Final Reflection on Learning

It has been 4 months since we started our journey on becoming great professional communicators. And here we are at the end of the semester writing our last blog posts. It feels like it was only last week we were in our first class in a seminar room at the Faculty of Science. Time does fly quickly.

In this post I will do a reflection on the skills I have picked up during the course of this module.

The most important aspect for me will definitely be my enhanced public speaking skills. The oral presentation, peer teaching and even the class discussions all focused on improving our presentation skills. And I think it is safe to say that each one of us did really improve ourselves over the time of this course. I am now more comfortable presenting in front of a crowd. I still have room for a lot of improvement but I guess this module helped me to take the first step towards becoming a better speaker.

Blogging helped me improve my writing skills while reading others' posts were another great way to get new perspectives on the same subjects. Everyone knows you will not be a better writer if you do not read. It was interesting to see how each one of us could write a completely different post about the same topic.

The feedback from Madam Fazilah and my peers also helped me immensely to improve my cover letter. I have to admit that I had some glaring errors in my cover letter which would have been definitely off-putting to the prospective hiring mangers.

Throughout this module one thing which was prevalent is peer review. Each and every class we reviewed each other, from our presentations to proposals. I liked how we always got a chance to improve our material after we receive feedback from others.

A major takeaway from ES2007S was the interaction we did beyond our regular class schedule. I developed good bonding even beyond my group partners. Consider this- I have never met Anthony and Jo, despite the three of us coming from the same major but during this course, we definitely developed a good sense of camaraderie. I would definitely make a suggestion to my department to take a leaf of the ES2007S course because I feel that there is a room for improvement in our engineering courses as far as student interaction is concerned.

Finally, I would like to wish you all a very happy vacation. To the graduates- congratulations on moving on to the real world of pay checks and bonuses. To the continuing students- all the very best for the upcoming semesters. To Madam Fazilah- thank you for making this module one of the best ones in my eight semesters of NUS. 

Reflection on Oral Presentation

Since we were the last group to present, the pressure was on us to deliver and live up to the high standards the other groups set for us. We met numerous times this week to prepare the slides and hone our presentation.

I was personally inspired seeing this great TED video by Simon Sinek on how great leaders inspire us- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI0cJdOzUcQ. He has repeatedly mentioned something which caught my attention- People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. This was applicable for our presentation topic on Foreign Workers because I felt that we would be grabbing the audience attention more if we could make them realize why we are doing it. We tried to highlight the purpose of our proposal- the betterment of the image of Singapore as a safe workplace with world-class labour force and being compassionate to the foreign workers. To my delight, I found Joel, Xudong, Haoxuan and Evelyn sharing similar points of view.

I feel that one major advantage we had compared to the other teams was the fact that our report was ready before our presentation. Thus we could pattern our presentation using contents from the report. While preparing the presentation, our primary focus was to minimize the use of texts in every slide so that the attention stays on the speaker rather than on the slides.

Our videos were chosen to generate pathos from the audience since we believed that empathy building for the foreign workers should be the crux of our presentation. Not be left out on logos and ethos, we carried out surveys to come up with numbers for the workers’ salaries and their living conditions and took interviews of construction workers to gain knowledge on their plight. I particularly enjoyed working on the introduction and the conclusion of the presentation because these gave me an opportunity to talk freely without the bounds of following any particular slide.

We hoped that we would be able to ascertain a quantitative value for cost of plan rather than only outlining the stakeholders and their responsibilities. I believe that this was a weakness in our presentation since providing the stakeholders with a quantitative value would have made them visualize how the benefits would surely outweigh the costs involved. We hope that some other group with higher manpower could work on the quantitative cost of plan of the proposal.

At last I would like to add the fact that this oral presentation helped me to learn how to speak passionately in front of an audience. I was the one beginning the presentation, all the more reason for me to be nervous. Practicing really helped me in being a little less nervous because I knew what I was going to talk about. As Amy Cuddy said, “Fake it till you become it”. Here’s hoping nobody noticed my nervousness!

Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

Intercultural communication can be thought akin to a trans-Atlantic flight- most of the times flying smoothly with some sprinkling of minor turbulences. On some occasions, the flight goes through some major storm but even in those cases, an experienced pilot will safely guide the flight to its destination.

I came to Singapore in 2009 and in many aspects these four years have been a cultural eye-opener. Some customs were quite familiar to me and gave me joy thinking back on the celebrations we have back home while some were so unfamiliar that it made me wonder about its purpose.

Take the Hungry Ghost Festival for example. For those of you who do not know, it is a Chinese tradition of feeding wandering spirits during the seventh month of the lunar calendar and lasts for the whole month. They offer the dead sumptuous meals which consists of meats, fish, fruits, cakes, alcohol- basically all the dainties I know of.

During 2010, when I initially the saw the bulk of nicely decorated food left unattended under trees I was very curious. It was clear no one intended on eating it, nobody even spared a second glance at it as if it was completely normal to keep fancy food lying on the sidewalk. Moreover, this is the Pasir Panjang Road I am talking about- a calm and quiet residential area just outside the university campus. It seemed like only I was interested in the matter. Was it thrown away? It could not be, judging by the decoration and the incense lit up on the side. I vaguely remembered my grandmother telling me stories of tree worship in Bangladeshi villages during her time and wondered if this was something similar. Surely a first-world nation like Singapore would not worship trees, that too on such a busy road?

While I was engrossed in all these ground-breaking theory formulation, an elderly auntie appeared and offered me some of the food. Although she was very kind in her approach, the offer startled me to such an extent that I hurriedly mumbled a negative reply and almost ran away.

Some days later, I asked one of my Singaporean friends about the whole incident. She was the one who kindly took her time during a lunch to explain the Ghost festival. Apparently, Chinese communities in Malaysia and Singapore believe that the gates of Hell open on the 7th lunar month, freeing the spirits of the dead to roam in the world of the living. The living, in turn, must make offerings of food and burnt prayer money to the souls of the dead to appease them.

When I mentioned to her about the encounter with the auntie, she almost choked into her food with laughter. Alas, poor me. After she regained control, she clarified that the food was usually eaten by the under-privileged. My lingering and staring at the food must have made auntie come to the conclusion that perhaps I was a poor boy with nothing to eat.

Today, as I reflect back on the experience, I see how inexperienced I was at communicating with strangers from a different culture. I could have approached the auntie to ask her to explain the ritual to me instead of running away from her and making a complete fool of myself. I guess that is the price I paid for not knowing effective intercultural communication.

A little knowledge about others’ cultures goes a long way.

A change in perspective is sometimes all that is needed.
Image source- http://interculturaljournal.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/ethnocentrism.jpg

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

"Commitment in the face of conflict produces character." - Mark Twain

I believe, being the vocal person I am, interpersonal conflict is as inevitable as a rainy day in February in Singapore. As believed by the great author of Huckleberry Finn, my defining moment will be the one when I will be able to solve my interpersonal conflicts.

I assume most of the readers of my blog will not be aware of what a game of Cricket is. For their benefit I will just say that Cricket is a game played with bat and ball involving 11 players in each team. For the more inquisitive readers, I would recommend this site- http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/hosking/cricket/explanation.htm.

I was the vice-captain of the TeamNUS cricket team some time back and we had an important match coming up against NTU in the Intervarsity league. On the eve of the match day, I and my captain H sat with our coach and manager to finalize the team from a squad of 15. We were all in agreement with the first 10 players but the selection of the 11th player got us divided. I wanted the 11th person to be a K, a batsman whereas H wanted J, a bowler. In cricket, you have bowler who throws the ball and the batsman who tries to hit the thrown ball out of the field with his bat.

My logic for playing a batsman instead of a bowler was the fact that NTU had a strong bowling line up and I wanted to counter that. H argued that J should be given a chance because he has been sitting in the reserve bench for a long time and letting him play would do his confidence a world of good for the upcoming semi-final.

Both the coach and the manager, however, thought along my lines about offsetting NTU’s strength and took K into the side. As both of them took leave, I noticed that H seemed slumped. I went over to him and put my hand on his shoulders and was about to say something about the next day’s strategy. To my utter surprise, H sprang up and said, “Do you think I am a fool? I know what you’re up to. You are trying to take over the captaincy by being Mr. Logical in front of the coach!”

I was taken aback. Naturally, I wanted to compose him, “H, are you serious? I have no intentions of even continuing with the team after this season! I just voiced my opinion on what I thought would be best for the team.”

“Team my foot! I’ll see how you continue in this team!”

He continued in this vein for several more minutes. The more I tried to calm his nerves, the more he said about what a cunning fellow I am and how I always try to undermine him and how I choose players who are friendly with me. I was quite shaken after this encounter and as he left the dressing room, I was left to ponder where I went wrong. What could I have possibly told H that would have assured him that I was indeed speaking for the greater good of the team and had no ambition of captaincy?

Just as background information, J, the bowler, was a friend of H.

Why effective communication skills are important for me

Publish or Perish- so goes the saying. In fact, I do feel that today, more so than some years back, effective communication skills are more of a necessity than an option. Today, there are many ways misunderstandings can occur- a hastily crafted text or a curt email might have unforeseen consequences.

My emphasis on developing effective communication skills is two-pronged. Firstly, it helps me to stand out among the crowd. During my selection for Industrial Attachment in a multinational software company, I was interviewed along with five other NUS students by a German recruiter. It thus came as a pleasant surprise when I was offered the position.

Some months later when I got familiar with my department, I approached the recruiter and wanted to know what set me apart from the other students. His first words were- “You were darn confident.” He went on to elaborate how some of the others stuttered, hesitated and was unassuming about their accomplishments and how I was articulate and carried myself with a “good grace”. His words led me to believe that while oral communication is important, non-verbal gestures goes a long way in establishing rapport as well.

I also believe that effective communication skills are tools for personal growth. How much of the world can I know about by myself? It is through knowing the right people I can enrich my experience and get a fresh outlook. It would be definitely a bonus if the person is from a different culture!

In my opinion, developing effective communication skills is a constantly evolving process and requires active learning. I hope to learn more on effective communication though ES2007S- something while called a soft skill, is definitely worth the effort.