Reflection

Earlier this semester, I wrote in my first post on how effective communication skills can help to avoid miscommunications. Time passes very quickly, and son, we would be approaching the last session of the Professional Communication course.

Looking back at my first blog, I have mentioned that effective communication can help strengthen relationships, prevent miscommunications and improves self-confidence. After attending this module, I have a better understanding of effective communication and realized that there is more to just having verbal communication. There are many different ways of communicating with others, for example non verbal communication, body gestures and eye contact. This module has also allowed me to build up confidence in speaking and thus enable me to communicate with others. Moreover, I have learnt the importance of using a persuasive tone during oral presentation.

Looking back at the different assignment that we have done during the course of this module, I have learnt many things. One good example is the writing of formal report. Prior to this course I did not know much about writing a formal report, and needless to say, the different formats of presenting the data in the report and the effective use of the 7Cs. Through this course, I realise that there are actually different tones, formats and styles required in different situations. This skill is beneficial as it could be used in many areas, such as writing a resume.

These skills that I have learnt during this module will be useful in many areas, and even upon graduation.

Lastly, I did not regret taking this module as I had gained much skills and experience from my fellow classmates as well as Miss Happy. I would like to thank everyone who have made this module enjoyable, and Miss Happy for all the guidance and the constructive feedbacks.

Kristin

BioData

Kristin Peh is currently a second year student majoring in Chemistry at the National University of Singapore. She has also attended and graduated from Anglican High School and Meridian Junior college previously. Being a Chemistry student, she aims to make use of the knowledge she has and work in the sector of food chemistry as a chemist. Food chemistry is the study of chemical processes and interactions of all biological and non-biological components of foods.

In the academic aspect, Kristin is an independent and fast learner who has exhibited positive attitude towards learning. Moreover, she is a confident speaker and is able to work under pressure. She is also organised and is assertive in achieving the best results in the shortest time possible. This also means that she is steady and confident in getting her work done effectively.

In addition, Kristin possesses much leadership qualities. She has been actively participating in school activities and held important leadership roles. One such example was that she was being appointed the Operations director of meridian junior college multipurpose co-operative limited. During her term as the operations director, she was given the chance to meet different people from all walks to life. She was also appointed as the Program director of the Science Orientation Week 2008. These opportunities have allowed her to be a team player and be able to lead.

Lastly, Kristin is a pleasant girl whom is proactive and loves socialising with people of all ages. She is also a energetic and spontaneous person. She enjoys travelling to different countries and experience their culture and religion.

Communicating with the elderly.

Firstly, I would like to thank all the commented on my blog post previously. =)

I have never believed in generation gap. I feel that communicating with someone of a different generation is not a big problem as long as you are willing to listen and understand what they are trying to say. However, many may not feel this way. They may feel that the elderly are narrow-minded and conservative. They may nag and scold, and expect their children to always give in to their demands, no matter how unreasonable they may be.

In my point of view, I would certainly agree to this saying of “Give and take, forgive and forget”. No family is free from relationship problems, elderly parents and their adult children should still make an effort to settle their differences and try to accommodate each other’s needs.

Effective communication with older people requires us to first understand them. These elderly ultimately grew up in a very different social-economic and political environment from us. Having brought up in a different era with different values and traditions, they may not be able to fully understand the way we do and perceive things.

Also, the change in social roles, such as retirement, may affect the elderly psychologically. They may feel that they are incompetent, unproductive and thus, having a low self esteem. Such losses in the elderly may lead to social withdrawal and thus affecting the elderly person’s ability to communicate.

There are a few tips that could allow us to improve our communication with the elderly.
1) Speak slowly, clearly and loudly.
For example, if the elderly is suffering from a hearing loss, be patient and speak more clearly. Be patient when listening to them.

2) Respect the elderly person’s background, knowledge and values.
As the life experience of the elderly may vary from us, it is important to let them express their thoughts and feelings, even if you disagree.

3) Listening
Good communication depends on good listening, so be conscious of whether you are really listening to what older patients are telling you.

There is no definite right or wrong when communicating. Communication is not an exact science. One will need to work out the right strategy when communication with the elderly. The communication process in general is complex and can be further complicated by age.

Intercultural Differences

Culture is something that cannot be defined clearly. There are many different ways one can classify culture e.g. politics. In my case, I strongly believe in using the metaphor “culture iceberg” to describe culture. There is much more to culture than meets the eye.

This incident took place several years ago, when I was on a vacation trip in Taiwan during the presidential election. The conflict took place while I was queuing up for my food at one of the stalls at a night market in Taiwan. While I was queuing, one of the presidential candidates, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou, appeared at the night market campaigning.

I heard this male Singaporean making a comment regarding the politics of Taiwan. He said “why are the politics in Taiwan so messy and low-class.” He spoke so loudly that I could hear him despite being at least 2 tables away. All of a sudden, a Taiwanese lady sitting beside him stood up and started scolding in mandarin. She recognized immediately that the guy was from Singapore due to the English that he spoke. She argued that Singapore is just a "puny" country and that Singaporeans have no rights in commenting on Taiwan’s politics. The conflict between the 2 different nationalities started, criticizing each other’s politics, governments, cultural behavior and even on clothing. The conflict ended when friends pulled both of them away, stopping them from carrying on.

At that point in time, I felt that there was a very strong cultural difference between a Singaporean and Taiwanese despite both being a Chinese. The difference in the way we were brought up and taught shapes the cultural behavior, mentality of a person and even the perspectives on politics.

As a Singaporean, I felt quite ashamed yet proud. I felt ashamed as my fellow Singaporean is not sensitive and is unaware of the cultural difference between the 2 countries. Studies have shown that Singaporeans are apathy towards politics but this "culture" does not apply to all countries. Having an active politics does not necessary mean that it is “messy and low-class". Even if he despised the cultural environment in Taiwan, he should have kept the remark to himself. On the other hand, the Singaporean guy debated with the Taiwanese proudly, and had all praises for Singapore. This shows that Singaporeans do have a sense of pride for the nation.

Critique of Business Letter

Sorry for the long letter... Here it goes,

Dear NLB Library Member,

1. Thank you for using our library services.

2. To promote responsible use of public library resources, and to ensure that library materials are available for all to use, NLB will be changing its borrowing policies from 1 April 2009. If you accumulate library fines and fees, this change will affect you. If you return items on time, or do not accumulate fines and fees, then you will be unaffected by this change.

3. Library Policies Changes for (1) Unpaid library fines and fees and (2) Renewal Charges
From 1 April 2009,

-All library members with any unpaid library fines and fees in their account will have their borrowing privileges disrupted until ALL library finds and fees have been settled.

- However, to enable library members to better enjoy our services, books and magazines can be renewed for FREE from 1 April 1009. The current renewal charge of $0.50 per book/magazine/music score will be removed from 1 April 2009.

a) Books/music score can be renewed once for an additional 3 weeks loan period.

b)Magazines can be renewed once for an additional 2 week loan period.

c)Audio-visual materials will continue to be non-renewable die to their limited collection size (no change).

d) All your borrowed items must be before or on the due date. Items which have been reserved by other library users cannot be renewed.

With this change, we will encourage borrowers to return library items promptly, so that resources can be made available for others.

4. Library Fines and Fees in your account.
As of 15 January 2009, you have a total unpaid sum of $4.35 in your account. We request you to settle these immediately so that your borrowing privileges will not be disrupted on 1 April 2009.

5. If you have already paid, please ignore this letter.

6. Should you need any help, please contact us:
Xxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxx

7. We look forward to your continued visits to our libraries.

Thank you
Yours sincerely,
N Varaprasad (DR)
CHIEF EXCUTIVE
NATIONAL LIBRARY BOARD
______________________________________________________________

After reading through this letter, I feel that this can be classified under a bad news letter applying the indirect method. The method of writing can be easily detected when it states the reasons for the change in the policy of unpaid library fines and charges, and giving the details to show that such changes will benefit all other library members.

As this is not a letter between companies but to consumers, I feel that it would be more appropriate to use the indirect method. If a direct approach method was used, the message may invoke strong reactions from the recipients and may be considered as being rude to the consumers.

Looking at the template of the letter, I feel that there were too many sub-points to the letter especially at point 3. This may cause the readers to be confused with what are the more important points in the letter. This also does not match with the 7Cs of effective communication on conciseness, using the least number of words to present the ideas.

For the 4th point, it was mentioned that "We request you to settle these immediately..." This is an inappropriate usage of words and tone. Using the words "request" and "immediately" are too blunt. Thus, it would be more tactful to rephrase the sentence to "We strongly encourage you to settle these fines as soon as possible, to avoid disruption in your borrowing privileges."

Applying the 7Cs in effective communication, I feel that this letter is generally well written fulfilling the rest of the 7Cs and the template of a letter.

#2 Resolving Conflct (Real Situation)

This happened when I was working in this tele-survey company during my holiday. My duties were to make appointments to do a survey through the phone. As I was considered sensible, I was made to work with the program coordinators, and was soon well-liked among the workers. The conflict started after I entered the company.

Jenny, one of the program coordinators, could not handle stress. She gets worked-up easily, and will then vent her anger on others. During lunch, she would complain about her work to her best friend, Jason, who is overall in-charge of the company.

Jason, unlike Jenny, takes his work seriously. However, he is hot-tempered and fierce. Other workers in the company will always not approach Jason for help.

Dawn, a permanent worker, is a happy-go-lucky person. She does things in a relax manner, and will slack as and when she likes.

The conflict started when Jenny insisted that Dawn was not doing her work (making appointments), as she was supposed to. Instead, she uses the telephone to call her boyfriend. Jenny also pointed out that Dawn would fake the survey results in order to achieve her target of completing 6 surveys a day. This made the progress of completing the project stagnant. Jenny, easily stressed, complained this to Jason.

Jason was furious, and confronted Dawn straight after lunch, in front of everyone. Dawn retaliated, saying that what Jenny told him was not true. Jason was angry as he thought that Dawn did not feel apologetic and retorted back still.

Tension between the 3 started, and I was stuck in the middle, being close to both Jenny and Dawn. Who should I believe? What should I do to make the atmosphere less tense? Though I left the company not long after, I was asked to go back and help out. Should I go back?

Effective Communications

Have you ever been misunderstood by someone? Or have you ever misinterpret what others say, and thus causing a conflict? Well, I have and therefore, I can fully understand the importance of an effective communication.
I have always believed that effective communication can be learnt, and that it has many benefits in our day to day life.
First, effective communication can help to strengthen relationships. For example, as a baby, you have learnt that crying out loud would actually bring about your parents attention. Then when you are an adult, you will understand that effective communication will allow you to communicate better with your friends, colleagues and family members.
Many may also agree that effective communication can also prevent miscommunications. Pearl S. Buck, a famous American writer once mentioned, “Self-expression must pass into communication for its fulfilment”. In the past, I may tend to speak frankly, not bothering to think about whether the things I say would hurt other’s feeling, or cause a misunderstanding. But now, I would try to think carefully about the message that I want to relay, and phrase it using clearer words to prevent misunderstandings. Even with friends, miscommunications can occur easily, moreover when dealing with opposite sex. As mentioned in the class, I believed this is exactly the cause why the book “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus” is so popular!

From my point of view, i feel that in order to communicate effectively, we must first understand and realise that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and thus use this understanding as a guide.

Lastly, effective communication improves self-confidence. I always remember those days when I’m still a child in primary school. I would always cry and get very nervous when I’m placed in a strange place with people that I do not know. I feel uncomfortable when speaking to them, and would try all I can to avoid those conversations. But as I grew older and able to communicate with others, even strangers, I noticed an increase in self-confidence. I became more confident when dealing with different people and is more able to express myself clearly.

“Communication - the human connection--is the key to personal and career success.” Paul J. Meyer once mentioned. Communications is indeed ineludible. Communication can link people of different races, landuages and cultures together. This is beneficial, in no matter your personal or career life.

FiRst entRy

mY blOg~!!! :))))