Is it the end?

I'm an outspoken girl, thus I always thought I had no problems communicating with others since I was very chatty. After taking this course, it made me reflect on how little I knew about communicating effectively, and how much I have to learn.

This course allowed me to understand the concepts behind effective communication (both verbal and written), and the examples that we went through in class helped to put these concepts into real-life situations. We got the chance to simulate a mock meeting with proper agenda, and had to write detailed minutes for that. This exercise showed me how difficult it was to write minutes without any error at all, and I now have a new found respect for secretaries! Also, it was a great challenge to put together our written report, but it helped us put our newly acquired skills into practice, such as writing a business correspondence, and how to write in a persuasive tone.

The best example of our verbal communication exercise would be our oral presentation. I tried very hard to relax, but was still pretty nervous during my OP. Subconsciously I kept referring to my notes (which i didn't realise until I saw the video), probably because I was nervous and felt insecure without saying every single word I've written down! :) But I've come to learn that it's best not to refer to the notes. I should be delivering my speech and thinking at the same time, and not just simply regurgitating everything I've prepared.

All good things must come to an end. I really did enjoy myself throughout this course, although there were stressful moments too. I think that I've picked up many practical skills, especially those of writing a good CV and job application letter. These are skills that I could use immediately as I've started to apply for jobs. I had a great tutor and great classmates, and all in all I had an enjoyable time of learning. Kudos to US!

Jaymie's biodata

I am currently a year 4 undergraduate student in NUS, and will be awarded a B Sc. in Life Sciences (Hons) with specialization in Biomedical Science.

I have a passion for sports and journalism, and was appointed President of the Lianhe Zaobao Schools Sports Correspondents Club in 2003 where I was involved in organising a nation wide table tennis tournament. I also spend much time in church, where I am a Sunday school teacher to 5 year-olds and the alto section leader for the choir. I am a self-driven and determined person, striving to always do my best in everything that I undertake.

Looking back at the Research Project Experience

Working together with Mindy and Xue Xin for this research project was definitely an enriching experience. The group dynamics was good, and all of us worked well with each other. I felt that the main reason behind our successful working relationship is our ability to communicate well with each other. No misunderstanding arose during our course of work, and I can safely say that our working relationship has fostered invaluable friendship between the three of us.

As many of you may agree with me, the amount of time we had (1 month) to complete this research project was very tight. We had to do some form of editing or writeup almost every day, and our mailboxes were always flooded with each other's mails. It certainly was a nerve-wrecking period, but my reaseach group managed to stay together and focussed (and sane too!). Everybody showed initiative, and we all pulled our weight.

As for some of the improvements that we can make for our oral presentation, I think we can improve on our formal speech, and use less colloquial language. Also, we could build up our confidence in public speech to facilitate our presentation.

Intercultural Communication

Singapore has an intercultural/inter-racial society, and racial harmony is something she prides herself on. Our social fabric is very delicate, and intercultural conflicts have to be solved with much sensitivity and tact.

Personally, I feel that the first step to effective intercultural communication is to have a clear understanding of the other party's customs, values, accepted behaviours etc. Only when you are able to conduct yourself appropriately before someone of a different culture will you be able to have an effective conversation.

Once, I went for supper with some friends at a popular late night prata shop run by a family of Malays. Halfway through our meal, I saw a Caucasian couple walking towards us, together with a golden retriever on the leash. Dogs are taboo animals to Malays, and of course they were stopped from entering the shop. The couple had some problem trying to understand the Malay waiter's accent and vice versa. The two parties squbbled for very long, and the waiter offered to tie the dog leash outside along the fence while the couple could have their meal. However, the couple was unwilling to do so as they fear for the dog's safety, and insisted that it was alright to bring the dog into the shop. Eventually the couple left without patronizing, and shouted a few unpleasant words they left.

I felt that as Caucasians, they had the culture of "a dog is a man's best friend". They value their dog as if it was their child, hence I was not surprised that they were unwilling to tie their dog outside the shop while having supper. However, I felt that as visitors or immigrants (that I was not too sure of) to our country, they should respect our culture and customs here too. It is in the Malay customs that they see dogs as "unclean" animals, hence they were not allowed in the shop. The Caucasian couple could have compromised by taking away the food instead of eating in, and there was absolutely no need to swear and make a scene too.

To communicate effectively, one has to be sensitive towards certain issues, especially those regarding culture and religion. Also, the fact that both parties could not understand each others' accent well was also a cause for the communication breakdown.

The Science Library should increase the number of textbooks available

Ever had the problem of not being able to borrow a textbook from the science library, especially during test and examination periods? At times, even the RBR textbooks have long waiting lists. I had, and this problem often leaves me perturbed and stressed because I could not refer to the textbooks to clarify my doubts quickly (time is of the essence during examination periods).

Hence, I feel that it is imperative that the problem of insufficient textbooks in the science library should be addressed. The general research question is whether students would urge the library management to increase the number of textbooks made available in the science library. A possible hypothesis could be: Increasing the number of textbooks in the science library would increase students' productivity during revision especially during examination periods.

This is a problem that is close to many students' hearts, and an attitudinal survey should be done amongst science students to gather their views so that a report could be submitted to the library's management and the Science Dean's office. With convincing data from the survey, it would be a strong basis to persuade the Dean's office and the library management to consider increasing the number of copies of textbooks in the science library, so that students would not need to engage in the rat race of reserving and hiding textbooks.

Resolving interpersonal conflict

During the 7 months break between my A' levels and entering university, I was working part-time at an ice cream shop. My lady boss is an incredulously stingy woman who fusses over little things like us(employees) using too much serviettes or scooping too much ice cream for customers.

I remember this incident when a customer made a scene at the shop, which attracted much attention from the public. Everyone who worked at the shop was given strict instructions as to how much ice cream we were to scoop into each cup, and I would say it was not a generous amount. However, as good employees, we adhere to this instruction when we carrying out our duties. There was this particular customer that I served who was extremely unhappy with the amount of ice cream I scooped, saying that I was trying to cheat his money. I told him nicely, with a big smile on my face, that this is the company's policy and I scoop as much for every customer. He continued to shout at me and insisted on having more ice cream. I did not give in, and he eventually started scolding vulgarities at me until the security guards came to pull him away.

The main problem is: he feels cheated because he thinks that $2.80 is worth a lot more ice cream than what I've given him. I, on the other hand, was bound by my boss's instructions and could not give him more ice cream because that would be unfair to the other customers in the queue, unless I decided I didn't want my job anymore and gave all of them generous amounts of ice cream. We could not understand each others' point of view, and neither of us gave in. I felt really helpless, and when he started scolding me with unpleasant words, I felt angry.

On hindsight, maybe I should have just given him more ice cream to appease him. But does that also mean that my job is at stake when my lady boss finds out what I have done? If I had bent over, would I be obliged to give all the customers in the queue a larger serving of ice cream too?

The importance of effective communication

It is not difficult to communicate with others, but how many of us exercise effective communication? Honestly, I don’t think I do. Be it choice of words, speaking tone, or even body language, I often find myself falling short of communicating effectively with others in an engaging and interesting way.

Never did I know that there were so many components in communication until I surveyed the textbook. They can be broadly categorized into four areas, such as active listening, interpreting nonverbal communication cues, building interpersonal communication and fostering intercultural communication. Learning more about effective communication serves a very practical purpose in organizing and expressing my ideas, especially when I should be stepping into the working world soon.

Being an active listener is pivotal, since communication is never a unidirectional process. However, it is always a challenge to overcome the many barriers in active listening, such as mental, environmental, emotional and socio-cultural barriers. Some strategies to active listening could be focusing on the goals and purposes of the conversation and paraphrasing the speaker’s thoughts. I find this very useful because not only can I restate the speaker’s ideas in my own words (which means I understood what he/she meant), I could also check if I got any of the parts wrong.

Nonverbal communication is also an important component in effective communication because they are the little things that our body expresses, sometimes without us consciously knowing about it. I’m guilty of this, because my face is a blank slate and my emotions are usually written all over it! I cross my arms when I’m angry, roll my eyes when I think you’re being ridiculous, and slouch most of the time. These things are awful aren’t they? Developing effective communication skills are therefore important to me because not only do I see them useful in helping me communicate with my colleagues in future, I think it also makes me a better person on the whole.

Effective communication also helps to build relationships, be it with the older or younger generations, with our future spouses, and also with our bosses and colleagues. How you carry yourself in a conversation seems to be the first impression that you give others as well. In a relationship, we’ve also got to be empathetic and sensitive to issues and taboos that come with different ethnic groups. With the “shirking world” due to globalization, it would be inevitable that we would meet people from different parts of the world, hence knowing their culture and customs would enable us to communicate more effectively with them. This also has an immediate application closer to home since Singapore is a multi-cultural society, and racial harmony is something our society values very much.

Identifying the steps to effective communication is the first stage to developing it. Now, it’ll take a lot of conscious effort and practice on my part to try to master them.