I believe that effective communication will help me speak and interact well with others; thereby I can hopefully create a better impression of myself as well as a lasting network of friends.
Communication is something that is needed in every aspect of life. Wherever we go, communication has become a buzzword. In the workplace, team based projects are commonplace now and thus require one to interact and relate well with others.
For instance, during my internship last year, I had to interact with a lot of people from various departments in my company (CTI Chemicals) in Singapore as well as with people from our overseas offices. These people I interacted with most often came from other nationalities and other cultures (which made it interesting and fun sometimes!). However, I am not a very outgoing person, and thus had a harder task of communicating with them at times. These kinds of situations where I have to learn to speak with/present to strangers are only going to increase in future. Therefore, I need to learn to overcome my fear and nervousness.
Certainly, school projects and CCAs have given me ample opportunities to communicate and present my ideas. However, I feel that usually during these occasions, the greater importance of other factors like CAP or “organising an event successfully” eclipsed learning communication skills. Moreover, the fact that I always get into a nervous fit before any presentation after all this time has shown me that I need to work more actively and with greater care on speaking well.
Lastly, I think that anyone is capable of effective communication. We have to learn the tools for effective communication and practise them continuously, with perseverance and an open mind. I think this module gives us an ideal platform to practise those tools.
I find it interesting how we all concentrate on oral communication whenever we describe "Effective Communication." It seems to be the first thing that comes to mind when everyone talks about effective communication. I suppose it's because presentations can't really be modified after the fact whereas written documents can be revised endlessly until they are perfected.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that quite a few of us want to work on being good at presentations and I believe that we will have plenty of opportunities to do so. I do believe that this module is quite apt because we seem to have created a safe space for us to learn by trial and error, and to gain experience.
Hopefully, we'll all be reasonably proficient by the end of the semester.
Indeed Jie Ying, one thing I love about school is that you have great liberty to make mistakes and learn from them. We'll definitely be well-trained through this module. The means of learning effective communication in this module are so appropriate, and there're so many opportunities to practice presenting and writing in class! I just have a hunch, that our semester of practice beats reading 1000 pages in books on effective communication.
DeleteHi all,
DeleteThanks Jieying, yes I have to admit I completely forgot about written communication while writing the post. I shall have to review my post properly next time. Thanks for your comments=)
And having read both of your posts, I think it is great that all of us have taken up a class that we WANTED to take to improve ourselves (rather than core engine modules). With such enthusiasm and willingness to learn, I hope that all of us can learn,help each other and benefit as much as can from the module!
Hi Priya, your language use is fine in general. However, like Jie Ying commented, your reflections did not take into account written communication. I'm sure you have a good understanding of the benefits which come with effective written communication, so I shall not elaborate on this.
ReplyDeleteThanks for being so open about yourself, your internship experience and presentation woes. It's a wonderful thing then, that you took up this module. You may reach greater heights than you ever thought you could, in effective communication. All the best : )
Thanks Jerick! Wish you all the best too! =)
DeleteHi Priya!
ReplyDeleteIt's good to know that you realised what your weaknesses are and strive to improve them! In term of your written communication, I feel that your vocabulary use could be more varied. For example, in the second paragraph you used "interact" three times! You could consider other words or phrases like "talk to", "discuss" or "cooperate". The word "communication" also appeared quite frequently throughout your post. One useful tool is the thesaurus function in Microsoft Word, I tend to use that a lot when writing essays. Hope this helps!
Bokai
Hi Bokai,
DeleteThanks for your comment. Yes, I realise I tend to repeat the word "interact" too many times. I will try to vary my words. I guess the mistakes are more obvious when a third party helps to read it. =)
Hi Priya!
ReplyDeleteApart from not accounting for the written part of communication, I think your post was written fairly well. I can understand what you are trying to convey :) I do agree with you that communication is important for lasting networking. I admire your courage to face your weakness and I believe by the end of the course, you will surely do better! You can do it :)
Thanks Yiqun, all the best to you too! =)
DeleteThank you, Priya, for this generally clear and concise post. I like the way you focus on your speaking skills, and in particular, speaking with member of others cultures in the workplace. That sort of emphasis would seem to be especially important in the multinational/multicultural workplace/society.
ReplyDeleteWhat might make your post clearer is a review of the organization. Your first paragraph seems out of place to me, especially as it is followed by a statement such as "Communication is something that is needed in every aspect of life." In fact, if you imagine that first paragraph at the end of the post, it seems to work better --- or maybe throw it out entirely.
What I feel you might include is a specific example of one of your interactions with an international colleague while at CTI. That would have given more resonance, or depth to your discussion.
Do you see why?
Thanks Brad!
DeleteI can definitely see how a more specific example would have highlighted the need for effective communication better.
I believe that the art of writing a great article depends on how I can convey the main points of the article clearly and concisely. I tend to ramble on sometimes without pin-pointing the main point, which may shroud the issue, instead of clarifying it.
Thanks for your comments. I hope to work on my writing skills better. =)
I would also like to thank you Priya, again without sounding a little derivative after reading all the previous comments. I empathize with you as I have often run into similar situations where I felt my communication skills were not up to par for dealing with the tasks at hand.
ReplyDeleteAbdullah
Hi Abdullah,
DeleteI hope that all of us can reach great heights to become an effective communicator through this course. All the best! =)