Final Reflection- #6

Weeks have sped past and now it's time to bid goodbye to fellow classmates, lecturer and the wonderful tutorial classes which I look forward to each week. I have learnt a lot from this module, especially writing according to the 7Cs principle, formal business writing such as application letter and resume. More importantly, the soft skills such as interpersonal and communication skills honed during this period is priceless. I especially value the constructive feedback that my coursemates have given me on my blog posts and during class activities. Those were honest and sincere feedback which I value and probably will not be able to get elsewhere.

Indeed, the experience of being in a small class of 12 makes learning very effective, furthermore the close bonding within the peer teaching and research project team is something unique to this module. As I have realized, new friendship is a bonus that this module has given me aside from the writing practices and the presentation experience I have gathered.

More importantly, the feedback from my tutor- Ms. Goh is very constructive and encouraging. With her kinds words and honest opinions, I am able to work on my weaknesses and move a step closer to becoming an all-rounder in not just communicating with others but also becoming a confident presenter.

With joyful memories and gratitude to Ms. Goh, I shall end off my blog post here. It is a pity that this will be the last time I post and see comments to my blog (haha), but I believe what everyone has learn from ES2007S will stay useful for life.
Wishing everyone the best for their future endeavors!

Evaluation of Oral Presentation- #5

The Oral Presentation (OP) was quite an experience and it was good to see everyone’s effort pay off. However, there are definitely areas of improvement to be worked on. For my part, I am proud to have delivered the survey results analysis with good eye contact, a voice louder than usual and correct intonation to highlight main points. However, I regret having appeared jittery at the beginning because I could not get the right word to use and I even used repetitive words due to my tendency to re-emphasize on main points. Furthermore, owing to my concern for time limit, I spoke faster than expected but thankfully I became more confident subsequently.

At the end of it, I do find the presentation persuasive especially with the supporting evidence which was put across forcefully to emphasis on the current concern of FOE students thus the need for our module. The data collection and survey results analysis took the team a lot of effort and our proposed ideas were separated into different categories to better the suit the needs of the students as well as to address the different module structure the NUSEU may prefer to offer.

During the presentation, we have brought up several points in an attempt to address the concerns regarding budget, duration etc. of the implementation of the module. The biggest pity is that we exceed the time limit by a fraction which made our presentation appear draggy. Overall, everyone managed to put across the main points of the proposal in an analytical and persuasive manner.

Evaluating Intercultural Behavior-#4

Cross-cultural communication requires knowledge and a conscious effort to overcome possible misunderstandings, this extends to adjusting one's behavior to reach a compromise between two parties from different backgrounds.

I recall an incident which took place during my study trip to Japan 2 years ago: a male classmate was interested in a girl from the counterpart university and asked her out for dinner. As I was seated beside her, I heard the entire conversation. After he asked, the girl replied in an apologetic tone, "chotto...it is…"(but..it is...), but before she could continue, my classmate said, "I am sorry for asking you so suddenly". She replied, "A...daijoubu da" (I am okay). The moment she said that, he went on to said, "Okay! Then I will see you tonight".

Then, I knew my friend has misinterpreted her reply as "It's okay" and thinking that she is fine with going out with him. I knew she was not accepting the invitation to dinner but was instead replying "I am okay" to his second statement. As Japanese tend to be more subtle and do not reject an invitation directly, an apologetic tone is often a sign of rejection. However, my friend did not recognize the initial hesitation as a sign of rejection due to his carelessness in the interpretation of her words. On the other hand, the girl probably felt that he was impolite for interrupting her before she could complete her sentence and that he did not understand her hesitation was a sign of rejection.

From this incident, I realized that effective cross-cultural communication requires not only patience but also careful consideration each others' culture before making a judgment.

Application Letter Critique- Post #3

(Job Description obtained from "Careers in EDB" under "Job Opportunities")


/*Format left out*/


Dear Sir/Madam,

Application for Summer Internship-"Productivity Studies" with EDB

I am enclosing my CV in response to your advertisement for the above post which appeared in on the EDB website dated 22nd January 2010.

I am currently a penultimate undergraduate majoring in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). The reason why I am applying for this post is due to my keen interest in human resource and business management. With my career goal to become a business analyst, I am highly-driven to hone my skills in the area of human capital management as it is the most crucial department of a company. Being goal-oriented, I am currently taking modules under the Business School in Human Capital Management as well as Marketing Management to prepare myself for my future career.

Besides developing my knowledge in Human Capital Management, my passion for entrepreneurship serves as a great motivation in my application for this position. During my term as a judging executive in Start-Up@Singapore 2009 under the NUS Entrepreneurship Society (NES), I was given opportunities to liaise with industry experts and participants from various backgrounds. Furthermore, being the moderator of a networking event with over 80 registered participants has honed my public speaking and interpersonal skills. Through diverse and cross-cultural interactions, I became aware of how foreign expertise can contribute or influence Singapore's economy. After witnessing the diverse pool of talents which gathered to participant in the competition, I am convinced that human capital is the key to ensure the prosperity of Singapore's economy.

As it is crucial to quantify the actual impact human capital has on the development of Singapore's economy, strong analytical skills is required to conduct the study on productivity of human capital. With my industrial engineering background and prior experience interning as a business development executive at a local start-up company-CareerAlbum, I am confident that I have the necessary skills for this position. Furthermore, I have conducted case studies on foreign companies which were offering the similar product and had proposed possible solutions to ensure that CareerAlbum's product remains distinguished and competitive. With prior experience in research and case studies which has honed my patience and meticulousness in data analysis, I believe I will be able to fulfill the requirements of the project during my internship with EDB.

Lastly, I do hope that you will give me an opportunity to be part of the EDB team as I believe that I will be an asset to your team given my strong analytical mind, interpersonal skills and meticulousness in data analysis and past experiences in performing case studies. I look forward to meeting you in person to further discuss what my enclosed resume is not able to furnish.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Yours Sincerely,

Wong Shu Yan

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict -Post #2

To reach a successful negotiation which is a mutual agreement and not victory, emotional intelligence and effective communication skills are the crucial aspects.
One possible method which was taught is to follow the 4 main steps to resolve conflicts:
stop-> listen and speak -> think -> negotiate

Now let us try to apply the concepts we have learnt during class to this situation which I have encountered in university:
(I apologize for the long post but it's necessary in order to elaborate the feelings of the people involved and to complete the entire situation.)

Apple is the director for the events team and she has 2 executives to help her plan a Tshirt design competition.
The events team worked happily together initially but recently, they realized that the response for the competition has been quite poor.
One day Christine told Betty that she wants to participate in competition, but this is against regulation as members of the club are not allowed to participate. Apple heard of this and spoke to Christine, and she found out that her reason was that she wanted the entire department to have a better design.
Apple was in a dilemma, on one hand she wants to uphold the integrity of the competition, but on the other hand she feels that letting Christine submit her design might benefit the club.
Finally, Apple suggested to Christine that she should let someone else that is not a club member to submit her design on her behalf if she does want her design to be considered for the competition, but Christine reacted strongly. Christine wanted recognition for her work.
Apple felt frustrated that Christine kept insisting on her personal submission. The team was in a tense situation and Betty was beginning to complain about the heavy workload that she is handling since Christine has stopped helping.
Eventually, Apple told Christine that the only way she can participate is to quit the organizing committee and leave the team. However, the students in the club protested strongly as it isn't fair that she can do so.
Apple was under tremendous pressure and soon the club president became aware of the situation and has to react quickly to relieve the tension in the club.

What do you think the club president should do in this case? How can he/she help ease the situation?

SY's blog setup Post #1: Communication Skills

Effective communication skills are important for me as I will be using these skills in almost all kinds of events - as long as these events involve people. There are many instances in our life which requires effective communication skills which ranges from casual daily events to formal job interviews and working in offices.

However, effective communication is not restricted to only verbal communication. In the module, we learn about not only the power of verbal communication but also nonverbal and body languages which makes learning about effective communication a complete package. We have learnt about the importance of 7Cs in business writing but its usage can be extended to be used in verbal communication. As mentioned, communication can come in different forms but it can also come in many channels such as emails, letters, phone calls, face to face. I find it important to be aware of what channels to choose under different circumstances as the right channel will optimized the process of sending the message from to the recipient with minimal variance from the intended message and also adequately considering the recipient’s feelings.

Another important aspect of effective communication is to avoid conflicts from occurring. I find it important to be learning about fostering intercultural communication and learning to resolve interpersonal conflicts as these are crucial topics to be aware of in order to communicate in a multi-cultural world today. Very often, the lack of cross cultural competence can result in serious misunderstanding and conflicts and I do not wish for these situations to occur.

In a nutshell, I find it important to combine the power of all forms of communication skills in order to converse effective putting my message across clearly and accurately to the recipient.