Blogpost #6 : Final Reflection on ES2007S Professional Communication

The 13 weeks have passed so quickly as usual. Now I am very sure that I did not make the wrong choice to take this module during the bidding period last August. This module has taught me a lot, from simple communication with friends who are of a diverse nationality to communicating with authoritative figure in the real world. I believe the basis to all relationships is having an effective communication that enables us to express ourselves exactly as we intended to, eliminating possible misunderstandings and assumptions that could easily breed discontentment and disharmony. This has become an important issue today due to increasing economic integration and interdependence of countries.

These 13 weeks have equipped me with the skills of writing, the 7Cs that we have always emphasized. Easy as each C seems, to master them really take lots of practice and effort. However, I believe that it would be worth the effort as these are skills very relevant to us when we move on to the working world where everything is not as structured as they are in school. My application letter, resume and interview skills could make or break a potential career I can develop with a company. Oral presentations provided me with great experience and opportunity to evaluate and fine-tune my presentation skills.

Blogging and using the wiki platform helps me to gain more exposure on the tech-savvy world today. Blogging can widen your horizon when readers give feedbacks and share their very own experiences with you. It allows me to reach a huge global audience where we are all inter-connected via the internet.

In a nutshell, I have benefited immensely from this seminar-styled learning experience on Professional Communication. Lessons have been fun-filled with a wide variety of activities arranged for us and we are given the opportunity to freely express ourselves during class. My biggest take away would be the way I should communicate with people all around me, which is the fundamental of building strong relationships.

Finally, I would like to thank Ms Lim for her constant guidance and patience in bringing us through this module. It was indeed a very enjoyable class I had, together with all my course mates. Thank you all! (:

Blogpost #5 : Reflection on Oral Presentation

Team Intern-a-holics proposed for an improvement in the NUS Life Sciences curriculum via Internships. This blogpost is an evaluation of myself as the first presenter on Introduction and Background.

In terms of preparation, I feel that I have done the necessary research to present to the audience some background information that is simple yet essential in helping them to understand our delivery. For example, an overview of the Life Sciences Industry is important to illustrate the importance of Life Sciences sector in Singapore’s economy and the pressing need to do something about our curriculum to groom future talents. However, given only 20 minutes of presentation time, I could not elaborate on importance of internships to the audience to help them see how exactly our proposal is going to work out and what the timeline looks like. This may end up leaving them confused about our proposal.

In terms of delivery, each point from each slide is progressively revealed to prevent audience from reading off the slide when I present. Hence, focusing their undivided attention on what I have to say. Further, I have tailored the presentation in such a way that it relates to and persuades our main target audience, NUSEU, to endorse our proposal. However, there are definitely areas for improvement because the link from increasing internships to propelling NUS towards one of the world’s leading universities may not be strong enough. This is evident from the Q&A session where a member of the audience requested for clarification again because she still cannot see the link between increasing internships and NUS being at the top. I have to increase my volume when presenting as it may be too soft for audience at the back to hear. Unfortunately, I would be too pre-occupied with content delivery to be self-aware.

Survey results are illustrated using a variety of methods like pie-charts and bar charts. I believe such visual aids enhanced the understanding of the feedbacks from NUS Life Sciences undergraduates. Percentages that I want to highlight are in large font sizes to emphasize its importance. Different colours are used to highlight the main word or phrase that is important as well. However, it would be better if I can add in a video to engage their attention more.

In all, I feel that there are many areas I can work on to improve my delivery. Tone variation and facial expression to display enthusiasm is very important to engage the audience. Hand gestures are too little because I tend to put them in front of me in a 'waitress-like' position, only occassionally gesturing when I realised that I was not doing so.  

Blogpost #4: Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

Culture is a shared system of values, beliefs, attitudes, expectations, language and norms of behaviours that characterize a group. When we expect people from different cultures to encode and decode messages differently, there would be a high chance that misunderstandings could arise. It is therefore essential that in any intercultural communication, we have to first acknowledge the presence of cultural differences in terms of assumptions, thoughts, actions and expectations they have.


Let me illustrate an intercultural situation here:


This scenario happened during my involvement in an overseas expedition project. Our team consists of 18 Chinese and 1 Korean student. All of us speak a common language- English. However, during some of our group discussions and team bonding sessions, I noticed that many of the Chinese students tended to unintentionally switch to mandarin all over the place in their conversations. I suppose that is the usual and comfortable ‘Singaporean’ way of conversing with friends. Unfamiliar lingos used by us would often return a blank face from the Korean girl. Unfortunately, the feelings of this Korean student were inadequately taken into consideration because she could not understand mandarin and hence was able to grasp the full meaning if we spoke in that unique manner.
 

Although I tried prompting the rest to speak in English several times, I realised on many occasions that the Korean girl would start to look away and appear uninterested in the topic or start to use her handphone. There were times when she just walked off to the restroom in the midst of casual chats among team mates. On other ocassions she would join in the conversation of another group who were speaking in English instead.

I felt guilty about the team not being culturally sensitive enough to someone from a different culture speaking a different language. Being afraid of upsetting the Korean girl, I very much wanted to tell off some individuals for not putting in the effort to respect other’s existence by speaking in English and not to be ambiguous in describing ideas. However, I chose to hint them instead because I believe many of them are used to speaking in a mixed variety of languages and even dialects in one sentence.  

For the Korean girl, I guess she felt irritated, helpless and isolated every time we do this unintentionally but was being polite not to ask us to translate everything in English again. There could easily be misunderstandings of us trying to ignore her existence or dismiss her off as unimportant member. In addition, the lack of response from the Korean girl may incorrectly come across to us as being uninterested in our topic of discussion when in fact she could not understand what we are saying in the first place.

In a nutshell, I think that in intercultural communications, we have to be self-aware and also mindful of the differences in norms, values and languages. Perhaps the Korean girl was kind enough to pretend that she was not neglected and still keep a smiling face but we have to constantly remind ourselves that it is rude and disrespectful to behave in the way we did although unintentionally. This would then create a warm and supportive environment for all, where effective communications would definitely result!

Blogpost #3: Application Letter

Job Advertisement

Website: http://www.jobstreet.com.sg/jobs/2010/8/d/20/2349903.htm?fr=J

Advertised:25-8-10
Closing Date:24-9-10

Established in 1972, DSO National Laboratories (DSO) has evolved from a three-man laboratory into Singapore's foremost applied R&D organisation with more than 900 research scientists and engineers under its wings.

Guided by our primary focus in defence R&D, we strive to enhance the military capability of Singapore by assimilating new technologies and generating indigenous ones to give the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) the decisive edge on the battlefield.

We also aspire to be a National Laboratory that stands ready to respond to the nation's defence and security needs. One of the competitive advantages of DSO today is that we have - within the same organisation - a potent mix of disciplines and expertise that is unique in Singapore and which we can quickly bring together to address national problems.

DSO's achievements came about, not by chance but through sustained investment, sheer determination, passion, drive and perseverance. We have been, and will continue to be, committed to providing the best R&D value proposition possible to our customers and partners.

Mission Statement: DSO's mission is to develop technologies and solutions that can provide technological surprises to sharpen the cutting edge of Singapore's national security.

Vision: Our vision is to be a wellspring of technological knowledge, a fountain of innovation and an inspiration to the R&D community in Singapore.


Position: Immunologist/Bacteriologist
(Singapore)


Responsibilities:


• You will be part of the research team in studying host-pathogen interactions in human diseases.


Requirements:


• Bachelor Degree (with Honors) in Life Science
• Knowledge in bacteriology and immunology required
• Experience with animal work and/or flow cytometry is preferred


Job Application Letter:

Blk 111 Bukit Batok Street 22
#18-***
Singapore 650111
(65) 91******
Email- nwylucinda@gmail.com

September 5th, 2010

Dr Ang Kiam Wee
Deputy Director
DSO National Laboratories
20 Science Park Drive
Singapore 118230

Dear Dr Ang

I am interested in applying for the advertised opening on 26th August 2010 at www.jobstreet.com, for an Immunologist/ Bacteriologist to be part of the DSO research team in studying host-pathogen interactions in human disease.

Based on the requirements stated in the job opening, I believe that I have the necessary credentials supporting this position. A BSc. degree in Life Sciences (Biomedical Science) with honours, from the National University of Singapore, has equipped me with a solid foundation in biological concepts and relevant exposures to laboratory techniques. Modules such as Microbiology, Immunology, Bioinformatics and Experimental Molecular and Cell Biology, was completed with good grades in addition to acquiring knowledge of the following laboratory techniques:

* Bioinformatics (Dry Lab)
* Microbiology Techniques: Sterilisation, aseptic techniques, inoculation, incubation
* Immunodiffusion Assays
* Immunoelectrophoresis
* Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)
* Direct/ Indirect Haemagglutination

Relevant qualities I can contribute to the research team includes being a good team player with successful team-building experiences, effective communicator with good interpersonal skills, well-organized, meticulous with details and having a continued strive for innovation.

The enclosed resume contains more details about the above mentioned, as well as other experiences.

This job opening offers an extremely great opportunity to be part of a prestigious research team in the Defence Science Organisation with an excellent reputation. Hence, I will definitely be committed to the research team with utmost sincerity. I look forward to having an interview with you.

Thank you for your time and consideration.



Yours Sincerely,

(Signature)

Neo Wan Yan Lucinda

Blogpost #2 : Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

Question: Have you ever had a real interpersonal conflict situation?


Lucinda: The words ‘interpersonal conflicts’, brings back a roller coaster ride of emotions for me personally. I believe interpersonal conflicts are complex in itself as there could be many factors contributing to it, some of which I could be unaware up till this point of time. Of course I would like to have these conflicts resolved eventually, instead of leaving a deep scar on me for life.

Let me just share my story.

Background: I had a very close group of friends right from Secondary three, where we spent a lot of time together. One particular girl, Z, whom I know since secondary one, went on to the same Junior College as me! Of course I was extremely happy to know that we were in the same class. We had common interest in playing tennis, joined the school tennis team and even went for coaching sessions together.

Issue: Just as I thought things were only going to get better for us, the events took a change in direction. I started to realize that Z is actively trying to avoid any contacts with our group of old friends. She would find reasons not to attend our birthday gatherings, said she was too busy to have short dinners to catch up with us and even start to avoid our calls and messages. I really had no idea why she did that, but I do note that Z became very close with new found friends who are either very good at their studies or are from very rich families. She would borrow many notes from those with good results and hang out with them very often. That is when I started to feel her drifting further apart from our group of close friends. Although her actions were very obvious that she is over and done with, with regards to her group of secondary school friends, I still tried to get her involved in our activities as much as possible. Try as I might, things did not improve and I started to feel helpless in mending this relationship that is going nowhere.

Then it happened yet again, the same exact situation, applied to the current clique of friends in Junior College. The awkwardness between us continued for weeks, months and eventually ending up one day in a snap where she simply decided to walk off to join another clique in class from then on. We tried to have a confrontation but ended up too overwhelmed with emotions to talk about the real issue. That was apparently a very clear signal to an end in our precious 5 years of friendship. I was exhausted in the one-way effort to salvage the situation, hence I accepted it.

Perhaps people change and it is normal that they move on? Perhaps Z was more focused on her studies at that point of time? Perhaps that is her character? Perhaps I was not proactive enough in maintaining a friendship? Perhaps I was an ineffective comunicator? Where was the root of the problem? Unanswered questions and questions were running through my mind.

I would like to sum up with a little question for readers: Do you think this is an interpersonal conflict that could really be resolved?

Blogpost #1 : Why effective communication skills are impt for me?

In the module ES2007S Professional Communication, we will get to learn the essential fundamentals of communication so that we will emerge to become very effective communicators with good interpersonal skills that goes a long way in life!

Q: Why effective communication skills are important for me in the globalised society today?

Thoughtsb0x: When we go about doing our daily activities, we are inevitably engaged in communications, whether knowingly or unknowingly to us! (: Communication is therefore a very integral part of our lives and all the more we must ensure that these communications are effective ones in order to maintain good relationships with others and to get us where we want to. We communicate with higher authorities, with fellow peers, with new people we meet, with family members and even self-talk with ourselves.

Take for example: At more formal level when I need to apply for a job/internship with corporate companies, I would have a stronger edge over other fellow applicants if I am able to use the right words, convey my message across clearly/effectively and present myself well during the very impressionable interview session. This is the important stage that potential employers assess whether to give me a chance to work in their company without looking at my actual capabilities at their particular field yet! So, YES effective communication is exceptionally important to get me to my goal.

Take another example: At a more informal level when I need to communicate with friends. It would be disastrous if my tone/ non-verbal cues are such that they give my friends the wrong meaning as I originally intended! Repeated ineffective communications would strain our relationship and eventually misunderstandings could lead to quarrels and the breakdown of one precious friendship!

In a nutshell, I strongly believe that to communicate effectively is the way to a fulfilling life that is under my own control (: