Final Reflection

My understanding of the value of effective communication has changed since the time I wrote the first post. Initially, I felt that oral communication and active listening skills are the two most important effective communication skills. I still feel that these two skills are very important. However, I realised that other communication skills such as interpersonal communication and written communication are also equally important.

Through this course, I have learnt more about various communication skills like interpersonal communication, oral communication and written communication skills. I feel that these skills that I have developed will certainly be applicable in my future job as well as in everyday life. In particular, knowing how to write cover letters and resumes will help me convince the employer that I am suitable for the job. Also, the interpersonal communication skills that I have developed have helped me become a better team player and will reduce the chances of me getting into a conflict.

During the process of doing the research report, I faced some difficulties. Nonetheless, it was a good experience as I have gained the knowledge of writing a formal report. The oral presentation was one of the components that I feared the most. However, I have learnt how to improve on my presentation skills through feedback from Ms Kim and my classmates.

Overall, I feel that this module has benefitted me a lot. Not only has it helped me to improve on some of my communication skills, but it has also taught me new communication skills in some aspects I was not familiar in like job search communication. Moreover, being in a class where there are people from different countries exposed me to different cultures. It was great to get to know and interact with my classmates. They definitely made the classes enjoyable.

Biodata

I am currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics at the National University of Singapore due to my interest in Mathematics since primary school. With hard work and determination, I topped my level for Mathematics twice in secondary school.

Besides pursuing my degree, I have been involved in extra curricular activities. Last year, I was part of the organising committee for Stardust, a nationwide singing competition. I was also the secretary of the Science Camp committee which organised a large scale camp for Science freshmen, and am currently the vice director of this committee. Through these activities, I have learnt how to work better in a team and have improved my interpersonal skills.

Reflecting on the Research Project Experience

During the process of doing the research project, I encountered some problems. As my group members’ timetables are very different, we did not have many free slots to meet up. Hence, we could not meet up more often and most of our discussion was done online. We often used email to update one another on things added into our report and hence, the response and feedback were not immediate. Moreover, as we would get individual feedback for a particular email sent out, more time would have to be spent on consolidating all the different changes. Also, more time was wasted on waiting for replies and hence, I feel that face to face communication would have been a more effective channel of communication.

As some of the deadlines for the report drafts and my mid-term tests coincided, I faced some difficulties coping with studying for my tests, finding resources and doing the research report. It made me realise that I need to manage my time properly and prioritise my work in order not to bring any inconvenience to my group members.

Furthermore, during the process of research, we had to find articles to support what we intended to write in the report. However, we faced some difficulties looking for enough articles as those we found were rather similar. Hence, we had to use quite a lot of time to source for a variety of articles.

Overall, my group faced some problems during the process of doing our research project. However, it was only through these problems that I learnt how I could improve on our communication methods and skills.

Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

Recently, one of my relatives brought her American boyfriend, John, to my aunt’s place for steamboat. Instead of asking John if he wanted to eat using a bowl or plate, my uncle said “Do you eat plate or bowl?” As a result, John was confused. My uncle then tried to use actions to explain what he meant. However, the misunderstanding was cleared when another relative explained what my uncle actually meant. In Singapore, the use of Singlish is very common. However, when it is used in conversing with foreigners, it can result in ineffective communication as the message is not brought out clearly. In this scenario, I think John was probably puzzled why my uncle asked him whether he wanted to eat a plate or a bowl.

Later, when my uncle offered to scoop food for John, John requested for the chunky part of the chicken. This time, my uncle was the one who was puzzled. He did not know what John meant by “chunky”. In this context, when John said he wanted the chunky part of the meat, he meant meaty part of the chicken. Slangs and usage of words differ in different countries and since the word “chunky” is not really widely used in Singapore, my uncle could not get the message John was trying to convey. Also, as everyone was using chopsticks, John also tried using them but was rather clumsy with it. This was probably because Americans normally use fork and spoon to eat and many types of food are eaten using their hands. Hence, it could be difficult for John to use chopsticks to eat as he was not accustomed to them.

This dinner showed me how people of different cultures have different ways of saying and doing things. Hence, I feel that in order for effective communication, we have to consider our audience to ensure that our message is clear.

Potential Research Project Topic

Presently, there are two different types of MRT trains in Singapore. One has rather wide seats and the other, narrow seats. I feel that the trains with the wide seats allow fewer people to sit down and the trains with the narrower seats are sometimes too small. When I discussed this issue with my friend, she felt the same way too. During the peak hours, the MRT trains are very crowded and I wish that there could have been more seats to allow less people to stand and more people to enter the train. This leads me to a few questions:

1) Is there any way for the seats to accommodate the maximum number of people?
2) How can the MRT maximize the number of seats without compromising on the comfort of the passengers?

These questions made me think whether the partitioning of the MRT train seats should be removed. Hence, my general research question would be “Do you think that the MRT trains can accommodate more seated passengers with the removal of the seats’ partitioning?”

In countries like Japan, the train seats have no partitions and through my observation, there seems to be no problem with this issue. The passengers will shift themselves to accommodate the most number of people sitting down. However, I am uncertain if this concept will work well in Singapore. Hence, an attitudinal survey would be needed to get the opinions of the general public in Singapore on whether this idea is feasible here. Furthermore, with the survey results, we can feedback to SMRT regarding this issue.

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

George is a very vocal person and tends to say what is on his mind without considering the feelings of others. George was the head of the programme committee of one of the projects. His fellow committee members were Jane, Elizabeth and Tom. Tom and George are best friends and have known each other for nearly eight years. However, unlike George, Tom is a rather passive person.

During one of the meetings, Tom gave a suggestion on what should be done for their programme proposal. Upon listening to Tom’s suggestion, George immediately said that it was a really stupid idea and asked Tom to make more constructive comments. To the surprise of everyone, Tom shouted at George. Tom told George that he was too arrogant and that he had enough of his rude comments. Tom then left the venue of the meeting and headed home. One of the reasons why the normally passive Tom lost his temper was because he was facing some family problems. His parents were on the verge of divorce and he was quite upset about it, so he finally lost his temper.

Jane and Elizabeth actually agreed with Tom and told George that he was being too insensitive to the feelings of others. They felt that George should apologize to Tom, and said that they would continue their discussion only after this matter had been resolved. The proposal was going to be due soon and it would be rather difficult for George to finish it alone.

For the next few days, George tried to apologize to Tom but Tom gave him the cold shoulder. What could George do to appease his best friend and to get the whole team back together?

Effective Communication

There had been situations where I faced problems in communication. For example, when I chat with my friends on the Internet, we had misunderstandings because of misinterpretations of the words used. Also, there were times when I was unable to convey my message to people verbally. Hence, I feel that effective communication skills are required to prevent miscommunication.

Some of the communication skills include oral communication and active listening. These are the few skills I particularly need to improve on.

Oral communication is a mode of communication frequently used in our daily lives. However, there are certain barriers that could be present when conversing with someone. An example is cultural differences. People from different countries and cultures could face difficulties understanding and communicating with each other, because of different slangs and accents, even when we are speaking the same language. Effective oral communication is also important in securing a job in the future. During job interviews, we may have to make presentations and try to convince our interviewers that we are capable and suitable for the job. Thus, I feel that developing effective oral communication skills and overcoming communication barriers are essential.

Developing active listening is important as communication is a two way process. Occasionally, I get distracted when my friends are talking because I do a few things simultaneously. These distractions cause me to miss out on some important details of the conversation, and can sometimes lead to miscommunication. Miscommunication between friends could be resolved quickly. However, I feel that if active listening is not exercised in some situations like meetings in workplace or school and receiving instructions from your superior, the consequences can be disastrous. Hence, developing active listening skills is just as important as having good oral communication skills.

Certainly, apart from oral communication and active listening, developing other forms of communication skills will also be useful.