Post Mortem

Twelve weeks have past and I have more or less completed this professional communication module. It was a fruitful journey, and I have to admit that I learned a lot from this module. However I digress, so let's get back to the topic at hand.

Have my views on the values of effective communication skills changed since the start of this course? Well it has and has not. Let me explain. I still believe that a key component of having effective communication skill is to get what you want as quickly as possible. This includes wanting to get your point across. It is indeed quite hard to run away from the fact that people learn to communicate effectively because they want to achieve their goal which might require the assistance or involvement of other people.

However, the change in my view is that there is another component that has become equally important. This component is understanding people. Allow me to elaborate. Through active listening, we can learn and gather further insights on certain issues from other people. We can unknowingly pick up new ideas or information that we never would have even dream about.

I personally feel that this is something truly invaluable that I have learned from this course. I am an aggressive person that likes to have people listening to me and agreeing with the points I made. However, from this course I learn that different people have different takes on a similar situation and some of which are indeed better than mine. I learn to listen to them and thus found new angles in approaching a given issue.

Hence, for me personally I learnt that effective communication skills does not always mean speaking appropriately, or giving the correct non-verbal cues or even giving a good first impression. It also involves understanding and listening, and it is only through these that one can truly communicate effectively.

Open Topic: Role Reversal

Ever been in a position where the student surpasses the teacher and become in charge of the teacher? In our academic years this should not occur, but in the working world this is a fairly common occurrence. For me it occurred during my national service stint.

I was to be a Sergeant in my unit, however that promotion would only take place in a few weeks time. In order to prepare me for my future role, I was taught by the men who would be below me in rank about how the unit was run and what task am I suppose to undertake when I gain my rank. They were my teachers so to speak. A few weeks later I got my promotion and was now in charge of the people who taught me everything about how to do my job. The problem that now arises is this, how do you order your teachers to do a task for you? Things that they do not wish to do but nevertheless have to be done.

So how does one go about asking people who taught you everything you needed to know to do your job to do tasks that they do not want to do? For example guard duty, for those who do not know what it is, it is basically standing in front of a gate the whole day and checking people who enters the camp. It sounds alright, however try getting somebody to give up their precious weekend to do this mundane job and I assure you the replies would be hostile.

My friend gave me a very nice solution to this problem. He told me the best way to solve it is to show them that you are one of them and only doing your job. In fact this is something that most middle managers do to get disgruntle employees to do their job, act like they are friends with them and slowly persuade them to do task they do not want to do. This does work, I personally tried it out. However, is this the best way to solve such a problem, or are there better solution out there?

Biodata

I am a 22 male undergraduate in the national University Of Singapore who is currently pursuing a degree in the field of Life Sciences. I have completed 12 years of studying with a 2 year gap between them owning to my national service stint. I am fluent in both the English and Mandarin language and can understand and converse in both the hokkien and teochew dialect.

I am a helpful proactive person that likes to work with various groups of people. I am currently serving the Faculty of Science freshman orientation program under the programs committee. I was also a naval instructor during my national service days as my superiors noted that I possess the necessary leadership skills required to undertake that job. I was also the treasurer and founding member for the business club in my junior college days at Nanyang Junior College. I also represented my school in the nationals of the sir rifle/pistol competition shoot.

I worked for a period of 8 months at Canon Singapore Pte Ltd as a customer service staff after I completed my national service stint, while waiting for my school term at the National University of Singapore to begin. I was complemented by my customers for my service and tact when solving their problems. I was also requested by my manager to return back during my term breaks to work there again.

I enjoy challenges as well as working and communicating with different people to find solutions to various problems. I am assertive and like to bring my point across, but would also listen to various other sugestion before contemplating my next move.

Different Language??

To those of you who have heard this story before please bear with me. For those who haven't, well this situation occurred in Sydney during my summer exchange program.

We were taking a ferry to Manly beach when an Australian man came up to us. He asked us which level does he have to go to board the ferry as there were two levels. To which my friend replied quickly and I quote " Oh both also can lor". The Aussie immediate frown and repeated back the words slowly to us " Both also can lor?" It was at this time when I explain to him with a very bad slang that it was fine to board at either level. He promptly smiled and when on his way, leaving the rest of my group were laughing like a bunch of possess monkeys.

This scenario shows us just how important effective communication is. Even such a short sentence could be misunderstood. In Singapore, Singlish is commonly used and can be easily understood by almost all Singaporean, however we should not impose this cultural norm on others. We took it for granted that everyone would be able to understand what we were saying, when in actually fact only we do.

The look on that mans' face was one of utter confusion and might I add irritation. The words were slightly familiar, but he just could not understand it. Hence, there lies the danger. The ability to offend others, when we impose what we feel is normal when it actually is not. The man could have felt that we were purposely making fun of him, when in actual fact we were telling him in the way that we usually speak. Therefore, we should not expect people to understand our culture, but rather take the time to understand theirs in order to avoid misunderstandings.

Last point that I wish to make even though I have overshot the word limit is this. How should I have replied that man? If we speak like we normally do he would not understand, but if I speak in his slang could it not have offend him too? It might have come off as I was mimicking and poking fun of the way his speak. Like how we make fun of Hong Kong people trying to speak English. So what is the right answer?

Business Correspondence Critique

First up, here is the business letter.

07/02/2009 (Company's letterhead)
MSTR LIM ZHEN LIANG RYAN
231 BISHAN ST 23
#04-07
SINGAPORE,SG 570231

Dear Policyholder

Renewal Notice

Your policy is due for renewal soon. As you have opted to pay your premium via Giro A/c No. DBS *************, we will be deducting the due premium on 26/02/2009.

Please note that if the deduction date above falls on a Saturday, Sunday or Public Holiday, the deduction will be carried out on a prior working day.

You may also like to note that some bank will impose a fee for each unsuccessful deduction. Therefore, please maintain sufficient fund in your account for the deduction.

Policy No : *********** Plan : ********

Renewal Date :21/02/2009 Premium Amount : *********

Life(ves) Insured PLAN TYPE
MSTR LIM ZHEN LIANG RYAN ********

If you wish to increase your existing insurance coverage or consider a new plan for your family members,please contact your Life Planner, CHEN BAOFEN FIONA at Tel No. *********

Thank you for choosing Great Eastern Life.

Warmest Regards

Khong Bee
Senior vice President & Head
Customer Service
The Great Eastern Life Assurance Company Limited

(other ways of contacting them)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The simpliest way to critique this letter with the 7c method is by going down the list. So here I go.

1st C: Courtesy
Positive points:
The letter used positive wording and an appropriate tone, when trying to ask me to pay up.
It also used politically correct terms to inform me what the consequences are if I fail to make payment.

2nd C: Correctness
Positive points:
There are no grammatical or punctuational errors as far as I can see. It uses a formal tone to explain what is happen, what is going to happen and who I can contact to gain more information.

3rd C : Conciseness
Positive points:
It was a direct letter which states what is going to be done as well as when it is going to happen. In fact in just a few words, I manage to gather what this letter is about. ( It wants money and fast)

4th C : Clarity
Positive points:
It more or less links to conciseness, as one can easily tell what this letter is about. Its points are put across in short and clear paragraph and leaves little room for misinterpretation. It also shows a pattern which links up each paragraph.

5th C : Coherence and Cohesion
Positive points:
The letters' idea is linked, and proper connectors were used to join to similar points together.

6th C : Concreteness
Positive points:
It used specific words to bring its point across. It gave data on the exact figure as well as how it is going to happen.

7th C : Completeness
Positive points:
It is complete in a sense that its' purpose was to inform that payment was due and what might happen is the payment was late.

There are very few negative with this letter. This could be because it is only the 1st letter the company sent out to me about renewing my agreement with them. In fact, informing me that a third party would fine me, if I did not ensure I have the necessary amount, was a nice and polite way to tell me to place enough money for them to deduct. I believe that if I withheld payment, a second letter would inform me of the multiple opportunities that I would miss out upon. If not, the insurance agent might just pop by and talk to me about it.

I really could not find much negative points in this letter, maybe a few of you guys could point it out to me.

Trouble in paradise?

This is a story about two best friends. Once upon a time,these two girls (which for the sake of this narrative I shall name Sherry and Kate) weer the best of friends. Nothing could separate them. As they both grew older, boys came into the picture. They both fell for the same guy, but the guy loved Sherry more. Hence, being the good friends that they were, Kate gave up the chase and let Sherry get together with the guy. (Let's call him Jake).

Sherry was utterly in love with Jake, and spent most of her time with him. Slowly, both Sherry and Kate grew apart. One day, Kate saw Jake getting "comfortable" with a girl. Only, the girl was not Sherry. Angry that her friend was being cheated on, she quickly called Sherry to tell her what she just saw. Expecting her friend to be grateful to her, she was shocked that Sherry scolded her, and said that she knew all along that Kate had never gotten over Jake, and was trying to break up their wonderful relationship. Sherry told Kate in no uncertain terms that unless she " grows up and be mature about it", they would no longer be friends.

So my faithful listeners, what would you do if you were in Kate's shoes? Or what would you do, if like me, this problem was place at your feet?

Communication skills

Enjoy the video, shows how important skills about communication. Oh ya it is funny too so enjoy.