When I first signed up for this course, I was a little apprehensive. At first glance, I thought it was a very rigid and boring module. However, after the first lesson, I had a very different impression. I felt that this module was going to be fun and a good experience.
The most important take off that I had was the ability to communicate effectively. I have always felt that communication was the most important factor in all relationships be it friends or family. This module has allowed me to learn more about communication especially with people we are going to work with in the future. Being trapped in the academic world is very different from working life especially with how we deal with interpersonal relationships. Most students learn from a fresh new experience after they start working. This module has allowed me to have a head start and therefore a more valuable individual capable of working better with other colleagues in the future.
Through proper lessons planned by classmates, the knowledge of effective communication has been imparted properly to me. However, this module is not only about passive learning. Taking this to a higher level, what we learned in these lessons were put to practise for the projects of peer teaching and group presentation. Effective communication allowed me and my partner Shu Yi to have an efficient way during our planning for the peer teaching session. There was no hiccups at all and everything went smoothly. As for our group presentation, it allowed the 4 of us, Xiaoping, Jonathan, Yixin and I to have fluid sessions. We recognised each other's strength and weaknesses and put them to fit our roles.
Overall, I feel that I have learned a lot from this module and I hope to be a better person in communicating with others.
Finally, I would like to thank our tutor, Madam Fazilah for her wonderful mentoring as well as my awesome peers from this module for a truly wonderful experience. This may be my favourite module of all time in NUS.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Reflection on Project discussion
It has indeed been a long time since I last had a project. I daresay at least 5 years ago since "Project Work" in year one of my junior college. Compared to working with a group in JC, it was a whole new experience. It was definitely more mature in terms of content and ideas. These 6 weeks of planning together with XiaoPing, Jonathan and Yixin has been quite an eye turner.
One of the difficulties we faced was time. Since we all had different timetables and commitments, it was very difficult to get a time whereby we could all meet. In the end, we had to sacrifice some of our personal time during public holidays or off days from school just to meet up. Moreover, we dont live near the same area so we had to come back to school for our project meetings.
The second difficulty was that some of our ideas were conflicting, it took us at least two sessions before we finally decided on the scope of our proposal. However, we were all quite mature and after much consideration, we concluded our topic.
One interesting experience i personally encountered was working together with a foreign exchange student. We tried to improvise around our proposal with her. Being a foreign student, she was not very sure about our transport system in Singapore (part of our scope of our proposal). Moreover, her English was not very fluent therefore we tried our best to translate some of the information in mandarin for her to help her understand better. What I took back from this experience was that we were flexible and played everybody's role to the fullest.
What I felt that could be improved upon was that we could have made use of technology such as skype to do some of our plannings instead of wasting precious time going back to school. I felt that since technology was already there, we should make use of it instead. Maybe if there is another project in the future, I may recommend to my group members to use it.
Overall, I managed to make use of our earlier lessons on effective communication and understanding other people into practise with my group mates. It was an enjoyable project and it was overall successful.
One of the difficulties we faced was time. Since we all had different timetables and commitments, it was very difficult to get a time whereby we could all meet. In the end, we had to sacrifice some of our personal time during public holidays or off days from school just to meet up. Moreover, we dont live near the same area so we had to come back to school for our project meetings.
The second difficulty was that some of our ideas were conflicting, it took us at least two sessions before we finally decided on the scope of our proposal. However, we were all quite mature and after much consideration, we concluded our topic.
One interesting experience i personally encountered was working together with a foreign exchange student. We tried to improvise around our proposal with her. Being a foreign student, she was not very sure about our transport system in Singapore (part of our scope of our proposal). Moreover, her English was not very fluent therefore we tried our best to translate some of the information in mandarin for her to help her understand better. What I took back from this experience was that we were flexible and played everybody's role to the fullest.
What I felt that could be improved upon was that we could have made use of technology such as skype to do some of our plannings instead of wasting precious time going back to school. I felt that since technology was already there, we should make use of it instead. Maybe if there is another project in the future, I may recommend to my group members to use it.
Overall, I managed to make use of our earlier lessons on effective communication and understanding other people into practise with my group mates. It was an enjoyable project and it was overall successful.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Intercultural Communications
"Communication-the human connection-is the key to personal and career success" Paul J Meyer
Living in an inter-racial cosmopolitan island such as Singapore, intercultural communications is as important as learning to speak in more than 1 language. This is especially so due to the influx of foreign students and immigrants increases as part of the government's policy to solve the aging population issue in Singapore. Moreover, due to globalization, it is a norm for many people to work abroad in a totally different environment. Intercultural communications, both verbal and non-verbal is important so that both parties do not face a misunderstanding due to a difference in culture.
Being an avid traveler, I have been to many countries in 4 of the 7 continents. Unlike many of my peers, I have learned many of these foreign cultures by experiencing them first hand instead of through media. This really helps me cope with many friends who are not from Singapore and for these 22 years of my life, I have never faced any miscommunications or misconceptions due to the difference in culture.
Today's story, I would like to talk music as a form of intercultural communication.
Since young, I have always been wanting to go to Japan after watching all the anime and playing video games from Japan such as Pokemon, Digimon and Final Fantasy. The chance came when my Junior College symphonic band decided to go to Japan on an exchange trip to learn more about their music culture. During the 1 month preparation I had, I tried to learn the names of my favorite sushi, dons and all the delectable food I can get in Japan. The band even tied up with the travel agency for a few lessons of basic Japanese taught to us by our tour guide. Then, I thought to myself, what could go wrong? We have a tour guide to translate to us if there is a need. In the past, all I ever thought about intercultural barriers was just the language itself.
We had band exchanges with 3 schools, 2 of their high schools and a college. At first, it was really awkward as most of us do not know Japanese well. Some of my band mates are also avid "otakus" but we are only able to speak very simple Japanese. Moreover, the Japanese students only knew some simple English terms. Therefore, there was a communication barrier between students of two different countries. Luckily, one of the students managed to get hold of an electronic translator. Things got a little easier as we managed to understand a little of what each other are talking about now.
However, what was even more interesting was about to unfold. We had a combined band practice whereby we played songs that students from both countries knew. It was so amazing that students from two totally different culture and speak different language could get together through music. While playing, it finally dawned on me that music was an international language. No matter what language the title of the songs were in, the melody brought us together.
After the practice, we started talking about the composers, the songs we like and when the Japanese students did not understand the title of the songs in English, all it took was for me to play a stanza of the song and they immediately knew what I was talking about.
From this trip on, I never took music lightly as I did in the past anymore. I treasured the "international language" as I know that wherever I may go, music will always bring about musicians from different language and culture together.
Living in an inter-racial cosmopolitan island such as Singapore, intercultural communications is as important as learning to speak in more than 1 language. This is especially so due to the influx of foreign students and immigrants increases as part of the government's policy to solve the aging population issue in Singapore. Moreover, due to globalization, it is a norm for many people to work abroad in a totally different environment. Intercultural communications, both verbal and non-verbal is important so that both parties do not face a misunderstanding due to a difference in culture.
Being an avid traveler, I have been to many countries in 4 of the 7 continents. Unlike many of my peers, I have learned many of these foreign cultures by experiencing them first hand instead of through media. This really helps me cope with many friends who are not from Singapore and for these 22 years of my life, I have never faced any miscommunications or misconceptions due to the difference in culture.
Today's story, I would like to talk music as a form of intercultural communication.
Since young, I have always been wanting to go to Japan after watching all the anime and playing video games from Japan such as Pokemon, Digimon and Final Fantasy. The chance came when my Junior College symphonic band decided to go to Japan on an exchange trip to learn more about their music culture. During the 1 month preparation I had, I tried to learn the names of my favorite sushi, dons and all the delectable food I can get in Japan. The band even tied up with the travel agency for a few lessons of basic Japanese taught to us by our tour guide. Then, I thought to myself, what could go wrong? We have a tour guide to translate to us if there is a need. In the past, all I ever thought about intercultural barriers was just the language itself.
We had band exchanges with 3 schools, 2 of their high schools and a college. At first, it was really awkward as most of us do not know Japanese well. Some of my band mates are also avid "otakus" but we are only able to speak very simple Japanese. Moreover, the Japanese students only knew some simple English terms. Therefore, there was a communication barrier between students of two different countries. Luckily, one of the students managed to get hold of an electronic translator. Things got a little easier as we managed to understand a little of what each other are talking about now.
However, what was even more interesting was about to unfold. We had a combined band practice whereby we played songs that students from both countries knew. It was so amazing that students from two totally different culture and speak different language could get together through music. While playing, it finally dawned on me that music was an international language. No matter what language the title of the songs were in, the melody brought us together.
After the practice, we started talking about the composers, the songs we like and when the Japanese students did not understand the title of the songs in English, all it took was for me to play a stanza of the song and they immediately knew what I was talking about.
From this trip on, I never took music lightly as I did in the past anymore. I treasured the "international language" as I know that wherever I may go, music will always bring about musicians from different language and culture together.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Resolving Interpersonal conflicts
"Conflict is the engine that drives interpersonal and organizational growth" - Mark Umbreit
No two person are made entirely of the same genomes, not even twins. Everyday, we get to meet many people and because of how vast and complex our human mind works, we are bound to run into some personal issues along the way. Even within the people we meet each day, especially our families and loved ones, there can also never be everything that everyone can agree upon.
There have been many conflicts that I had been into but this particular conflict has impacted the most in my life and had taught me lessons that would continue to help me till now.
Being heavily involved in school activities as well as my social life, I was considered a very busy student in my junior college days. I was a flautist of Nanyang Junior College Symphonic band and we had band practices up to three times a week. Moreover, I was an alumni of Montfort Secondary School Military Band and I went back to my Alma Mater every Saturday to teach my juniors. Not forgetting that I was also giving tuition lessons to my juniors who needed help in their studies. So that comes down to being only free on Sundays. However, Sunday is family day. This means that my schedule was totally full every single day.
As all junior college students know, Project Work was the most tedious and time consuming subject for year 1 students. What made it worse was that everybody had different schedules and it was very difficult to find a day for the whole group to sit down and discuss our proposals.
What frustrated me the most was that I could not bring myself to drop any of my schedules. Firstly both bands were having an upcoming concert and skipping practices would mean that I would miss out on whatever the bands were rehearsing. If i were to stop tuition lessons, my juniors' studies would most likely be affected to. I finally made an unfortunate decision, to miss out on my group work.
Being inexperienced in handling such issues, I gave excuses time and again to my group mates about my busy schedule and expected them to handle my share of work. My group mates tried talking to me about prioritizing the project before my other commitments. However, I stood to my own reason and shrugged off their comments.
The last straw came when band practice stretched till late at night nearer the performances. I did not even have the time to complete the drafts and proposals on time. That was when my group mates could not take it anymore. They confided in my teacher-in-charge about this problem and had her talk to me about this.
At first, I was really fuming because I felt that this was not a situation of poor time management but I couldnt help it as my timetable was really packed. However, after being threatened to meet the principal, I reluctantly agreed to put in more effort in the project.
After letting me cool down, she then talked to me and told me that it was my responsibility to fulfill my primary role which is a student in the school and everything else comes second. She also mentioned about my group mates having to carry an extra burden because I was not present most of the time. She brought light to my eyes as she explained how busy everyone was but still managed to squeeze out some time for the group.
In the end, I had to speak with my band teachers to leave the band temporarily. Luckily for me, my group mates were very understanding and they had put this issue aside. We managed to achieve an A grade in the end.
What I learned from this issue is that conflict happens to us all the time. Regardless whether it involves just two person or a whole group, it can be easily resolved if everyone takes a step back. A conflict is like two sheep on both sides of the bridge wanting to cross it at the same time. If nobody takes the initiative to let go, both sheep would get stuck in the middle of the bridge.
Lastly I would like to ask all of you a question I had been asking myself many times. If you were to be in my scenario 5 years ago, what would you have done?
No two person are made entirely of the same genomes, not even twins. Everyday, we get to meet many people and because of how vast and complex our human mind works, we are bound to run into some personal issues along the way. Even within the people we meet each day, especially our families and loved ones, there can also never be everything that everyone can agree upon.
There have been many conflicts that I had been into but this particular conflict has impacted the most in my life and had taught me lessons that would continue to help me till now.
Being heavily involved in school activities as well as my social life, I was considered a very busy student in my junior college days. I was a flautist of Nanyang Junior College Symphonic band and we had band practices up to three times a week. Moreover, I was an alumni of Montfort Secondary School Military Band and I went back to my Alma Mater every Saturday to teach my juniors. Not forgetting that I was also giving tuition lessons to my juniors who needed help in their studies. So that comes down to being only free on Sundays. However, Sunday is family day. This means that my schedule was totally full every single day.
As all junior college students know, Project Work was the most tedious and time consuming subject for year 1 students. What made it worse was that everybody had different schedules and it was very difficult to find a day for the whole group to sit down and discuss our proposals.
What frustrated me the most was that I could not bring myself to drop any of my schedules. Firstly both bands were having an upcoming concert and skipping practices would mean that I would miss out on whatever the bands were rehearsing. If i were to stop tuition lessons, my juniors' studies would most likely be affected to. I finally made an unfortunate decision, to miss out on my group work.
Being inexperienced in handling such issues, I gave excuses time and again to my group mates about my busy schedule and expected them to handle my share of work. My group mates tried talking to me about prioritizing the project before my other commitments. However, I stood to my own reason and shrugged off their comments.
The last straw came when band practice stretched till late at night nearer the performances. I did not even have the time to complete the drafts and proposals on time. That was when my group mates could not take it anymore. They confided in my teacher-in-charge about this problem and had her talk to me about this.
At first, I was really fuming because I felt that this was not a situation of poor time management but I couldnt help it as my timetable was really packed. However, after being threatened to meet the principal, I reluctantly agreed to put in more effort in the project.
After letting me cool down, she then talked to me and told me that it was my responsibility to fulfill my primary role which is a student in the school and everything else comes second. She also mentioned about my group mates having to carry an extra burden because I was not present most of the time. She brought light to my eyes as she explained how busy everyone was but still managed to squeeze out some time for the group.
In the end, I had to speak with my band teachers to leave the band temporarily. Luckily for me, my group mates were very understanding and they had put this issue aside. We managed to achieve an A grade in the end.
What I learned from this issue is that conflict happens to us all the time. Regardless whether it involves just two person or a whole group, it can be easily resolved if everyone takes a step back. A conflict is like two sheep on both sides of the bridge wanting to cross it at the same time. If nobody takes the initiative to let go, both sheep would get stuck in the middle of the bridge.
Lastly I would like to ask all of you a question I had been asking myself many times. If you were to be in my scenario 5 years ago, what would you have done?
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
A big welcome
A big welcome to all my readers, especially to my ES2007S friends and tutor!
Thank you for spending some of your precious time to hover over my blog.
I want to say that although we have only met once during the first lesson,
I feel that this is going to be the most fun lessons I am going to have in my entire NUS education.
I do wish everyone all the best for their own blogs and with the help of everyone,
lets make this module a memorable one!
Thank you for spending some of your precious time to hover over my blog.
I want to say that although we have only met once during the first lesson,
I feel that this is going to be the most fun lessons I am going to have in my entire NUS education.
I do wish everyone all the best for their own blogs and with the help of everyone,
lets make this module a memorable one!
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