Final Reflection

Looking back on what I wrote for my very first blog post, I see that my views on the importance of effective communication have not changed much. I still view it from a very pragmatic standpoint and feel that effective communication is a very good tool to help you win that job.

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I think I have achieved my aims in taking this module. I have learned how to write more effectively. My business/formal letters are better constructed, and my choice of words has become even more tactful. I have always suffered over how to politely phrase request and Mrs Richardson’s teachings have greatly helped me in this regard.

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As for face to face communications, I guess the module has helped me to an extent in helping me understand myself as well as others. The old bad habit of speaking before I think still persists, but in a lesser form. I guess nothing sort of constantly reminding myself of the lessons I have learnt in this module will help me kick this habit.

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On a more personal level, I have also greatly enjoyed this module. I have made many new friends, and have enjoyed interacting with them immensely. Especially Fabian and Woei Perng, who have been very understanding of the various commitments I have in my honours year. They have been highly accommodating of my eccentric schedule and have taken up the slack whenever I could not keep up. In turn, I also hope that I have not disappointed them =). All the best to everyone in this class, and may we always treasure this semester that we have shared together.

Biodata

Wan Liang is currently an undergraduate pursuing his last year of studies at the National University of Singapore. He will be graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering (Mechanical) specializing in Offshore Oil & Gas Technologies with 2nd Lower Class Honors this coming July.

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He enjoys the challenges posed by engineering problems and derives great satisfaction from devising novel solutions to tackle these problems. Additionally, he has found his passion in repair work and original equipment manufacturing in the Oil and Gas industry after experiencing a successful and enjoyable internship with Cameron (Singapore) where he was heavily involved in the firm’s engineering operations.

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As a 3rd Sergeant during his National Service, he is also no stranger to leadership. He is an effective leader who communicates effectively with his team and is always impartial in his decision making. He is also familiar with organizing large scale events having been posted to the National Cadet Corps during his National Service, where he helped organize events on both the national and international level.

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As a member of his alma mater’s alumni band, he also understands the value of teamwork. Being a person of diverse interests who works well both in a team and alone, he also likes to play soccer, floorball, board games, computer games as well as swim, read and cook in his free time.

A Confrontational Attitude

One of the main reason why I am taking this course on Professional Communication is because of a comment I received from a tutor a few years ago. I felt that taking ES2007s would help me address this feedback which I had received, on top of helping me with my job search and such.
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I received this comment from my tutor for my HR2002 (Human Capital in Organisations) class. My friends and I had just finished our presentation for our group project and just as she had already done with the preceding groups, our tutor pulled us aside to give us her feedback on our presentation. During this little feedback session, she mentioned that I had handled the Question and Answer section quite well. It was obvious that I knew my material and I was well prepared for the questions that were coming from the floor. However, she said that the way in which I had tackled the questions was too aggressive and confrontational in nature. She said that the content of my replies was perfectly fine, but the way I delivered it challenged the floor to throw up more questions regarding my group’s work. This resulted in us having one of the longer Q&A sessions.
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Personally, I actually had felt quite happy with the Q&A session. I was able to tackle all the questions and felt that I had answered them well. I was however puzzled with how the class had torn into our project, asking piercing questions like, “Don’t you think you survey sample size is too small?”, “Your report ignored that particular response. Why?” Our tutor’s feedback enlightened me as to the cause of all that. Unconsciously, I had been too defensive and taken every question as a sort of challenge to be answered, and moved too aggressively to tackle them, maybe unintentionally putting people’s backs up and inviting further questions. In fact, I spoke too often before thinking through my response. Thus I saw a need to improve my communications skills in this aspect, or at the very least be more aware of the stuff that’s coming out of my mouth and hence I took up this course.
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What about you? Have you faced a similar situation before?

Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

The Incident

My brother-in-law, S, and I had gone out to a neighborhood store to buy some groceries. (Now, to give a little background, S is a local Malay, approximately a decade older than me. S is very much a family man, mild-mannered and devoutly religious. ) When S joined the queue to pay for our shopping, a Chinese man stood behind him. From his dress, mannerism and speech, this man was very obviously not local. S started to get very irritated at the Chinese man as the queue moved on. The reason being his close proximity to S. In fact his shopping was poking into S’s back and sometimes when he shuffled his way forward or turned himself, he also bumped into S. Finally, S could not take any more of it and turned to the Chinese man and said, “Excuse me, you’re getting into my personal space. Could you not squeeze so close to me?” Upon hearing this, the Chinese man grew very red and looked very embarrassed. He held his hand up in front of him and backed off a few steps.

Interpretation

I think the differing views about personal space lies at the crux of this scenario. The Chinese man obviously came from a culture where personal space seems to be much more limited. He seems more used to smaller distance between people than S. This conflict between cultural norms obviously irked S. While I think S had managed to effectively communicate his discomfort to the man, I think he could have done it with more understanding. But then again, S must have really felt very strongly about this to react so harshly. This also shows how conflict between cultures can be a barrier to effective communication. The closer/more important a cultural norm is to an individual, the less likely he would react rationally (or at least coolly) when he feels that that norm is being infringed upon.

Business Correspondence Critique

HOUSING DEVELOPMENT BOARD
Our Ref : xxxxxxxx
Date : xx/xx/xxxx
Fax : xxxxxxxx
Email : hdbsales@hdb.gov.sg

Dear Sir/Madam

APPLICATION FOR ADDITIONAL CPF HOUSING GRANT
SALES REGISTRATION NO. XXXXXXXX

We refer to your application for the Additional CPF Housing Grant (AHG).

2. We have received your documents and are currently processing your application for the AHG. We would inform you by a separate letter of the outcome of your application for the AHG in about a month’s time.

3. However, if you have selected a flat under the Build-To-Order System (BTO), your application for the AHG would only be processed when HDB has confirmed to proceed with the construction of the flats. We would inform you again of the outcome of your application for the AHG about a month after HDB’s notification letter to proceed with the construction of the flats.

4. Meanwhile, if you have any enquiry, you may call me at xxxxxxxx during office hours.

Yours faithfully
[signed]
LO AI LING GLADYS (MS)
CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER
for HEAD, SALES OPERATION UNIT
ESTATE ADMIN & PROPERTY DEPARTMENT

My analysis:
The letter is coherent, concise, courteous and clear. There are no convoluted sentences and the meaning gets through easily. The paragraphs flow easily as transitional words are used and makes for easy reading as well. The information also seems complete in the information it should give. This should be the case as the letter is from a government agency and it is conveying critical information affecting a significant financial transaction (buying a house). There should be little room for doubt on the recipient’s part.

However, the concreteness of the letter is not very strong. They are unable to give a specific time frame for completing the processing of the application, using waffling words like “about”, but this could be due to the fact the letter in question is probably a stock letter.

Lastly, the correctness of the letter may be called into question. There seems to be a grammatical error whereby the future subjunctive form may have been incorrectly used, for example in paragraph 2 where is it stated that “we would inform you”.

In conclusion, I feel that the letter is rather well written in that it fulfills its function well, providing the recipient with all the knowledge he needs. It could be improved though by using more specific information. This would give greater reassurance to the recipient.

Resolving Interpersonal Conflicts

I was assigned a graduate student who would oversee and advise me on my Final Year Project due to my inexperience with the subject matter involved and the relatively high level of technical difficulty. This supervisor is a research-based engineering graduate student from India.

Communication problems between the two of us began at the outset of our working relationship. I could only understand about 75% of what he said due to his accent. With my difficulty in understanding him, and the highly technical nature of my project, I therefore frequently asked him to repeat himself in order to seek confirmation. This seemed to really irritate him. He would start to raise his voice, click his tongue, grimace or jab his finger really hard at the table. I read his frustration and irritation and therefore often did not clear my doubts thoroughly with him for fear of increasing his agitation. This of course lead to several misunderstandings between us and served to further irritate and frustrate the both of us.

To further exacerbate our problem, 2 other incidents occurred.

Firstly, the professor in charge of my project had failed to inform me that he would like weekly updates on my project’s progress. Thus when I failed to report to him for a few weeks running, he started complaining to my supervisor. This of course made him slightly antagonistic towards me.

Secondly, my supervisor is in charge of arranging the work schedule for the various students using the laboratory but he was not doing his job well. There were many instances of scheduling conflicts where two students turned up for the same time-slot and only one could work. This caused me to waste a lot of time and undermined my efforts to do my research. My project fell behind schedule as a result and I became very unhappy with my supervisor.

The conflict between us is still on-going and needs to be solved in order for both of us to do our jobs well. What do you think is the crux of our problem? What would you do if you were in our respective shoes?

The Importance of Developing Communication Skills

There are no grand reasons and no altruistic motives behind my need to build up my communication skills. Rather my need is based off of pragmatism and well, personal gain. As a student graduating this semester, I think the most important reason for me to develop my communications skills is to look for a job.

While this is stating the obvious, business communication skills like resume writing and interviewing techniques are important as it is through them that potential employers gain their first impression of you. Resumes give employers an impression of your abilities while interviews give employers an impression of your person. Neither of these may be a true reflection of your true self/worth but it is based off of these that potential employers build their impression of you. And most employers base their hiring decisions on that first impression alone. Hence, a good command of these skills will have won you half the battle. It will give you an edge over the competition, something which is all the more important given the economic situation today.

Beyond that, improving my interpersonal communication skills is also important to me on a personal level. Doing this will hopefully lessen the occurence of conflict in my personal life and improve my relationship with my loved ones. This is important to me as I prize harmony in my life over all other things. I hope to improve the quality of my life with a greater ability to communicate effectively with my loved ones.