#6 Final Reflection

Three months ago, when I was looking for modules to bid for, the first and foremost thought on my mind was how would I be able to find a job. So naturally I was looking for a module which would help prepare me for graduation soon, something which is severely lacking in nus.

Professional Communications, I'm happy to report, does this and so much more. Firstly, I'm sure that everyone will agree with me that the module really boosted our presentation skills, even for those that did relatively worse for their last presentation, yours truly included. But let me reflect on why this is so. Everyone had to present a total of three times, and this really proved the old adage "Practice makes perfect". The small class size also made it easier to present and boosted confidence, because everyone knew each other towards the end. Because I have already reflected on oral presentation in my previous blog post, I shall not go too much in depth into it here J

To be honest I have never done any proper business proposal writing nor pitching and selling it afterwards. Then again, maybe the authorities who set the core modules curriculum didn’t deem it essential for engineers to learn how to write a proper proposal. Leave that to the business people, they must have thought. But in the first month of my internship, my supervisor was horrified to learn that I was severely unequipped with such skills (which she thought students should already know). See, there’s this gap in today’s society: there are certain skills that employers expect school to teach their students in university, but school expect students to somehow miraculously master it themselves, but students find great difficulty in obtaining the proper resources and personnel to prepare themselves sufficiently for. But luckily for the privileged few, Professional Communications help to bridge this gap.

 At the end of this course, I am proud to say that I have learnt many valuable things, and most of them from unlikely teachers: my own peers. Through their presentations, I have gained much insight: from discovering myself; the A to Z of job interviews; how to write a business letter / survey / application letter etc; to being a good listener and how cultural differences may lead to ineffective communication, etc. But most of all, the most valuable and significant things I have learnt are not what was meant to be taught: it’s the value of friendship. ES2007S was one module that I have always looked forward to, because it’s enjoyable (a far cry from you-know-what modules) and interesting, and I’m sure many of you reading this will agree too J

So anyway, I’d like to say thanks to all my classmates who took this course with me, especially my group mates: Ka Yan and Edwin, for having the infinite patience to explain things to me, tolerating my stubbornness and still being so sweet; to Andy and Juan for tolerating my busy schedule and never once complaining – you guys are great! It was really a pleasure to be your groupmate; to all my other classmates and readers: for enduring my rants and listening while I was giving voice to my opinions (something that I was afraid to do until now); and lastly to Radhika, for being so considerate, patient and wonderful! You’re a wonderful facilitator and role model. It was particularly enjoyable to listen to your stories and I’m sure everyone agrees too.

Till then! J

#5 Reflection on Oral Presentation

In many job advertisements, effective communication skills are seen in almost everywhere. Have you ever paused to wonder why that is so? Why do we need good presentation skills to be an engineer/dentist/teacher?

Truth is, every job requires effective communication because you’ll have to work with other people. Regardless of whether it’s interpersonal, or within the office, or to clients, most likely you’d have to be presenting at one point in your working life. Therefore, it stands to reason that presentation skills are extremely important and critical to our success.

When I was in secondary school, presentation = going up to the whiteboard and writing your answers down. Or, it could mean ‘standing up and reading out your answers’. In my first year of university (and in fact, right up till the day I took this course), presentation meant typing out exactly what I was going to say and reading it out to the audience (with occasional glances up which were sporadic and looked like muscular twitches, to say the least).

But in the past 3 months, I have come a long way since then. Although I have received comments that my last presentation was not as good as my previous attempts, personally I felt that I have gained a lot in terms of experience. It really helps to learn how to present in front of a small class size, where everyone’s friendly and genuinely interested to help each other improve, and everyone knows everyone. Giving three presentations in a module also proved the old adage “practice makes perfect” to me. I have gained confidence, I have seen many inspirational role models, and come to realize that hey, giving the perfect pitch or presentation is actually within my reach, after all.

Nevertheless, there were still some things that I wish I could have done better. I have realized that having a good night’s sleep beforehand is extremely essential (although I wish I could have learnt that the easy way), and planning your wardrobe choices should be done the day before to prevent last-minute panic-attacks and hysterical ransacking of your closet; I also learn that standing up and clicking on your slides while vocalizing your speech also helps, rather than just sitting down and muttering to yourself, or thinking things through your head. Somehow, hearing my own voice is much different from thinking it. But then again, that’s just me. And lastly, there’s really no need to be nervous about the much-dreaded Q&A session that comes after. People are not “out to get you”, lecturers included, contrary to popular belief; the Q&A session is just to clarify people’s doubts about your presentation.

On that issue regarding Q&A: not sure about anyone else, but in the past when I have time constraints, ie. too much content to present within too short a time, I tend to leave important parts out in the slide, thinking, “I shall just leave it to the Q&A session so I can anticipate what people will ask.” But I’ve come to realize my mistake. Time constraints will always exist, but that does not give us the excuse to take out important parts. To me, the job of the presenter is to make sure that your audience’s knowledge is on par with yours. If they ask you about something you have already covered, then it probably means you weren’t doing a good job.

One thing that occurred to me after the presentation: when practicing and planning presentations, I should always leave buffer time for thought. And whenever faced with time constraints, never NEVER ever rush through by speaking in fast-forward mode: that just makes you unclear and ineffective as a speaker. You’re no longer speaking TO the audience, as should be, instead you are speaking AT the audience, and that does not engage them and hence make them lose interest. Instead, I have compensated by summarizing key points and leaving out details. After all, most audiences listening to pitches are typically concerned with whether the targets are met. (At least, that was what one lecturer confided in us after another presentation we were graded on, so it may differ on a case-by-case basis). Details could be included if there is sufficient time.

Once again, I thank my audiences for taking the time to read my thoughts here, and feel free to leave comments!

#4 Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

“Singapore’s multi-religious, multi-racial and secular society is not a weakness, but a strength” – Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean 

“Cosmopolitan”, “multi-racial” and “multi-linguistic” are some of the adjectives often used to describe Singapore, and Singapore’s government is proud of proclaim the little red dot as diverse yet harmonious. We even celebrate racial harmony day, something that little children look forward to (mainly because we get to wear ethnic costumes, performances – no lessons! – and a holiday).

However, how much of the above quotation by our deputy prime minister is factual reality, and how much is merely idealistic propaganda?

Singapore was touted as a food paradise, and it is not unheard of for Singaporeans to travel all the way from one end of the island to the other for the sake of good food. Curry, one of Singapore’s local specialties, is equally loved by most Singaporeans of all races, although different ethnic groups may prefer to prepare it differently.

All who loves curry, say AYE!

However, apparently not everyone would appreciate the much-loved local cuisine. Recently, the local newspaper, Today, published an article that caused a wave of outrage amongst many Singaporeans online, prompting many indigant netizens to protest and post on their blogs, and even a “Cook and Share A Pot of Curry” movement on Facebook that garnered 55,000 supporters.

The cause for this public outcry? A Chinese family who had recently arrived from mainland China, complained about the smell of curry emanating from their ethnic Indian neighbours’ house because they could not stand its smell. The PRC (People’s Republic of China) family then turned to the Community Mediation Centre (CMC) for help, even though their Indian neighbour, aware of their PRC’s neighbour’s dislike, had already taken measures such as closing their doors and windows when they were cooking curry.

According to Mdm Giam, the CMC mediator, the PRC family said, “Can you don’t cook curry? Can you please don’t eat curry?” In the end, the Indian family agreed to cook curry only when the PRC family was not home (although I wonder how on earth they are going to foresee that – maybe the PRC family will supply their neighbour with a crystal ball?) and in return, the Indian family wanted their neighbour to at least taste their curry.

Now, to non-Singaporeans, this may seem a trivial issue, but as a firm believer that the local cuisine is an integral and essential part of a country’s culture, this is truly shocked me. Curry is the basic Indian dish and is also favoured by Singaporean Chinese and Malays alike, thus it is fundamental to the Singaporean culture. Restricting it would be akin to restricting the rice from the Chinese diet, or meat to the Westerners.

To many Singaporeans, insulting our food is akin to insulting our national pride. Many incensed Singaporeans have objected that we are bullied in our own backyard (why should we limit our favourite food to the whims and preferences of non-natives?) and foreigners should learn to assimilate into the local culture, instead of expecting locals to accommodate and adjust to their way of life.

With more foreigners flooding Singapore in the recent years (Foreign-born Singapore citizens and permanent residents now make up 23 per cent of Singapore's resident population, up from 18 per cent in 2000), conflicts between the locals and foreigners are bound to arise, and these are usually caused by intercultural differences. How can we then move towards minimizing or preventing conflicts? Surely we cannot close off our country entirely and contrary to popular belief (and what the government seems to imply), most Singaporeans are not xenophobic by nature.

Let us first take a step back to better analyze this issue. Majority of the local netizens have sided with our fellow countrymen, chiding and criticizing the PRC family and even Mdm Giam for the final result. However, it should be noted that many of these comments are far from being biased. From the point of view of the PRC family, curries are not commonplace in mainland China and thus may come as a genuine culture shock to the PRC family, who may genuinely have difficulties acclimating themselves to the pungent fragrance of the dish. In fact, I personally know of Singaporeans who also dislike the strong fragrance; if it were a Singaporean family who had complained to CMC instead, would it still incur such a strong response? Most likely not.

In the PRC family’s defence, it has to be noted that they chose to resolve their conflict and unhappiness through a third-party mediation, whereby both parties come to a consensus by themselves, instead of a resolution imposed upon both parties by the mediator, which was a conclusion most were too hasty to jump to. Indeed, there are worse endings to this scenario; the PRC family could have complained to the police, retaliated in kind by purposely being inconsiderate, or taken it to court, as in the Everitt Road dispute (another tension between neighbours), thus further souring relations. Mediation, on the other hand, aims to amicably and fairly resolve disputes, and seems to have been a wise choice of action taken.

However, the PRC family was not entirely blameless either. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” has been the general rule of thumb that the Singapore society subscribes to, and the lack of ability to assimilate into the local culture here has raised flak amongst the locals. It is quite likely that they did not understand how fundamental curry is in their neighbours’ culture; to them, it is nothing more than an irritating and repugnant smell.

I believe that the root of Singaporean’s displeasure lies with the fact that the PRC family seemingly did not proactively take steps to understand the local culture. As mentioned, there are some Singaporeans who dislike its smell, too, yet the local Chinese and Malays simply tolerate it because they understand the feelings of their Indian peers.

Singaporeans should also not be too quick to judge the PRC family. Many details were unclear: could it be possible that the Indian family were cooking curry at strange hours of the day (for example, late into the night or in the early morning)?

Lastly, it would be detrimental to label all PRCs as highly intolerant and unwilling to integrate harmoniously into the local culture: in fact, many PRCs do. Just look around you! (If you’re from engineering, high chance you’d know quite a few peers from mainland China). In this scenario, I personally feel that the Indian family do have the moral upper hand, but as a (Singaporean) netizen commented, “we shouldn’t stereotype all foreigners by the actions of a few”. Before these netizens get their blood pressure up, they should refrain from stereotyping, generalizing and making sweeping statements. Instead, we should reach out to non-natives and assist them in every way we can to integrate better into Singapore’s society, and prove that Singapore is indeed a gracious, multi-racial, multi-cultural and harmonious city to live in.

Perhaps I may have missed out on considering some issues myself. If you were the Indian or PRC family, how would you have handled your neighbour’s unhappiness better? What would you have done differently? For example, it was not stated that the two neighbours to what extent were the discussions held between the two parties; there was only a hint that the PRC family had made their displeasure known to the Indian family. Maybe if the Indian family invited their neighbour over for a pot of curry, they might have been able to overcome the overwhelming smell and grow to like the cuisine instead. Perhaps the Indian family, as natives of the host country, could be more welcoming and act as a guide to the ways of the locals to the PRCs? Or maybe, the PRC family could have been more proactive in understanding the local culture (although they may have taken such steps already, once again we do not know)? What do you think?

#3 - Application Letter (for teaching)

Dear Human Resource Manager:

I am writing in response to the opening for a Teacher in a Junior College through the Ministry of Education. I read on your website of your call for more degree holders to join the vocation, and I believe that I have to necessary credentials as well as aptitude for this job. I will receive my Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Engineering (Honours) and already have 7 months’ experience as a relief teacher in Seng Kang Primary School, in addition to 2 years’ experience as a private tutor.

I am familiar with what is required in the teaching profession and I believe that I have the skills required. To start, my education path in Engineering has provided me with the opportunity to hone my mathematical, scientific, analytical and problem-solving skills during my four years of pursuing my degree. In my final year for my Final Year Project, I had to design my own experiments, set my own high expectations and ensure that the project was completed on time within a year. Being in charge of my own learning process made me a responsible, professional individual with good time-management skills.

Being able to impart knowledge efficiently in front of a class of 40 pupils is also something that I am adept at. I am also flexible enough to recognize when pupils require more time to understand a concept. Often, the absent teachers who I covered for during my stint as a relief teacher told me they were amazed that I made the effort to ensure that everyone understood the lesson and was on the same track. A Professional Communications module I took in university has also taught me to be a better communicator, a skill which I find especially useful when corresponding with students, parents, and fellow teachers.

I am delighted to offer my skills and abilities as a teacher. I am confident that I would be able to impart my knowledge to your students effectively.  I look forward to meeting you to discuss this position further. I intend to call you then to answer any questions that you may have. I would also be glad to provide you with any additional information you may require. I can be reached at 6123 4567. Thank you very much for your kind attention and consideration.

Sincerely,

Kirstie Lee

#2: Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

Conflict, I’m sure, needs no introduction because it is no stranger to everyone. Since everyone has surely at least encountered conflict once before in his/her lifetime, it is puzzling that not many know how to resolve, or better yet, avoid them. Indeed, conflicts in any type of relationships are inevitable; as long as two parties (or more) have different opinions and perceptions, disagreements and misunderstandings arise. These take place between friends and family, in a relationship, even in the workplace.

Take John and Jane Doe’s case, for instance.

It was John and Jane’s first wedding anniversary and Jane was really excited. She had spent weeks planning every single detail of the surprise dinner she would be throwing for him, and had checked with him beforehand to ensure he kept that night free. That morning, as she kissed John off to work, she said, “I’ll be waiting for you!”

John nodded distractedly and drove off. He was a doctor working in the A&E department, and like most Singaporean men nowadays, his work was very consuming. In fact, his mind was already on last night’s cases and how he would follow them up. Needless to say, he had already forgotten his wife’s bright smile and cheery words. Unfortunately, that night he had to tend to an emergency case that came in just as he was about to leave, and he ended up reaching home only in the wee hours of the night.

“Where were you the whole night? I tried to contact you but your phone was switched off!” Jane started ranting at John immediately as he stepped into the hall. John, who was already exhausted, quickly felt his temper rising and shouted back, “I had to work overtime! These things happen and you just can’t expect life to always be the way you want!” Jane, who interpreted John’s defensive words as, “You shouldn’t be upset because I have good reasons for being late. Anyway my work is more important than you, and you are too demanding/needy”, grew angry and stormed upstairs. And hence the cold war starts.

Maybe the conflict arises from the fact that men and women hears and interprets the same words differently. When Jane confronted John, what she actually felt could be worry that something has happened to John, especially when she was unable to reach him (oh the woes of short battery life), yet her tone and body language could have led John to believe that she thought there was no excuse for being late, and hence is accusing John of being irresponsible. On the other hand, John does not hear her worry, but picks up her disapproval instead. So he becomes defensive instead. How should they resolve the issue, or even better, what can they do to avoid the argument in the first place?

Food for thought: Conflict stems from misunderstandings due to different opinions, perceptions and beliefs. Since gender gives rise to different perspectives and expectations, do they also play a role in giving rise to conflicts? 

#1: Effective Communication Skills

To most people, communication is something that we do not think twice about before carrying it out. After all, we have been doing it since we were born. But what most of us are not aware of is how important effective communication is, and how difficult it is to achieve. In class, we have mostly explored the personal arena, therefore I would like to focus on the importance of effective communication in the workplace.

In the past, it used to be enough for employees to just be equipped with the technical know-how, but now as jobs are becoming more complex and employees start working in teams to take on projects together, more employers seek applicants with communication as well as technical skills. An engineer in the past need only know enough to build a house that will not collapse, but now he has to ask his client about his taste and preferences, work with the architect to make the design structurally sound, and motivate his workers to finish work on schedule. All of the above job requirements involve not only technical knowledge, but also effective communication skills.

The truth is, in the modern world, communication skills are an unwritten requirement in the workplace. Even in our first job, information would have to be read, we would have to listen to instructions, questions would be asked, and we would solve problems with other workers in teams. In any company, secretaries would have to take down phone messages, employees would have to make boardroom presentations and listen to meetings and bosses have to give instructions. It is of little wonder, then, that communication ability often ranks first among the qualities that employers look for in graduate applicants.

What do others think of us? This, I’m sure, is something we want to be positive (as we agreed during class, everyone wants to be liked). Our identities (both personal and professionally) are largely determined by what we say (ie. verbal) and do (nonverbal communication) and in turn, our identities determine how much power we have to influence others and outcomes. In order to develop positive identities, it is vital to understand the roles that verbal and nonverbal communication play in how others perceive us. Only when we are more conscious of our overall verbal and nonverbal impact, we can then monitor our behavior, choose strategies for improving our image, and thus develop our identities.