Wrapping up on ES2007S

It’s time to wrap up ES2007S, one of the modules that I never regretted taking, even as a year one Engine Faculty student. It has been at least three months since I first walked into my first Professional Communication class, without knowing what to expect. However, it turned up to be a great experience to be in a class led by Ms Fazilah and all my interesting classmates.

Three months down the road, I think I have improved a lot in my communication skills, especially in giving oral presentation in English. It was a challenge to me as English is not my primary communication language within my friends or even my family. However, after attending these three months of lesson, I have learnt how to put forth my ideas in a more effective way. I shall never forget the importance of 7C’s in communication. However, there are still rooms for improvements to be a great speaker who can influence and impact the audience.

The second takeaway is team building skills. The peer teaching session was also a great approach to hone our skills in different areas, such as teamwork building. In the midst of preparing for the peer teaching, I have learnt a lot from my teammate Zu Rong, a final year student majoring in Industrial and System Engineering. He has shared with me about his experience in preparing for a real job interview and also gave me an insight on what to expect in the real working world.

As a whole, I never regretted taking up ES2007S as it has guided me in the different communication aspects. Credits to Ms Fazilah for all your sharings and understanding throughout the entire semester. I am really glad I met all these people and I hope everyone had a great experience just as I did.

Reflections on Oral Presentation

Let me start of with some sharings on my preparation en route to the persentation. My team, Team Kagz met up a day before the actual presentation to do some rehearsing. We did some improvements to our slides and rehearsed on our speeches. I also took note on the things that can be improved as pointed out by my team members. The meeting ended in about two hours and we were all ready for our oral presentation the next day. That night, I practised for quite some time to ensure that my ideas’ flow was coherent with the slides presented on the powerpoint.

Despite hours of  practice, I started to feel nervous the moment I stepped into the class. I was worried that I might somehow fumbled on my speech. I calmed my nerves down by taking a sip of water and let the ideas ran through my mind once more. Knowing that practice makes perfect, I was ready to get myself going during the presentation. When it finally ended,I am proud to day that all the practices and rehearsals paid off. 

Overall, I think that there are a few things I have to take note of when I present. I should not read the words displayed on the slides. Without doing that, I can maintain eye contact with the audiences  and engage them in the presentation. Besides that, tone variation is one of the presentation skills that I did not apply in my presentation. Maybe I should try that to spice up my future presentation.

Here are some of the important things that I have learnt anout presentation and would like to share with everyone.

1.       Slides should not content too many words. Use key words on the slides so that when the audiences see it, they can easily remember them. This can have deeper impact on the audiences compared to lengthy phrases. Remember one of the 7 C’s, be concise.

2.       Pictures or diagrams are much more useful than words. It is true that pictures do say a thousand words. It is also one of the things that audience would like to see.

3.       Statistic is important in presentation. However, these facts and figures do not mean anything unless you link it with something that the audience is familiar with. For instance, when you’re trying to sell an 8GB ipod, tell your audience how many songs can it stores.

That’s all from me. I hope all of you enjoyed Team Kagz presentation. Feel free to let me know how I can improve my presentation as this can help me develop into a more effective communicator.

Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

Understanding and acknowledging the cultural differences between people from various cultural backgrounds is a tool that most of us has to equip ourselves with. This is because we might never know when we will be put into situations where we have to deal with the people outside our community. We must always be aware that what is common to us might be perceived as strange to others. Therefore, knowing and respecting the diverse cultural differences can be just what it takes to avoid unnecessary conflicts.

This topic reminds me of what happened during this Chinese New Year. I was not able to celebrate it with my family back in Malaysia due to the overwhelming response of the air tickets. Devastating as it was, I still took it positively as it was a totally different experience. However, something great actually happened few days later.  One of my hall’s officers actually invited me to her house for lunch during the second day of Chinese New Year.

That day, I reached the place quite early. After several attempts to locate the correct unit, I finally stood in front of the right door, sweating and panting. I knocked on the door several times and to my surprise, an uncle answered the door. Initially, I thought I got the wrong door. However, I was fast enough to catch a glimpse of my officer behind the huge figure. In the midst of feeling relieved, I quickly extend my handshake expecting the same in return. However this was not the case. I noticed there was a change in expression on the uncle’s face, a change as if he was expecting something other than a handshake. Both of us stood by the door expecting a different thing in return. It was that time my officer came forward and whispered into his ears. After that, the uncle shook my hands and left. Throughout that afternoon, I was left wondering what actually happened. Before I left, I approached my officer’s parents and thank them for the great meal. In return, they gave me two mandarin oranges. Only at that instance I realised that it was a culture to exchange oranges during Chinese New Year in Singapore. Before I left, I explained to them that I was not aware of the culture and was really sorry for that.

Although they did not put that in mind, it was definitely something that I would never forget! I learnt that it was really important to know the cultural differences to avoid needless conflicts and misunderstandings.

Job application letter

Gregory Kho Chien Wui

65-82056243

F211, King Edward VII Hall

1A Kent Ridge Road

Singapore 119224

11 February 2011

Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd  

Shell House  

83 Clemenceau Avenue  

Singapore 239920

Dear Sir/Madam,

Application for internship with Shell

I am a Year 1 Engineering undergraduate majoring in Mechanical Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and will graduate by May in three years’ time. I am interested in the above mentioned internship programme offered by Shell.

Throughout my undergraduate study in NUS, I have been actively involved in extracurricular activities. I was the steering committee in various activities, such as my hall’s annual production and also the Overseas Community Involvement Programme (OCIP). Hence, taking up these leadership positions has enriched my university life and developed many soft skills such as effective time management and good interpersonal communication skills. I learned to handle different situations and also dealt with various people. This has helped me to acknowledge the importance of teamwork. I strongly believe that an internship programme at Shell can broaden my horizons and allow me to acquire more skills.

I hope that my qualifications and leadership skills will render me as an ideal candidate for this internship position offered by Shell. I look forward to hearing your favourable response. Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Gregory Kho

Enclosure: Resume

I have also attached the link of the job advertisement.http://www.shell.com/home/content/careers/student_graduate/how_do_i_apply/internships/internships_04042008.html

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

Conflict is part and parcel of our lives.  It is inevitable and one should learn from the mistakes that happened.  It happens anywhere and anytime – at work, at school and even at home. It is so common that one never realize the valid reasons behind a conflict and how one can actually avoid it.  

Conflicts often arise due to misunderstanding, miscommunication and also because of the different beliefs in life. Without handling it properly, relationships can be the real victim, especially when emotions set in. This reminds me of a conflict that occurred during my secondary school years.

                I was very active participating in various kinds of co-curricular activities in my secondary school. I spent most of my time after school getting involved in different projects. It felt wonderful at first, as I had the chance to mingle around with new friends and learn different skills.  As a result, I valued those commitments highly as I worked hard for it. One afternoon, my team mates and I were supposed to set up the venue for the Secondary One orientation. More than half of them failed to turn up. I was frustrated. Coincidentally, my good friend, Aaron came up to me in tears.

“Greg, can I talk to you now? I need your help.”

I was so busy that I hardly lifted up my head and replied, “What is it that’s so important? Can’t you see I am busy?”

Immediately after that, Aaron left without a word. Only then did I realize my mistake.  I did not intend to turn Aaron away.  I needed more time to do my work.  However, due to my attitude, Aaron was unhappy. I almost jeopardized our friendship. Although both of us made it up after that, this incident always reminds me to communicate properly to avoid conflicts.

Effective Communication

Effective communication is a fundamental yet intricate skill that almost everyone in this working world needs to grasp. Four years from now, I will be one of the graduates stepping out of my university and entering the real working world. In the working world, I will be giving presentations during meetings, presenting proposals and communicating with people with various perspectives.

Personally, I think that effective communication plays a dynamic role in shaping my communication skills. I learnt that part of an effective communication is to be able to engage the audience’s attention so that intended messages can be sent across clearly. 

Besides, this course also prepares me by imparting skills that are necessary to secure a job.  Examples are being able to write a resume that portrays my skills to potential employers and also to perform well in interviews. Writing an excellent resume is not just the reason for me to stand out as a more superior candidate. Interviews are important to leave a good impression.

After securing the ideal job, communication skills are further needed in any aspects of life.  In my opinion, communication is an important aspect of my daily life as I interact with different kinds of people every day.  For example, I would need to know how to communicate effectively with a perfect stranger that I might meet when I travel since we come from different social background.  It is also important to be able to communicate without causing confusion or worse, misunderstanding that would lead to conflicts. 

In conclusion, communication is an inevitable part of our life.  It is simply impossible to not master communication skills because I think it is one of the most important survival skills.