Blog Post #4: Final Reflection on Learning

This module (ES2007S) is one of the most useful module I have taken in NUS thus far. These 12 weeks, despite being hectic and having to meet deadlines every now and then, the knowledge I acquired was indeed rewarding and memorable. I must admit that being a Science student in NUS, presentation and communication skills are rarely shared to us during the curriculum and we are often unaware of the skills that are required in professional communication. After attending these 12 weeks of lessons by Dr Radhika, I have learned so much in presenting myself in a concise and professional manner.

One of the greatest takeaways from this module is having the opportunity for a mock job interview. For most of the interviews I have been to thus far, I did not manage to secure the positions without knowing the reason behind it. Thus, from the feedback and comments I received from my peers during the mock job interview, I have realised my weaknesses in my interview skills which are probably the reasons for my poor performance during interviews in the past. Hence, this mock job interview is very important for me to improve and prepare myself better for future job interviews.

Another valuable takeaway is the importance of non-verbal communication. There are so many functions of non-verbal communication which I am unaware of previously. In many situations, non-verbal actions may contradict verbal words and through that, we can then realise the hidden message behind it. Non-verbal actions that complement verbal words are seen almost everywhere, even during presentations. I have learned how eye contact can actually make what you present much more convincing. I am glad that I learned so much about non-verbal gestures in this module.

In addition, this module has taught me the skills needed to write a persuasive proposal, perform a good presentation, write a good application letter and resume with the use of the 7 Cs that we have learned during the guidance of Dr Radhika. These are skills that not only will help me in my course in NUS but also will definitely come in handy in the my future career where I get to work with people. Fostering a good intercultural communication such as researching on the different types of cultures and religions around different parts of the world, will definitely place you in a better light when communicating with people of a different culture.

With that, I want to thank Dr Radhika for providing us with the knowledge about these professional communication skills throughout these 12 weeks, for guiding us through our proposal as well. I want to thank my classmates for making these 12 weeks such an enjoyable one and the interaction fostered within such a small class size is indeed fruitful, especially my peer teaching team mates (Ashikin and Nazyra) and my group proposal team mates (Kaylyn and Indah). It has been great working with all of you!

Blog Post #3: Reflection on Team-based Research Project Proposal

To be frank, doing on an unfamiliar topic and with only a short 4 weeks of time, was indeed a challenging but fulfilling one. Before starting on the proposal, we came up with a timeline schedule to facilitate the progress of our proposal. We started off with splitting the secondary research into various aspects, where each of us focus on researching on the prevailing stigma and discrimination against HIV in one aspect, which maximizes time and efficiency. We are very thankful that Mr. Avin Tan, senior executive of Action for AIDS (AFA), actually responded to our interview request. It was after the interview with him that further assured us that our proposal is on the right track. It was not easy to come out with solutions as what can be done was already done by AFA to alleviate the stigma and discrimination against HIV. It was right after the interview with Mr. Avin Tan that the three of us actually sat down in a cafe for a few hours to brainstorm on the possible solutions.

I considered myself lucky to have Kaylyn and Indah in my team, who are very easy to get along with. Generally, we worked quite well together. Kaylyn and I prefer to get our work done as soon as possible while Indah is used to complete her part when nearing the deadlines. Kaylyn and I focus more on the content of our proposal while Indah helps more in the language and format. This differing working styles of ours did not stop us from achieving our final aim, but it serves as our individual strengths that complement each other.

It would have increase the credibility and persuasiveness of our proposal if we had more time to interview more people to have a wider perspective of viewpoints on this topic. This would have made our proposal better. It would have been better if we have a clearer format of our proposal in mind earlier. When nearing the end of the proposal, we find that there are actually many things that we researched initially that is completely not needed in the final proposal. We could have use the time better to research on other more important areas.

From this one-month experience, I have learned to not force people to follow your way of working but to have trust in your teammates and use your strengths to complement one another instead. I have learned to come up with a format plan and have a clear mind before embarking on the research. This will allow resources to be used more effectively and efficiently. I can definitely applied these skills and concepts learned to my future workplace when I worked with people of different working styles.

On the whole, I am thankful for this opportunity to work with Kaylyn and Indah. It was indeed a fulfilling and rewarding experience! We have given our best and I am really proud of our final piece!

Blog Post #2: Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

Intercultural communication, the sending and receiving of messages across languages and cultures, is a negotiated understanding among different cultures based on human experiences across various social systems and societies. Communication today is affected by different aspects of human language and behaviour which also include non-verbal communication. Communication across cultures is rather complicated as we tend to interpret messages in split seconds based on the past experiences and cultural grids that were passed down to us in our own cultures. However, we are often not aware of the assumptions and beliefs involved in a communication exchange with someone from another culture. We are also often unaware of the many different ways that culture can influence the way we listen to, speak to and understand others.

Fred, an exchange student from Germany, was the fundraising team’s IC for my OCIP. During the planning of fundraising activities, Fred came out with ideas that fit in her Germany culture without realising the vast differences between Singapore culture and Germany culture in various aspects. She lacks the understanding of Singaporean’s behaviour and culture, which leads to her decision. She is also unaware that what will work in her country, will not necessary work in Singapore. One of the fundraising activities she suggested was to plan a movie screening, with donations by entry, in one of the lecture theatres in NUS in the midst of exams period. As she was the fundraising team’s IC, her team members had no power to object her ideas despite knowing that this movie screening would not work out as intended. In the end, the movie screening was executed but no one turned up at all.

In my opinion, this intercultural scenario depicts the different cultural behaviours between Singapore and Germany. As Germany is less academically-focused and if a movie screening is organised, the turn-up rate will be good as students over there enjoy this kind of activities. However, in Singapore, students are more academically-focused, especially when exams are near, would unlikely to go for such movie screening which they deemed as wasting of time. The lack of understanding of different cultures has led to the failure of intercultural communication. Hence, an effective communication requires the understanding of various cultures before executing a plan so as to ensure the maximum turn-out.

Here's a video that introduces the tips we should bear in mind when dealing with other cultures, which include different forms of communication, body language, decision making styles, task completion, ways of understanding information, business as well as personal life.

Blog Post #1: Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

Interpersonal conflict between people is a fact of life and is unavoidable. Such conflict can occur at many levels of interaction – at work, at home, in school and in various committees. Very often, such interpersonal conflict can cause a situation of enmity and resentment, which can lead to undesirable consequences. However, if handled adequately, these conflicts can create a deeper mutual understanding and can improve relations between affected parties. The consequences of the conflict – be it good or bad – is dependent on the way the conflict is being resolved and how well people manage the conflict. In this blog post, I will be sharing a real-life interpersonal conflict which occurred in Science Volunteer Corps committee last year when we were planning for a carnival event.

Ling and Lei were chosen to be the ALIVE’13 carnival’s project ICs and they have invested time and effort in coming up with the best event layout plan to situate all the various carnival booths. They did not receive any feedback from the committee director, Gin, when they submitted their layout draft plan few months before the actual carnival. Ling and Lei continued on with their initial plan to have booths distributed across two levels in University Town’s SRC. After the alignment of tables according to what Ling and Lei had planned on the day just before the actual carnival, Gin showed strong disapproval in the layout arrangement and demanded Ling and Lei to keep all the booths to just one level. Despite how much Ling and Lei tried to persuade Gin to keep to the original layout, efforts were to no avail and they had to unwillingly make do with the remaining time to come up with a new layout plan that Gin approved.

This conflict arose due to the natural differences in human personality, beliefs and ethics. Both parties had the interests of the beneficiaries at heart, but they focus on different aspects. Ling and Lei, on one hand, were more concerned on the space constraint if all the booths were to be located at just one level and the limited space might cause overcrowding at the booths. However, on the other hand, Gin was more concerned about the kids and elderly’s safety if they were to travel up and down the stairs to visit the booths. This differing focus on the carnival had led to the conflict as mentioned.

In my opinion, this conflict can be prevented if Gin had considered the safety concerns earlier and should have given feedback to Ling and Lei during the drafting of the layout plan so that they can revise their plan earlier. Gin did not consider the feelings of Ling and Lei and it is certainly not right for Gin to give such a big last minute amendment, especially on the day just before the carnival event. Since Gin had already assigned Ling and Lei to be the ICs for this carnival, he should respect their decisions and follow their plan instead. Gin should have considered the feelings of Ling and Lei and should have put himself in their shoes before making any decisions. If Gin was concerned over the safety of the kids and elderly, he could have instead assigned volunteers to be situated at the staircases and lifts to help the elderly in moving up to the second level and vice versa. This plan will take into account of both parties’ interest – space and safety. This could be a better plan instead of just changing the entire layout plan and messing up the original plan that Ling and Lei had planned for two months.

What would you have done instead if you were in the shoes of Ling and Lei or Gin to better mitigate the conflict so as not to hurt the feelings of the other party?