The module is officially completed and I would like to take one last opportunity to thank everyone for making this a delightful experience. I must say, contrary to what I mention in my introduction, I am now more aware of my character, limits and strengths.
I would like to thank Ms Happy for giving me the firm foundation of the module and also providing me with the most critical and constructive feedback.
To my blogging group, consisting of Justin, Jing Mei, Khoa and Lakshmi, I would like to express sincere gratitude for the advice you all have spontaneously given me. In addition, thank you all for the insightful perspective you have shown me through your very own blog posts.
A big thank you to Angad and Rayner, my CG1102 group mates, for putting up with my weak coding skills and somewhat crazy ideas. You guys have made me learned what is called active contribution.
To Jun Hao, Nitika and Louis, I have had the most enjoyable presentation ever along with the lively meetings doing our CG1413 project. I vividly remember how nervous we were running around clementi interviewing doctors and even attempting to confront NUS practitioners.
Lastly, the biggest thank you to everyone for making me know myself better.
I thank you all for providing me helpful advice and feedback. I will briefly sum up what I feel about your comments.
Hi Justin,
I appreciate your encouragement. I was initially unaware of my stern tone. It was not until I saw myself arguing in the videoed meetings that I realised this flaw. Perhaps that is why the filmed meeting was so effective. Therefore I would like to apologise to anyone who has had a bad experience conversing with me. I will definitely work on this area from now on.
Hi Jing Mei,
I still am nervous when required to speak in class. What really helped me was my team. We planned what questions to ask together and this somewhat gave every team member a responsibility to voice out queries. Perhaps you could adopt the same technique.
I apologise for the confusion here, I actually did reflect some of my performance as a team member. They are incorporated into all 3 of the criteria. However, I agree that it should have slightly more emphasis seeing that effective teamwork is half of the module’s objective.
Hi Lakshmi,
Thank you for the praises. For the blog posts design, I noted that wordiness has got nothing to do with word length. A lot of words well paragraphed with pictures with headers separating them seem even easier on the eyes than a chunk of text that is not as long.
As for my insensitiveness and directness, I note that it is my most serious flaw that requires immediate attention. I will definitely do the necessary corrective actions.
Hi Khoa,
Your feedback is always frank and honest. This really helped me a lot as I found myself working towards improving on the areas you raised.
Nervousness was a key issue from the start of the module. I did not expect many presentations in this computer engineering course and that coincided well with my shyness. However, this module twisted the nature of the course. There is a popular belief that we will graduate as skilled engineers who cannot speak. I think this module is perfect in preventing us from ending up like that.
Once again, thank you all for your constructive feedback. I will certainly put more effort into the issues raised and hopefully have an opportunity in future to show you my improvements.
I have learnt much. More importantly, I hit the expectations I laid down in my introduction.
In it, I summarised my hopes for this module. They now become part of the criteria for my overall reflection. I will judge myself on the following basis.
I was able to go straight to the point and use examples for clarity. Through this module, I improved further by making effective use of gestures for emphasis. With it, I could express my ideas to my team effectively and efficiently. I learnt to sense which team mate was confused and went on to elaborate further. This proved useful as some of them may be too polite to ask me to repeat.
I noted that my tone was serious sometimes and this made me sound crossed. This is definitely an area to look into in future. The cartoon below summarises another important point.
This text will be replaced
~ Teamwork is sometimes needed to send a simple clear message ~
Being shy in nature made me nervous in a presentation and thus made me appear unconfident. The course made sure I have enough exposure to presentations. Together with valuable reflections and feedback, I slowly overcame my nervousness and showed marked improvement.
All my various teams were cohesive and this overcame many hurdles. E.g. my problem-solving team had rehearsals such that one would speak while the rest commented on the flaws. This not only made every individual better, it made the team excel.
The 7C’s improved my writing and I was able to write formally with government agencies. However, I should have realised that it could also be applied to my speaking skills. Being able to speak fluently would have helped calmed my nerves.
~ Yikes! I almost landed up like this ~
Being shy, I refrained from giving others feedback. This module pulled me out of the hermit shell. Through the blog comments I gave, I understood others better. I appreciated their insightful perspectives and this made me see things differently. Interestingly, commenting others made me understand myself better too.
I should also have given verbal feedback too no matter how daunting it is. I have to be brave enough to see that both positive and negative feedback will always help my friends.
~ I am very sure this is not the scenario in NUS ~
Perhaps the most rewarding aspect is realising I was naturally using these skills in other modules.
There are other important criteria but if I have to prioritise them, I would limit myself to these three.
So am I there yet? Have I accomplished my goals?
Though the road may end here, with my expectations mostly reached, the journey this module has started me on continues. There is no end to learning everything even if it is the ultimate goal. Below is a clip that I thought explained my point pretty well.
~ Is there an end to our journey - the path of learning? ~
Thank you for the encouraging words. I agree with you that time management is important for a presentation. This is especially so in this particular presentation because we have MOH delegates as audiences and we cannot afford to hold them up. I will see to it to ensure time management becomes an important criterion for future presentations.
Hi Justin,
Your opinion on the delivery method is very valuable. My team tried this method in hopes for a creative approach and I am eager to see the reception. You have clearly showed me the problem areas and I think I know how to improve on it. Perhaps in future, this method should see that the rotation occurs less frequently to avoid confusion. Also, the non-speaking members should sit to give the current speaker the attention he deserves.
Hi Jing Mei,
Thank you for pointing out the two main areas which clearly needed large improvements. Regarding time management, it was unfortunate that my team did not have enough time to shorten the script despite knowing we would overrun. As mentioned earlier, this will be a key aspect I will certainly look into. The dress code was another issue that could have been easily avoided. I admit that it was entirely my fault for not matching the formal attires of my other team mates. I will look into this matter with emphasis in future.
Hi Lakshmi,
Your praises are highly appreciated. I will certainly do away with the cards in future. I realised having the flash cards in the first place already gave a bad impression to the audience, especially in this particular case where the audience is comprised of the general public. However, I must ensure that this will not jeopardise the presentation. That is to say, I have to make sure I fully comprehend the topic and memorise the key points well.
Hi Jun Hao,
The idea you suggested to shorten the presentation was good. I realised that there were many examples in our presentation though it was justified that the examples related well to the general public. When compared with other parts of the presentation, the examples were definitely the parts that carried lesser priority and importance and thus should be the first to get cut. We should have weighed the consequences of overrunning the presentation to missing out on the examples.
Lastly, I want to thank you all for the constructive feedback and valuable suggestions. I will keep in mind all the improvement areas and certainly put in effort to work on it.
There are 3 general criteria I used to judge my performance in oral presentation 2. It is confidence, knowledgeandpersuasion. This will be the standard used to determine if I have succeeded in being a good presenter and a convincing persuader.
I maintained longer and more comfortable eye contact compared to my previous presentation and this helped me engage the audience thus aiding the presentation’s objective of raising awareness.
Initially, the pace was erratic with hesitation. It made me appear nervous and without confidence. Thankfully, the situation improved as I regained more confidence along with the presentation flow. More rehearsals with a focus on the beginning could solve the problem.
I had good knowledge of the problem and solution and used them to my advantage. In fact, I hardly referred to the flash cards. This instead became a problem because the flash cards, when gestured about, became a distraction. I should trust myself without flash cards in future.
I was able to make proper gestures when stating a point. It would have been better if I made the gesture fit the emphasis. Some of the important statements should have been made with two-handed gestures to show the relative importance.
I stated the proposal’s effectiveness. However, I could have made the presentation more convincing by showing how the proposal can be effective. This will help greatly in the successful persuasion of the target audience.
I attempted to make some points conceivable by providing simple examples. This gives the audience a very clear picture of the problem and proposal. Future improvements would be to use examples which relate to the audience more relevantly thus engaging them effectively.
I felt that my team did a good presentation especially with the concept of having segmented speaking roles. This showed the audience that every team member was confident and knowledgeable in the subject. The disadvantage was with the difficult transitions, which we overcame with rehearsals. More rehearsals will certainly see a better flow in future presentations.
I just thought it would be a good idea to post my comments for the previous reflection here for easy reading. Thank you all for the feedback and helpful advice. I see that the camera was also a big issue for others. The biggest problem was that the camera was merely capturing flaws that were there only because of the camera, and this shielded the real flaws that we needed to know. However, we should not be afraid of it. In fact, we should embrace it. I also think the camera is a problem that will disappear over time. Like how a stranger becomes a friend, we too will soon be comfortable with the camera. That will then be unleashing the full potential of the camera i.e. to be able to capture our true flaws.
Justin gave me helpful tips to prevent myself from presenting a bored image. I agree that acknowledging others is an excellent method to counter my bad habit. It also shows that we are not just hearing but also listening, processing and providing opinions. To this aspect, I would like to add that we should not however just nod to whatever was mentioned. Acknowledgement means we have to recognise bad ideas or show disagreement too.
Luckshme, my opinion on Angad is that he is definitely not dominating the meeting. He is merely actively contributing ideas which is supposed to be expected from any member. What actually made the contrast was me not doing the same thing. Your comments have showed another flaw of mine. I have to admit that some of my thoughts were indeed suppressed that day. This may be attributed to the camera or the notion that it is the first meeting. This problem of mine will only prevent the team from working to its fullest potential and in turn exhaust my other team mates. I will definitely work on this matter. One method I could think of is to treat Angad’s participation as a benchmark I have to attain. In this way, his strength gives me strength and in turn makes the team better.
Our team will also sit in a better arrangement the next time. The current arrangement makes some of us uncomfortable. Sometimes, it caused me to not understand what was being done at the moment and this wasted time for re-explanation thus hurting the team’s pace.
Finally, I realised that my reflections lack detail in some areas, especially the criteria used in making the judgement. This made some of the real issues stay hidden and made my reflections and the improvements point nowhere. The next time I do a reflection, I will make it a point to first identify the criteria, delve deeper into the issue and provide possibly the more relevant solutions.
I apologise for the late post. I prepared this post earlier in a word document and thought I posted it already. I probably closed my browser too early before the post was submitted fully. It was only after Chinese New Year that I realised it was not posted.
My group just finished our second meeting; and we filmed it down with a webcam. After reviewing the video, I saw some bad habits which I could not have seen otherwise.
Patience is the Key
Whenever another group member is contributing a point and I have something to add on or rebut, I tend to do so abruptly, sometimes even when the member still has not finished his point. I do so because I am afraid I might forget my point if I do not say it immediately. However, this can irritate my group member at times and also make him lose his train of thoughts. I should wait patiently for a member to finish his point so as to enhance the collaboration in the meeting.
Your Body Does Speak
At certain points during the meeting, I would somehow tend to look bored or occupied with some other things. However, I really am not; in fact, it was my way of processing what was being discussed. This can mislead my group members and form a misunderstanding. I also know that this bad habit will require some work to kick out. From now on, I will be more aware of my body language especially when I am trying to think.
Focus with the Camera
During the meeting, I also felt constrained because of the filming process. I realised I spoke less often than the first meeting that was not filmed. In that unfilmed meeting, I spoke louder and I could think and process my other group member’s ideas faster. One improvement I can think of is to make the camera seem like a fourth member. That is to say, we can engage with the camera as if it was an audience. This is can potentially remove the feeling of being ‘watched’.
Overall, I still feel the meeting went well as we were able to make much progress in a shorter than estimated duration.
Imagine a scenario where you are a non-superstitious person living in a terrace house with your family. There is a large tree in the garden which is almost as old as you are. Over the years, it has formed a special bond with your family and it holds many childhood memories for you. Your new neighbour is very superstitious. He believes that your tree houses evil spirits which harms his family. He did confront you once in a calm manner. He made known to you of his faith and how the tree is an omen. However, his request for you to chop it down made you angry instead. Being a non-superstitious person, you especially hate to be influenced by those that are superstitious. However, realising that he is your neighbour, you told him nicely that cannot remove the tree. You even explained how it was part of your family. After repeated confrontations over the next few weeks with no resolution, a tension soon formed between you and your neighbour. It was not long before the cops were involved. As the tree did not cause any negative environmental effects, nor did it exceed its legal territory, your neighbour was left more frustrated than ever. Likewise, your frustration grew when the cops were called in. The second time the law was brought in, your neighbour complained of the leaf litter that fell on his compound. Again, he was left disappointed with the police response. From that day onwards, your neighbour has been collecting the leaf litter and throwing into you compound and this made your vehicle and porch dirty on many occasions. You cannot react as the leaf litter is rightfully yours. The worst situation occurs every evening when your neighbour starts blasting the karaoke system seriously affecting your family life. You knew it was an obvious retaliation. The conflict has certainly grown out of proportion.
You really do not want to be influenced by superstition, much less to destroy an important part of your life because of it. You especially do not want to compromise after seeing the unpleasant actions of your neighbour. However, the noise has taken its toll on your family. Moreover, you fear of much more terrible things he might do in future. What can you do?
I have noted on many occasions, how some people of different cultures adjust their cultural-specific communication methods just to fit or complement another culture. For example, some Singaporeans drop their “Singlish” in front of foreigners. Another case is when we tend to use more hand signs in conversations with people of different accent. It is indeed sometimes a form of respect and a good representation of excellent inter-cultural communication. However, forcing one to change his communication behaviour may not be a worthy sacrifice. For a person to abruptly break away from his communication convention, the main body of his culture, it would sometimes require awkward and uncomfortable attempts. This can lead to the other party feeling uncomfortable too. In some worst cases, other cultures may take it as a negative condescending behaviour of his culture to deem them inferior.
What is more of a concern is the threat to the stability of the person’s own culture. In the efforts to prevent intercultural misunderstandings and to promote better cohesiveness, every culture must first acknowledge the differences. Changing or stooping one’s cultural attitudes is in no way acknowledging the differences; instead, it will only form one universal communication culture which defeats the purpose for intercultural cohesiveness in the first place.
I have spoken in “Singlish” to some foreigners before and they felt irritated. However, this is in fact a good sign of interpersonal communication. His irritated expression was a good feedback to me. I acted accordingly by apologising first and then stating that it is a part of my culture. This in turn became feedback to him, and he understood and consequently tolerated it. The integrity of both of our cultures was intact and we still became good friends.
One’s culture must not attempt to influence another in order for good cultural ties; consequently, one’s culture must not be influenced into complementing another.
Below is just a small clip of how faking an accent in the hopes of making a good impression ends up making a bad one instead.
I feel that having good communication skills is important for me to be able to converse well and convey the correct message. When I was a child, I could not converse well. As such, the situation turned into a vicious cycle. Once, I almost failed a group project due to my inability to converse actively with my group mates. The grades made me sad but the fact that I had caused my group mates to get undesirable grades made me extremely disappointed. The incident made me realize the importance of communication in life. I need it to improve on myself and to help others improve. With it, I understand more about a person and in the process make me more understandable to others. I believe that good communication skills make a smart man look smarter. Communication makes your ideas known to others. What good are brilliant ideas if one cannot see it the way you see it. People have to communicate to not only survive but also flourish. Communication links every individual and every organization together. Communication makes us more human.
However, communication is a cause for misunderstandings. I personally had a bad experience once. My failure to choose the correct tone for an appropriate message turned it into a nasty sarcasm and in turn broke a good friendship. It was that incident which made me realize the importance of having not just communication skills but also good communication skills.
I believe one does not need to have a good command of the language to communicate well. Simple words sometimes do wonders. Two important aspects in communication to me is timing and smiling. Sometimes, not talking may even be the best communication method.
Teamwork
Teamwork is important when complex or large tasks are to be accomplished. I believe that any one man can accomplish any task, no matter how big or difficult it may be. However, what good is accomplishing a task if it takes a very long time or if it makes that person wear out. To finish a task effectively and efficiently, that is what matters most and only a team can accomplish that.
Having effective teamwork is important to me because I do not have all the abilities required for a task to be successfully accomplished. Through teamwork, my strengths complement my teammate’s weaknesses and my weaknesses compliment their strengths. We are thus able to improve on our weaknesses. The teamwork eventually makes the members individually better.
Communication is a necessity for effective teamwork. I believe that without good communication in a team, the team performs poorer than the team members individually.
