the end, the beginning

Finally, it comes to the end.

And I am glad at least I made the sentence above grammatically correct. From peer teaching to project proposal, I finally found myself a way to deliver messages more clearly: preparing a script as if you do not have one.  The thing I would not forget for all my fellow presentations is: when you are not familiar with the precise words used in the topic, draft the script before going for the presentation. Even though a presentation without a script makes one more professional and nature, lacking of script sometimes leads to the wrong choice of words on the site. That’s one of the shortcomings in my presentations, as reflected from the peer teaching session as well as the trail run for the proposal presentation. With the reminder from Ms Goh, I drafted a script before the real presentation, and as a result, even though my choice of word is still not excellent, the language improved a lot from the previous ones. There are other shortcomings reflected from the presentations, like the repeating of the word “actually”, and the poor pronunciations thus there is large room for improvement. On the other hand, I find that the good thing about me is that I am now more confident in the way I deliver a message with the tone as well as the gestures that used to involve the audiences. The pace of the speech is quite good now, as least people do not hear nervous from it.

As for the performance of the group, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Peh Kar Liang and Mr. Chung Wing Tai: without you, the learning outcomes for this module would not be so significant. You taught me how to manage the work more efficiently, how to make fast decisions and how to use everyone’s strength in a cooperative work. Overall, I think we have made a very good team. For the presentation, we managed to convince the audiences that our project will work. Even though the first presentation to Ms Goh was rather messy and meaningless, we handled the emergency case very well and the second draft of presentation turned out to be much better. During the presentation, we did involve the audiences throughout the 20 minutes presentation. Even though we may not have convinced the audiences at the senior offering help in the forum part, this could be backed up if we found examples from the Linux community. Nevertheless, we have done the job excellently given the time and manpower constrain.

And guys, last words for you two: start to use Endnote now and trust me, you will not regret it.

As for the Professional Communication, the module itself, I must admit that my expectations for the module are quite different from the learning outcomes for the module. My initial attention is to take a module that can improve my English proficiency, which turns out, that this is just a minor objective of the module. I never expected to learn how to perform in an interview, how to use a wiki platform etc, yet they are among the main objetives of the module. However, I am not very regreted. I observe myself through the learning journey, and find my strength for comuncation is the ability of paying attention to details and observing the speakers, and to combine the information I get with the big pictures. The ability to work in a team remains a strength. However, my proficiency in communication is still largely limited by the language. The grammar mistakes, wrong choices of words and the inadequat pronouncations are huge blocks on my way. And these will not be improved through one or two modules but need a long term practise. Just be patient, and pay more efforts.

With all these messages in mind, I believe I am prepared to move on to my next journey. A big thanks to Ms Goh and my dear classmates, and I wish you all a happy and sucessful life in the future.

Homosexuality, do you dare to touch the topic in public?

During my exchange in UBC, Canada, I had run into an embarrassment where I did not know how to responds to the topic of homosexual. That was during one of the pre-project discussions when we were trying to get familiar with the group members. The guy I was talking to suddenly says, “No, I am not living in school. My boyfriend and I rent an apartment nearby.” I was a bit shocked at that time, and did not know how to respond. I tried to twist the conversation to another topic and pretended I feel nothing strange about what he said just now. I was not sure whether my behavior was proper and for the rest of the conversation, I tried to observe whether he felt offended by my ignorance. Luckily, he seemed not. Nevertheless, for the rest of the project, I treated him with great care when the conversations went into topic such as Valentine’s day or boyfriend/girlfriend. I cannot stop by thinking, what should I say or behave when I face the same topic again when go to work later?

To be frank, I did not have any problem with the fact that one was homosexual; indeed, I was a bit curious since I never met any homosexual couples before. However, as an Asian, I never heard people talk about her/his homosexual partner in public. The topic seemed to be sensitive and private to my knowledge. I know in BC, Canada, homosexuality was protected by law and people accepted them naturally. However, even sometimes in US, the most freedom country, we still heard that homosexuality was against by some religions or the older generation. But the westerns seemed to be better at observing whether people were open to the topic or should avoid it during conversation. In contrast, Asians were trying not to mention it all the time. But how long can we continue to ignore the topic?

Application Letter

D422 Ridge View Residence

25 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore

(+65)91213760

U0706375@nus.edu.sg

Feb 12, 2011.

Apply for full-time teacher at Raffles Institution (Year 5-6)

Dear respective HR manager,

I am writing in response to your recent recruitment of full-time teacher at Raffles Institution (Year 5-6). I believe my broad-based scientific knowledge and presentation skills make me an excellent candidate for this position.

I am currently a candidate for Bachelor degree in Engineering Science Program and expected to graduate with first class honors. As you may see in my attached transcript, I built up a strong knowledge for the natural science modules including advanced calculus and mechanical motion. This would be a solid foundation for the career as a teacher, especially when the students in Raffles Institution have high standard of education. During my undergraduate years, I had used my knowledge to instruct my project partner (from other department) on the various theoretical backgrounds. My friend always found my explanations to be clear and easy to understand, even though they did not have the background. During one of my summer vocation, I joined an active listener training program where I learnt how to do both active listening and peer consulting. These experiences have trained me to have better understanding of an instructor as well as teacher.

Being a daughter of two teachers (my father is a mathematics teacher and my mother is an English teacher), I always find teaching is a rewarding career. As a teacher, I can continuously expand my knowledge and refresh my idea through the interaction with the student. I can learn from them the same time they learn from me. Students at Raffles Institution are the top talents for the society and my skills and knowledge will enable the students to fully maximize their talents and be valuable members of our community.

Enclosed are my resume and transcript that provide detailed information about my background. I am excited about an interview opportunity from you and hope I can join Raffles Institution soon. I can be contacted at (65)91213760.

Yours sincerely,

Ke Cangming

Resolving interpersonal conflicts

the BEST?

In a design project, we were allowed to form a team of five on our own. My friend was invited by one of the best students in the class to form a group with three other students all of whom were known for good results they obtained in previous project modules.

After joining in the team, my friend found that her teammates seemed to be too ambitious of the final grade of the project, and were not enjoying the learning process. All of the team members were told to keep their designs in secret and sometimes could lie about them when being asked. She herself, however, felt the grade was not the only important thing and this action would lead the team being isolated from the rest of the class. When she expressed her opinion during one of the project meeting, her teammates thought she was not handling the project seriously as they were. Despite this was just a school project, in their mind, it should still be treated as those we might face in the real workplace where only the best project proposal could win the deal.  They could not reach an agreement and after that, my friend found herself being repelled from the team. She was very upset about the situation. However, no matter how hard she tried to get involved in, the tasks assigned to her were never to be core ones. What can she do?

why effective communication skills are important for you？

When asked to do question and answer sessions during presentation, I am always extremely nervous. For most of the time, it was not due to the uncertainty of my knowledge with the topic, but was because of the afraid of being misunderstood. I would wonder whether my choice of words, gestures, facial expressions can help in my explanation. In my opinion, to convey the message in short time using the most succinct words, like other communication skills, is one of the most difficult yet important skills that could represent a person.

We are interacting with people and exchanging messages all the time, ever since we born. To many of us, communication with others is instinct that we even do not realize the power of using it skillfully. We sometimes say too much during a conversation and lose the focus point; sometimes our voice become too tense in a public speech that the fear could not be covered by the sounding manuscripts; or sometimes we are so used to have emoticons in a message that accidently convert a formal report into a dairy. Most of all, we sometimes are just too confident in the way we express ourselves and interpret others (which are admitted, have been used for so many years), that we could not realize that one chance of being promoted in the workplace has been missed during our conversation with the boss. In one word, communication is an art that if used properly, it can do things more than convey a message.