Amanda Todd story and NUS students because I need to ensure the coherence of the introduction and my presentation to be kept within 5minutes. Hence, I was grateful for the help offered by my team-mates ( Dinesh, Uthpala and Shameem) to improve on the organisations of presentation ideas. I enjoyed working with this diverse group because even though we all came from different backgrounds, we had much fun bumping our ideas to one another.

Being the first group to present and also the first person to present, I seemed to be a bit nervous at the start as mentioned by my classmates. However, personally, I feel that I was much well-prepared and less nervous in comparison to the peer-teaching. This is so as in comparison to peer teaching, I have put in much effort in rehearsing my part especially in front of the mirror for days before the actual presentation. Moreover, I thought that I have improved because I was putting on a more serious face during presentation as I received feedback I have smiled too much during peer-teaching. This is especially important when our group is presenting on a more serious topic which is to create suicide awareness.

In my opinion, I think one of the main areas of improvement I need to work on is the gestures and body language because I sense that I was too focused on saying my speech rather than on the appropriate hand gestures which I could have used during presentation. Hence, I might appear rather stiff.

All in all, I am glad to have this opportunity to train myself to present in front of the class. Though it is inevitable for me to be on tenterhook during presentation, I am confident and optimistic that this process definitely put me on the road to be a good presenter in the future as the skills being acquired over the past few weeks have been very useful for me.

Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

Last December, I participated in an overseas school immersion trip programme with my course-mates and get to travel in Taiwan for three weeks. I have never been to Taiwan and hence I was looking forward to travel free-and-easy with them. During the period of our stay, we took often travel around by public train and I noticed something unique about their culture, which I would say it is lacking in Singapore.

Similar to the MRT cabin in Singapore, some of the seats are also reserved for the elderly, handicapped or toddlers. Interestingly, I noticed that those seats were never occupied by working or physically fit adults even during peak hours. Moreover, I witnessed an incident which has left a deep impression in me. At a particular train station, when an old lady entered, a young girl who was standing near the exit immediately offered to carry her items while helping her to one of the reserved seats. After which, the old lady praised the young girl for being helpful while the other passengers nodded in approval. Soon, these passengers started striking conversations with one another. 

In comparison, I feel that this particular gracious culture is lacking in Singapore. We often see the reserved seats being taken up by other passengers whom do not belong to the reserved seat categories. Sometimes, the passengers whom belongs to the priority group are not able to find seats because people are either busy using their mobile phones or being oblivious to their surroundings. 

In the recent years, online social platforms such as “Stomp” has been used by netizens to upload photos or even videos portraying negative images of passengers for occupying these reserved seats. For instance, a video featuring a middle-aged woman and a young lady commuter arguing over a reserved seat has been making the rounds on the Internet this year.  The spat between them over a priority seat goes to show that Singaporeans still have a long way to go to be a gracious country. For example, particular action such as sleeping on train while occupying the reserved seat may lead to undesirable results such as having your photos posted on Stomp and drawing unwanted criticisms. 

Therefore, instead of encouraging graciousness within Singaporeans, it seems to breed the mindsets that “Passengers are being obliged to give seats to the needy for fear of being judged by people rather than them offering their seats out of genuine concern”. Even though there may be other positive instances which portray the considerate sides of Singaporeans, these incidents are usually not highlighted by the Stomp netizens partly because it is not sensational enough.  

Hence, it reflects to me that different countries have different cultures. Taiwanese seem to be less afraid to express their thoughts and to show kindness to strangers in comparison to Singaporeans. Rather than just focusing on the negative sides of passengers on social platform, we should learn to keep an open mind by learning how to respect and communicate with one other as we all have different cultural backgrounds. With the increase in emphasis for public education on graciousness in Singapore, I am pretty sure that Singaporeans will eventually become a real gracious society and less of such ugly incidents will then be mentioned in social platforms.

Application Letter Critique

Blk 200 Compassvale Way
#12-808

Singapore 540000
+65 96744907
panshiying@gmail.com

12^th September 2012

The Human Resource Department
Management Development Institute of Singapore
MDIS Campus
501 Stirling Road

Singapore 148951

Dear Sir/Madam, 

I am writing to apply for the post of Full-Time Teacher in MDIS, which was advertised in JobsDB website on 11^th September 2012. 

My working experiences as Customer service officer at Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and after-school-care teacher at Maris Stella Primary School have honed my communication and interpersonal skills with people. Furthermore, I was part of organising committee in the junior college and university orientation camps and this had improved my ability to lead and to work in a team environment as an orientation group leader.

During my summer internship as a research analyst at Frost & Sullivan, I was involved in various types of research projects with a research team which had provided me with a strong base of research and analytic skills. 

I am currently an undergraduate at National University of Singapore majoring in Bachelor of Engineering (Bioengineering) and will be graduating in 2013. I studied subjects which are relevant to the requirements of this post which are Human Resource Management as well as Professional Communications. Moreover, being a private secondary school tutor since 2008 had sharpened my desire to continue in this field and I believe it also helped me to develop the skills I need to be as an effective teacher.

Working for MDIS appeals to me because I believe it has the ideal culture in which I can pursue my passion as an educator and contribute to MDIS’s outstanding record as an institute. I believe my strong working experience and passion in teaching will make me a very competitive candidate for this position.  

Please look through the attached resume for additional information on my experience and I look forward to speaking with you about this employment opportunity. 

Thank you for your time and consideration. 

Yours Faithfully,

Pan Shiying

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

When humans interact, it is inevitable that sometimes things might go wrong and result in conflicts.

Having good interpersonal skill is one of top few qualities which employers are looking for in their prospective employee as most of the time, team collaborations are required to achieve a common goal. Therefore, with good interpersonal skill, one will be able to work amiably and effectively with others, thereby reducing the risk of work-related conflicts. 

In my opinion, I feel that interpersonal skill not only applies in workplace but anywhere as long as there are human interactions.  If one neglects to nurture such skills, it may lead to him or her to be misunderstood or even find it hard to communicate with others. I had encountered such conflict situation last semester when I took a module which required us to get into groups of seven and to write a term paper. And so the group consists of my coursemates and our classmates, one of whom happened to be my primary school friend, X. 

The so-called conflict occurred because we found that X often shoots down other members’ idea, yet did not attempt to contribute to the group discussion or offer any constructive suggestions on her part. Probably her non-verbal communications such as rolling her eyes slightly and seemingly looking uninterested when listening to the groupmates’ ideas contribute to displeasure in the group. I personally feel that even if she disagreed with the ideas raised during the meeting, she should not have disregarded other group members’ effort in contributing to the brainstorming session. Probably something good might come out from the discussion if every member is willing to hear each other out and share their viewpoints objectively? Although we did not have any verbal arguments, I could sense the awkwardness in the atmosphere during our project meetings because some of my friends attempted to avoid making any direct conversation with her. 

Even though her attitude was rather unacceptable at times, sometimes I find her pitiful as nobody seemed to pause and listened to the relevant points she made. Therefore I find myself in an difficult position as on one hand, I knew X since primary school even though we did not keep in touch after graduation, on the other hand, are the close university friends I have made ever since my freshman year. And so I tried to take a neutral stand by not siding anyone and attempted to “hint” to X that she should first respect other peoples’ opinions if she wants people to listen to her too. Though I am not sure if she gets my hint ultimately but through this project, it has highlighted to me the importance of having mutual respect in interacting with others, be it in professional work or social life. Moreover, from this incident, I realised that it might get rather tricky to deal with such problems and it requires a lot of courage to directly handle interpersonal conflicts as it might jeopardise our personal or working relationship if they were mishandled.

Probably at that point of time I should attempt to highlight her attitude to her and put it in a nice way rather than taking a neutral stand because it seemed like she was not aware of the wrong non-verbal signals she has been giving out to people. Probably she meant well for the group but she did not realise that she put it in a less courteous way? What do you all think me and my friends should do at that point of time?

Effective Communication Skills

In my personal opinion, effective communications would mean that one can conduct themselves appropriately in different circumstances and also being able to deliver what he or she wish to say to the audience without any misunderstandings.

 To be able to express one’s ideas to others in coherent manner is something which I would like to achieve in at the end of this course. Being a typical young Singaporean, I got accustomed to speak to my friends in Singlish so comfortably that sometimes I find it challenging to string good English sentences together in a formal setting. The comfort of instant messaging on mobile devices may also contribute to this bad habit of giving short replies.

Furthermore, I would also like to learn how to maintain a conversation with people of different backgrounds, for example, my prospective employers and seniors etc. This was especially so after a personal encounter with a friendly senior employee in the internship company which I have worked for last summer.

He asked me,” You have been here for a few weeks already, how do you find the work here?”

And I answered,” Oh, okay lo."

At that instant, I noticed that he was quite amused by my reply. It was then I realised that my casual and short answer probably caught him off guard.

Being a final year student would mean that I will be joining the workforce in less than a year’s time. It then dawned upon me that I need to have an effective communication skill so that I can present myself professionally and to avoid the above-mentioned incident in near future.

Therefore, all these reasons propel me to sign up for ES2007S hoping that the communication and presentation skills that I have learnt can help me to become a more confident speaker in public. As my future ambition was to become an educator, I do not wish to find myself in a situation whereby I would be too nervous to speak in front of a class of students.