Final Reflection

This course has thought me the theoretical aspects of effective communications. Yes indeed it was put into practice in some of the class discussions and assignment, i believe that I would still need lots more opportunity to help me put whatever that was taught in the classroom into good use. Nevertheless, the entire period of 12 weeks has provided me with ample opportunities for growth. I have to say theses are important foundations that will be beneficial to me in the future. 

Learning along the ways all these little techniques and tricks to interact effectively with my peers and tutor and the soft skills of writing my application letters and CV has provided me to have an competitive advantage among fresh graduates. Since I will be graduating next semester, I could use the current CV and application letter that I have scripted to apply for the job that I wanted right after my exams.

In addition, I was given many chances to speak freely during group discussions to present my views and stand about a variety of issues. I do hope that I would not forget all the values and techniques that I have acquired from my presentations and perform even better if an opportunity arises in the future.

To sum up, I am glad I have chosen Professional Communications as one of my modules as it is very relevant and would ease me in doing my office administrative work in the future. On top of that, I have met many valuable friends and classmates from my tutorial group.

Bio Data of myself

CHIA WEE SIONG, ALVAN

I am self-motivated and enthusiastic about the different array of life skills. Being a natural social observer, I react carefully to different circumstance. Therefore I mix well with my peers and have grown to learn proper management of my emotions and time. In addition, I am naturally talented in Mathematics and have shown such traits during my school days. Eventually my journey as a student will provide me with a Bachelor of Science (Statistic). Nature is what makes me very comfortable; therefore I have been participating actively in outdoor activities like cycling, sport climbing and mountaineering. Also always passionate in the creative arts, I have explored many areas in Arts, especially in the field of dance.

Reflecting on the Research Project Experience (Blog Post #5)

For this post, look at Appendix 2 of the skill builder Documenting Reports 6: Peer Review. Use the questions there as a
guide for writing about one aspect of your learning experience, be that your success in teamwork, communication amongst
your group, problems encountered, etc.

After you have read your blogging group classmates’ posts, comment on each of their experiences and, in the light of your
own experience and understanding of the process, present a reaction to what you have read.

The past few weeks of working together in a team of three have been pleasant. First, I was glad that I got to do the project with students whom I am familiar with. In fact, I knew my group members even before taking the module; hence the whole experience was more comfortable. Of course, there is a saying, "We can be friends, but when it comes to work there would be a greater potential risk of disagreement".

Indeed, there were certain conflicts along the way, for example, the initial disagreement with our research topics. Initially, we split the project into three sections for us to do our individual research. What I truly learn was that, although we work individually at first, when we came together to share our ideas, we also input our views and comments. This way, it would make the whole project more coherent; and for me, it created this sense of ownership over the entire project.

I also grew to learn how to effectively work with my teammates. In a group, communication is the essence of how things will move along. I had to change my tone of speaking when we were having discussion in order to have a more productive session. The whole experience was so different compared to how I communicated with my teammates usually as friends. Conversations became more formal and serious. Emphasis is now on communication professionalism. Such a conversation technique would be beneficial to me in the future when I enter the workforce.

One of the major weaknesses of the whole group is that we got drifted away quite easily, therefore i have to learn to be more discipline and focus.

Hall Culture

When we talk about culture, first mental picture will be about culture being associated with the different races. It is can be seen widely especially in a multi-racial country like Singapore. On top of that, we experience culture differences everyday wherever we meet or work with new people. Well perhaps I would like to describe my culture shock when I was first introduced into hall life in NUS (National University Of Singapore). One word to describe mine experience – “crazy”.

It was a total culture shock to me, who never lives in a hostel before in my whole life. Luckily, most of my seniors I met were very friendly and concern. Culture was so different because the hall was like a mini world of its own. It is like an organization/ school by itself that functions independently, with different variety of department like committees that we can participate. These include committees from Cultures groups like Dance, Choir & drama to Sports like floorball, tennis and roadrace. Reason why I said it was like a mini organization is because the Hall itself has enough committees to support all its events. Other committee includes marketing committee, welfare committee, Hall affairs committee and Hall promotion board. I was very disturbed at first by the culture of residence being encouraged joining at least 3-4 of such activities. I felt as if I was enrolled into a company. Subsequently I grew to like such a culture as I meet many wonderfully school mates along the way and the whole process of participates does not seems to be like a commitment.

On top of that, I was amused by the block culture in my hall. My hall consists of five different blocks, which have about 100 residents in each block. They had this “Open door policy” which encourages everyone to open their doors wide open whenever we are in our room. The whole floor would be like an array of open rooms like what I often do in our home (I never closes our doors until we want to sleep). On top of that, there are activities organize by the block committee, for example block supper, which was totally new to me. It is an event where most of the block resident will gather together to cook around 10 dishes ourselves for supper on the rooftop. Such array of activities and beliefs were so different to me and I can truly said that after living 2 years in hall, such culture experiences cannot be really describe in words but one would really need to experience hall life to really believe that it is truly “crazy”.

Web Link for survey questionnaire

Dear friends,

Would appreciate if you do spend 1 minute of your time to do our survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=AKzDUtlMLaAN0vFUEsVk4Q_3d_3d

Regards
Alvan

The importance of education

How important is education in Singapore and how will it facilitate us in our working career? In Singapore, our government often emphasizes a lot on education. Our parents and teachers always preach that education is essential and beneficial. It is even a criminal offense for parents not to enrol their child into primary school education.

For the past 15 years of my life, I have been studying in different education intuitions. I suppose I have the right to give a comment about the importance of education. Although many of us feel that we do not really use or apply most of our textbook knowledge in our daily life, through education, it really matures me as an individual. It is the process of projects and assignments that groom us to become a more wiser and smarter person.

One question I have on my mind is what is the optimal level of education one must obtain before entering the working industry. Optimal meaning one would be able to find an acceptable job and a reasonable salary. I found this very interesting especially if we look at this issue in the context of Singapore, where people always laments about the job market being saturated with degree holders and fresh graduates. Hopefully through surveys and interviews, I would be able to have a more general perception of how Singaporean values education, linking it closely with their career and also the ideal education level that is expected of an individual.

In the "box"

Different individuals have a set of values that is more important in their life. The way we look think of ourselves and how we judge our actions is always slightly unique and different from others.

Let discuss a hypothetical example. Imagine yourselves being as a Father having to wake up in the middle of the night after hearing the crying of your child. One would have two options. Firstly you can get up and attend to your child and. This way you are doing it for honour and pride - because it is your duty as a father. The other option is to wake your wife up. You will be doing this because you think you have already worked hard in the day and it is the duty of a mother to take care of the child. In the end, a quarrel might occur and both parties will feel that they are correct. To me this is called self deception - it is when we are doing something wrong yet we think it is justifiable.

Next let me share one of my real life interpersonal conflict situation that happened recently. I am the organizer of a concert in NUS, when we are planning to sell the tickets there were certain interpersonal conflict that occurred. In fact there were two different schools of thoughts. My vice president felt that it is the responsibility of all members of the club to help sell at least 2 tickets for the concert but I felt that since they are not part of the concert, they are not obligated to help sell the tickets. Surprisingly, when we discussed the issue with other students, I discovered something very strange. Majority of the males had the same view point as me, and majority of the female felt differently. I feel that male tends to accept the imperfection more then females.

When we do things as a group, there would be different interests and ideas, inevitably leading to conflicts. We need to learn to be more open by sharing our thoughts. Not everyone can accept the facts and problem that would occur. Some people speak without thinking, while some may be self-centered, some with lots of ego and others stubborn. I feel that we should always remember to be humble and deal with our conflict systematically. It takes two to pick a fight. Below are some points which I took out from an organisation behaviour book which I felt is very interesting.

Reasons for not sharing
1.) Don’t want to hurt/embarrass the other person
2.) Emotion / feelings are not appropriate for the setting
3.) To preserve our image
4.) Wait to see what unfold
5.) Concern about repercussion
6.) Maintain the relationship and not spoil it
7.) Fear what you say might be use against you
8.) Quality of the relationship

Learning disabilities
1.) I am my position
2.) The enemy is out there
3.) The illusion of taking charge
4.) Fixation on events
5.) Parable of the boiled frog
6.) The delusion of learning from experience
7.) The myth of the management team

Group Guidelines
1.) One conversation
2.) Listen to understand
3.) Suspend judgment
4.) Ask question to clarify
5.) Surface the assumption behind you