Final Reflection

After attending this module, ES2007S, for twelve weeks, I have learnt that there are many more obstacles to effective communication than I initially thought. Consequently, the need for effective communication skills seems more important to me than ever. During my first blog posting, I had the impression that both the speaker and the audience play an equal role to make the communication an effective one. This impression, however, changed slightly when it came to my mind that successful communication depends on meeting the needs of the audience to a very large extent. For instance, if a sale person does not interest the shopper with his product, the shopper will not bother to listen to his selling and may simply walk away. Similar, if the speaker does not convey his message in the needs of the listener, the listener may not be interested to listen and make an effort to understand the message. Therefore, knowing your audience and preparing your message in accordance to their needs could be a way to initiate effective communication. Subsequently, the continuation of this effective communication involves active participation of both the speaker and the audience.

Throughout this module, I have learnt a number of skills in the various aspect of effective communication.

What is learning without practice and what is practice without feedback? The several writing assignments especially the blogging and survey report allowed me to practise and reflect on the effective communication skills gathered from the course book, skill builders and class discussion. These practices and reflections further improved my understanding of these skills and thus strengthened my ability to communicate effectively. The timely feedbacks from the numerous conferences with Mrs. Richardson who is a native English speaker highlighted one of my weakness in effective communication - my English language. I think a great amount of fundamental work has to be put in to improve my English standard before I can be an effective communicator.

The areas covered in the science of job search communication are really broad and in depth. From discovering self to matching your skills to the job requirements rather and from writing to apply for a job to trying to impress your prospective employer to offer you the job, all these skills will definitely be of great help when I graduate and look for a job in the coming months.

My group attempted to make the oral presentation a success by following closely to everything that was stated in the course book and handouts except one thing - rehearsing the presentation. Due to the tight working schedule and several important deadlines, my group did not have time to rehearse our oral presentation together. As a result, our oral presentation was not as impressive when compared to Meijie’s informative presentation and Jimmy’s zealous presentation. Ultimately, the performance of oral presentation still largely depends on how well you can deliver your information and good delivery comes with sufficient rehearsals. This is an important lesson learnt. Nevertheless, I must say I have enjoyed working with Binglin and Jiayi.

Lastly, constant practice is crucial to the successful application of the communication skills learnt in this professional communication module.

Biodata

I would like to think of myself as someone who is approachable and easy-going. I may be an introvert to people whom I am unfamiliar with. However, many of my friends find me too expressive. Respect is a central theme in my life. I strongly believe that “Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners.” Reflection and self-improvement make up two important aspects of my life. I truly appreciate both positive and negative feedbacks from anyone. “A man reaps what he sows.” With this belief, I try to put my best effort in whatever I do.

What kind of image does my biodata convey? Do comment freely! :)

Reflecting on the Research Project Experience

Meeting is indispensable when a few people have to work on a common issue as a team. Meeting allows all members in the team to exchange ideas face-to-face and focus on issues that need to be discussed. I had a number of group meetings/discussions when I was doing the research project. By practicing the appropriate meeting etiquette and effective communication skills learnt in this module, my group meetings/discussions seemed to be less tedious and burdensome but more efficient and productive.

In my opinion, emotion is a biggest barrier to active listening during meeting and it greatly influences one’s objectivity of the matter at hand. I learnt that one has to be more rational and keep his/her emotion in check continuously when listening for information during meeting. Failure to control your emotion would definitely let it to over-rule you and cause you to have heated arguments with others. At the end of the day, argument is never constructive in the meeting so one should resist the urge to argue with anyone.

I also learnt that one should listen actively with an open mind because a narrow mind would take away one’s opportunity to understand and analyze other members’ opinions. On the other hand, you should share ideas with conviction but do not be too defensive when it is your turn to speak. This would discourage possible insightful comments from the other members.

In addition, I felt that an agenda is a must to have before and during the meeting. My first few group discussions at the initial stage of the research project were held without agenda and this caused the meetings to be aimless and greatly impeded the progress of the project. For subsequent meetings, agenda were, however, drafted and sent to each member before the meeting so that everyone could prepare himself/herself for the meeting. By reading any related material based on the agenda, each member would be much able to provide valuable input during the meeting. During the meeting, discussion would also be more organized and every subject could be dealt with in orderly manner according to the agenda.

Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

Culture takes root from a people’s history, memories, conventions, customs and traditions and shapes one’s habits, values, virtues and prejudices. Our culture determines the way we think and behave, the way we perceive and interpret reality and the way we react to others. Asians and Americans have very different cultural traits due to the differences in their history and culture. This, indeed, is a source of misunderstanding and conflict between Asians and Americans which may ruin any intercultural-interpersonal relationships.

For instance, Asians and Americans have conflicting perspectives when they are discussing human rights issues based on their respective cultural backgrounds. In a society, many a times, individual liberty comes at the expense of social order and harmony. Given a choice between the two, many Asians would prefer public order to personal freedom. On the other hand, most Americans would simply choose individual liberty when confronted with the same choice.

The Asians’ choice can only be understood in the context of the history of Asia which has experienced so many tragedies and disasters resulting from war, conflict, revolution and anarchy. For these reasons, many Asians fear social chaos and attach great value to public order and social harmony. On the other hand, the Americans’ choice makes good sense in their cultural background because America was founded by European settlers who had fled persecution and oppression. This was reinforced by subsequent waves of refugees, for example, the Jews, who fled Nazi persecution and the death camps. Given this historical background, it is not surprising that the liberty of individual is paramount.

If both parties are culture insensitive and do not understand each other's history, they would not understand why they make different choices. The Americans would not understand why the Asians do not think and behave in exactly the same way like them and vice versa. Therefore, to overcome ethnocentrism, stereotyping and prejudice, we should develop cultural self-awareness and try to understand each other's histories, cultures and mindsets.

Ignorance breeds misunderstanding. I strongly believed that knowledge can lead to understanding and only with understanding can there be mutual respect and effective intercultural interaction.

Potential Research Project Topics

Lately, the unprecedented effects of global warming are shocking. The second largest summer shrinkage of Arctic ice cap was reported by National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSDIC). It was also predicted by NSIDC glaciologist, Mark Serreze, that the North Pole itself could even become free of ice by September for the first time in modern history. In another phenomenon, a chunk of 19-square-mile ice shelf, nearly the size of Manhattan, broken off from the 4,500-year-old Markham Ice Shelf located at Ellesmere Island in Canada's northern Arctic and is currently adrift in the Arctic Ocean.

These episodes of global warming significantly indicate how warmer temperatures are changing the polar frontier. To combat global warming, human activities such as burning of fuels that emit large amount of greenhouse gases have to be greatly reduced. On a personal level, one can contribute less to global warming by making conscientious effort in cutting down his/her carbon footprint. Education is a channel to increase public awareness of individual carbon footprint. Students will learn to manage their carbon footprint effectively in order to fight global warming and, hopefully, they will also share their low carbon footprint practices with other family members.

In Singapore schools, there are tremendous efforts to educate students on the main culprit of global warming -human activities- and its catastrophic effects. My group would like to find how much do students know about global warming -its causes and effects. In addition, the number of students who attempt to cut down their carbon footprint in daily lives is not as high despite the teaching efforts. My group would also like to find out the reasons for this in hope that better ways can be introduced to inculcate reduced carbon footprint habits in students.

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

With 4 million people living in one of the world's densest-populated cities, neighbourhood disputes are not uncommon, but the infamous decade-long Joo Chiat drama some years ago, a neighbourhood war in which seven families are united against one, is not a run-of-the-mill story.

In one of the semi-detached housing estates in Joo Chiat area, seven neighbours have repeatedly complained of harassment by the Chans for almost 10 years. The Chan family which includes retiree Chan Cheng Koon, 67, his wife Chua Gek Eng, in her 60s, and their daughter Soo Yin, a secondary school teacher in her 40s, in turn blamed their neighbours of having started the conflict.

In one dispute, the neighbours found the Chans mounted a spotlight which they turn on at night shining into their bedrooms and affecting their sleep. They think the Chan family is inconsiderate. The Chans, however, feel they are at no wrong and explain that it is for security purposes when confronted by their neighbours.

The seven neighbours are most distressed by the Chans’ offensive flaunting of wealth and earning capacity, showing off of jewellery and car and educational status. The arrogant daughter, a secondary school teacher with a doctorate in life sciences, standing next to her mother, once shouted across to the neighbours: "You see, this is diamonds, you can buy or not? You got money to buy?"

The police have been called in several times and the warring parties have resorted to getting video evidence of each other’s wrongdoings. The Gan family - one of the seven neighbours – eventually installed a security camera facing the Chan's house. Shortly after, an eye for an eye, Mr. Chan begun video-filming people in the street every morning routinely. The offended Chans would even film their neighbours and tail them or their visitors, causing many to feel uncomfortable.

In my opinion, this social friction of life in the neighbourhood mainly roots from the lack of community spirit and social gracious. If you are the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Joo Chiat constituency, how would you solve this conflict between the two warring parties?

Effective Communication Skills

Communication is like ballroom dancing; it takes two to “tango”. Often, no two dance partners can really read each other’s mind, a certain level of skill is required by the two partners to coordinate each other and make them look good. In the same way, without telepathy between two individuals of different backgrounds such as ethnic and education, successful communication requires some skills of both the speaker and listener or the writer and reader.

To understand and to be understood
Effective communication skills help two individuals to understand each other in this two-way process. To a speaker/writer, these skills are essential to ensure that the other party is able to interpret his or her message the way s/he intended it. On the receiving end, these skills prompt the listener/reader to reflect if s/he has interpreted the speaker’s message correctly. When the listener fails to understand correctly the intentions of the speaker, misunderstanding commonly arises. To make things worse, words said and deeds done cannot be retrieved or undone. The extent of misunderstanding can thus be so great that it may cause permanent bad feeling and even hatred.

To build and maintain relationships
To be alive is to reach out to others. From the moment we first cried to the moment we bid farewell to this world, relationships are the core of our existence. Our relationships with others form the context for all other aspects of our lives. To build and maintain good relationships with family members, friends, colleagues and even clients, effective communication skills play a significant role. These skills greatly reduce the occurrence of misunderstandings and conflicts in interpersonal relationships. Ineffective communication skills, on the other hand, may sour or sometimes destroy relationships.