ES2007S is one of the very few modules in NUS that forge such close bonds among the students. I felt this closeness very strongly during the presentations. Knowing that how the presenters for that day would tend to get the jitters in front of an audience, some of us threw in a few jokes here and three to ease their nervousness. I guess all of us had mastered our non-verbal cues after 13 weeks of ES2007S.

What I enjoyed about this module was that I had the chance to present myself to an audience through physical interactions (e.g. the oral presentation) and… cyber interactions. Blogging, I feel, lessens many of the restrictions we impose on ourselves during face-to-face interactions. As I read the entries of my other classmates, I start to see the many facets of their individual characters. On my part, I loved the blogging activity even though I was rushed for time at certain times. It seems like blogging for ES2007S is the only time I start prodding my brain and truly reflect all kinds of issues. The challenge was to put all those reflections and thoughts into the most appropriate words and of course, in good grammar.

Looking back at my first post, my understanding of communication has taken on another level. Previously, communication to me was a two-sided interaction that required empathy and sensitivity.

If I were to be asked what effective communication meant to me now, my answer would be: effective communication is not only two-sided, it is transparent and boundary-less. Communicating our thoughts truthfully but positively is something we are very familiar with by now, as seen in our blog comments and peer reviews. Also, effective communication does not merely end beyond a boundary . It does not end in this classroom, nor when this semester ends.

Thank you for making my stay in ES2007S a memorable and enriching one.

I have to be honest to admit that this is my first attempt at presenting to the whole class in such an informal but funny manner in NUS. But I ENJOYED it tremendously. My group’s aim is to present something out of the box. Something that captivates people’s interests and also entertain them at the same time, without having to conform to the usual formal business-styled presentation.

Before the presentation, I was full of doubts about presenting in such a way because I was torn between preparing this for the Tesla Motors team or for my ES2007S mates. Moreover, an oral presentation for a “Professional Communications” module gave this idea of a formal, business presentation. However, after a discussion with Daniel and Ayu, we decided to let our hair down and went ahead with our original plan. On top of this, we created our slides in such a way that they capture the essential ideas so as to enable the audience to grasp them along with the entertainment.

I was extremely nervous at the start of the presentation. Firstly, I was not sure whether I could pull this through because I was never good at acting. Secondly, I was worried that I could not remember my lines. And thirdly, the strong urge to laugh with the rest was killing me. In fact, I noticed myself stammering and even shaking as I pretended to hold the imaginary microphone during the mock interviews.

The technical glitch that occurred during my presentation sent me into a panic state initially. This was because I had put it a lot of effort to produce that animated chart in an attempt to bring across my points effectively to the audience. Nevertheless, I managed to get a grip of myself and resumed on my discussion even without the help of the animation. At the point of time, I remembered Brad’s experience on speaking without his slides. The crux of the presentation is not found in the slides, but in our minds.

On the whole, I felt that Daniel and Ayu did a great job throughout this semester. I am very happy that we were able to complete our final task for this module with a big bang and wide smiles. I hope everyone in ES2007S will feel the same as we did in their upcoming presentations.

As a final year Life Sciences major in the National University of Singapore (NUS), I have acquired more than just technical skills such as DNA analysis. The logical reasoning, the systemic approach to the problem and the strive for even the smallest details in my work, are some of these acquired skills that I have applied to my everyday life.

My cultural background and the love for languages have spurred me on to master three languages, English, Mandarin and Japanese. It is not only the understanding of languages that I have attained, but also the understanding of the cultures that brought about these languages. To me, cultural sensitivity plays a significant role in my upbringing due to my inter-racial parentage. As a result, I become more interested in having cultural exchanges with others. I believe that cultural ignorance is a main barrier against effective communication, which ultimately disrupts any form of transactions, whether it is in school, among friends, or at work.

On top of this, my working experience which I have accumulated over the years during my semester breaks, has been fulfilling and developmental as a person. Past job experiences include: translation, administrative work, price quotation and secretarial work. It has been an enriching learning journey as I have experienced the importance of fundamental principles we tend to take for granted in school, including responsibility, a proactive attitude, a willingness to take criticism. What started out as a motivation to earn extra pocket money has evolved into a deeper meaning as I gained more insight into what work is about. To me, work is not solely about receiving high wages. Work can also be as equally enriching as studies, in terms of receiving an all-rounded learning experience. We are learning constantly on how to manage an effective two-way exchange of information, opinions and understanding with others.

In addition, I have attended training courses in effective interpersonal communication, including a professional communication module in NUS and a youth leadership program with Dale Carnegie Training. Apart from practising presentation skills and professional written correspondence, the rigorous trainings undergone pushed me out of my comfort zone so as to handle unexpected situations with confidence and determination.

I will never stop learning, because I always believe that learning a new thing every day brings meaning to what life is. The valuable skills I have acquired during my university education and previous job experiences, are the keys to opening more doors to greater knowledge and experience.

The Youtube video was about an middle-aged woman of Chinese descent throwing a tantrum at the Hong Kong Airport when she missed her flight. At first glance, it might have looked amusing to see a fully-grown woman rolling around the floor and screaming hysterically. But the responses left by some Youtube users were pretty jarring.

The ugliest responses that immediately caught my eye were the recurrent use of derogatory terms that mock Chinese people. The users responsible for these comments justified their remarks by bringing in recent scandals which occurred in China, for example the melamine poisoning case.

Interestingly, it was the assumption of the identity of the woman in the video that sparked off a multi-faceted conflict. The users identified the lady as a mainland Chinese, judging from the accent she was speaking in. As a result, the slew of negative remarks not only seemingly came from non-Asian users, but also from users who are of Chinese ascent. Phrases that went along the lines of “I’m ashamed to be a Chinese”, or “Not all of us are mainland Chinese” were used. That set me thinking: a single event not only sparked off a crossfire between users of supposedly different nationalities, but it also illustrated the possible tension and conflicted views people of Chinese descent have about each other. Personally, I felt that the issue of an underlying tension among Chinese people from different Chinese-dominant countries  should be reviewed seriously. I would start pondering over questions like “Why is there tension among people of the same ancestral origins?”.

Another point that came to light after watching this video was the rampant posting of such negative and detrimental racist comments on a widely used platform like Youtube. Singapore laws have been increasingly strict about the posting of any racist material on the internet, such as the recent cases of bloggers who posted racist entries. Yes, measures have been taken up to curb the flow of more racist materials from appearing on the Internet. But the 19,905 comments on this video, some of which are splattered with strongly racist terms, are not helping much either. Others might argue the violation of people’s rights if huge internet platforms like Youtube were to be censored. That might be another big problem, but the consequences of allowing such highly negative comments to manifest into the minds of users and other viewers might be very detrimental to the global Internet community.

I would love to hear opinions from you:)

My newly married parents back then did not think much of the impact of their cultural differences until they got to know each others’ families.

My father recalled with an amused grin, that the first cultural shock he had was when he witnessed a normal conversation between my mother and her sisters. The conversation was a daily friendly chat among the siblings, so as to update one another with their lives. However, to my father’s horror, it sounded like a tirade of fierce and angry words coming out from his wife’s and in-laws’ mouths. My mother, a Singaporean Chinese, was speaking in her family’s dialect – Hokkien. In my maternal family, everyone would speak in loud voices, sometimes loud enough to be taken as shouting. In contrast, my father was a soft-spoken man. Although it was not entirely true that all Japanese were soft-spoken, the people in Tokyo (where my father’s hometown was), were generally mild mannered and soft-spoken. So I could imagine the ashen look on my father when he thought he had stepped into a huge quarrel between his in-laws.

Similarily, my mother had a fair share in her experience of culture shock. One of the major cultural barriers we would think of would be language. This was certainly a big problem for many inter-racial couples. Thankfully, my father was fluent in English, which meant that my parents did not need to communicate in sign language. However, the accent was the big problem for them. My father used to struggle with the diffculty of pronouncing their Rs and Vs. My mother claimed it was due to the Japanese people’s inability to roll their tongues. Instead, they tend to pronounce “around” as “alound” because they substituted the R sound with a L sound. Similarily, V was commonly replaced by B in the pronounciation of many Japanese people.

When my mother decided to get used to her newly found role as a wife, she offered to whip up a homecooked dish for my father.  Being a huge chicken rice fan, my father requested it instantly. But the way he pronounced “chicken rice” shocked my mother.

Unable to pronounce his Rs, he said “chicken lice”.

It took my mother a few months to get used to his inability to pronounce his Rs and Vs.

These minor incidents might have sounded amusing to some, but they signified the problems many interracial couples had already started experiencing during the early days of their marriage lives. Whatever that was deemed acceptable to one party could be completely unacceptable to the other party, due to their difference in cultural views. The way my parents acknowledged and accepted each other’s beliefs, despite living in a time when interracial marriages were not that common then, was admirable to me. They would celebrate each others’ own cultural festivals together, and respected each others’ religious beliefs and values. The equal sharing of the chance to practise their cultural values within the household did not only sustain harmony in the family, it also enriched our lives with a greater perspective of the world.

Whew.

Actually I’m pretty okay with answering calls in English since it is the language I’m most comfortable in. Another reason is that there are not much formalities that one must remember when it comes to speaking in English professionally.

So when i was starting this telemarketing job a year ago, my supervisor’s advice to me in clinching a deal was to: strike up a conversation with the customer as if he was my good friend. Like, Hey how is it going for you? Today’s weather very hot right?

I didn’t know you can talk that casually to potential customers.

The problem for me was that my potential customers then were not from Singapore or any English-speaking country. They were from Japan. I was in charge of sourcing Japanese customers in my office.

For those who may not be familiar with the Japanese working culture, i have to say it’s totally different from the local working culture here. This comes from the several working experiences i had in my past working history in American, local and Japanese companies.

I guess the biggest difference is the professional language used in both japanese and local working cultures.

Japanese working adults use this professional language called keigo (敬語). 敬 means respect in japanese, so naturally, keigo means a language of respect.

Do you recall the most fundamental japanese phrase that i’m sure most people around her know – arigato? Arigato means “thanks”, a short form of arigato gozaimasu (which means “thank you”). Notice the difference in the tones behind “thanks” and “thank you”? The former is more casual whereas the latter is more polite and formal.

Keigo is similar to the latter, where emphasis on politeness is highlighted. Japanese people are very polite people and they believe in speaking in a beautiful refined language. In fact, how one speaks to his clients can determine whether he gets the business or not. So naturally, if someone speaks in a casual way like ending off with “arigato!” to the client, he may never ever hear another word from that client again.

So you can imagine the look of horror on my face when this supervisor (a Singaporean) tried to convince me to talk like that to my potential Japanese customers. Taking her advice was equivalent to not getting a deal at all.

Mastering keigo is not an easy feat. Many Japanese working adults experience difficulties when it comes to keigo too. In fact, there has been complaints from the older generation that the general young adults in Japan have a pretty poor grasp of keigo, which results in some older ones feeling offended at times.

I have been constantly working on my keigo ever since I started my first temp job in a Japanese-dominated office.

Right now I’m reading this guidebook I got from Japan, that is written specially for fresh graduates who are going to start work soon.

To tell you the truth, i find keigo very intimidating (that’s why i highlighted it in red). But i’m trying to work on that. Let’s see how it goes.

The email is as follows:

From: sales@happyblogging.sg
To: shiro_yuki@hotmail.com
Subject: [happyblogging.sg] Bloggers’ Entrepreneurship Week
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:35:54 +0800

Hi there,

We have an advertisement match for you!
This is a banner for Bloggers’ Entrepreneurship Week.

———–
Instruction:
- Reply to us FIRST if you like to take this offer. (Please do it before 31 Oct 2008 (Fri) 11 am Singapore time)
- We will email you the instructions.
- Payment of $4 will be made once post is up on your blog.

Sincerely,
Amy Lee

happyblogging PTE LTD
let’s blog happily together!

I had been blogging privately on another platform and this was an advertisement offered by a blog advertising company.

When I first scanned through the entire mail, a few thoughts came to my mind instantly: IMPERSONAL, AUTOMATED, COPY+PASTE. These words literally bounced into my vision as my eyes read every line. Although I was aware that they might have sent similar emails to many other bloggers like me, I felt that the “copy and paste”-like style of the email was not professional at all.

Hi there,

The salutation had already broken a 7C rule - courtesy. The two words “Hi there” had already triggered a thought that went something like, Do I know her personally? On top of this, the words connotated a rather casual tone, which was perhaps a little casual for a business email. The generality in the salutation also reinforced the idea of a mass distribution of the same email.

This is a banner for Bloggers’ Entrepreneurship Week.

It would have been more informative for the readers  if there was a brief description of what the Bloggers’ Entrepreneurship Week was about. It would be natural for readers to want to know what they would be advertising on their own blogs. Hence, the completeness of the email was not there.

Instruction:
- Reply to us FIRST if you like to take this offer. (Please do it before 31 Oct 2008 (Fri) 11 am Singapore time)
- We will email you the instructions.
- Payment of $4 will be made once post is up on your blog.

The overall content of the email was concise as the instructions were written out in short but concise sentences. The format was in bulleted form, which might have come across as slightly unprofessional. However, it made the overall email readable and very clear. This might have been useful for first-timers who have never attempted posting an advertisement on their blogs before.

Again, the courtesy rule is not applied in this section, as illustrated by the missing “Please” and the insertion of capitalised words like “FIRST” . Just as how customers at shopping outlets would like to be treated courteously by the service staff, readers of this email would perhaps appreciate more  if the sender had exemplified her “Ps and Qs” in her writing.  This email was not written by a higher authority, like a bank asking for payment. It was an email directed to the company’s clients, hence the underlying authoritative tone would not be appropriate here.

Sincerely,
Amy Lee

Althought it might be a very minor detail here, the difference in the fonts of the last two lines suggested a possibility of a cut-and-paste work. In addition, it indicated a break in the consistency. This showed how a minor detail (e.g. font consistency) could be as equally damaging as a spelling or grammatical error.

After a full analysis of this email, I put on my “teacher’s visor cap” and started correcting the areas in the email that required more improvement. Here was what I had come up with in the end:

From: sales@happyblogging.sg
To: shiro_yuki@hotmail.com
Subject: [happyblogging.sg] SUMMER (Happy Blogging Week) Banner
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:35:54 +0800

Dear Sir/Mdm,

We are pleased to inform that we have found an advertisement for you.
This is a banner for Bloggers’ Entrepreneurship Week, sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Association.

———–
Please read the following instructions:
- If you would like to take this offer, please email us in advance. (Please do it before 31 Oct 2008 (Fri) 11 am Singapore time)
- We will email you the instructions upon receiving your acceptance of the offer.
- A payment of $4 will be made once the post is up on your blog.

If you have any further enquiries, please contact us at sales@happyblogging.sg. We hope to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely,
Amy Lee

happyblogging PTE LTD
let’s blog happily together!

Please feel free to comment on my critique:)

When I stepped through the office doors for the very first time, I felt pretty conspicuous. This could have been due to the fact that there were only three other Japanese working in the Singapore branch of the company, and also, everyone seemed to know my father, including the workers in the company’s factory place. I had to bear with this sensation of being watched whenever I stepped into the office. Hence, I was always on my best behavior and did my work conscientiously.

I started my first week of work full of enthusiasm and receptive to every single thing that was happening around me. Being stationed in the regional office department, my office was constantly bustling with all sorts of activity. I met many different people, many of them either coming from or on the way to conference meetings. To my delight (and relief at the same time), everyone was warm and friendly to me. Or so they seemed.

One evening, after getting off work, I was making my way towards one of the company buses when I saw a group of young engineers walking behind me. These guys were always staring at my colleagues and I during lunch break. Honestly, I found this absolutely disconcerting, because their expressions were not exactly very friendly.

As I was heading towards the bus, I could hear one of them speaking loudly in Mandarin: “Look at that girl in front. She thinks she’s daddy’s little rich girl, who always gets whatever she wants. It sickens me.”

They probably assumed that since my father could not speak Mandarin, likewise, I would not be able to comprehend what they were saying about me. Yet the idea of knowing that a stranger could harbor a certain level of animosity towards me was both saddening and bewildering to me.

The only thoughts that were swirling in my head were: What have I done to make this guy feel sickened about me? Should I just pretend that nothing had happened?

What do you think?

p.s. There’s a continuation to this story. Do ask me if you want to find out:)

I have been following Jimmy Kimmel Live episodes for quite a while. And I absolutely love everything about his guest shows including his “sidekick”,  Guillermo Rodriguez. Guillermo is actually a real-life parking lot security guard at the Jimmy Kimmel Live show.

A few days ago, I stumbled upon this really funny spoof clip of the recent movie that everyone is crazy over – Twilight. By the way, Guillermo played the role of the sexy dark Edward.

Enjoy the clip~

Effective communiction is not only about expressing our feelings or conveying our own messages across to the other party. Communication is never a one-sided event, because we also need to listen to what the other party has to say.

Sensitivity and socio-cultural awareness are two major communication tools I take with me whenever I go out and meet people. How we respond to a specific individual’s actions or views, is not the same as that of another individual. Every individual possesses a unique character, a different cultural/ religious /social background, or even a taste for music. Hence, there is no fixed manual or whatsoever to follow when it comes to communicating with people. Being able to detect any underlying emotions or meanings in the conversation apart from the general understanding of the issue discussed, is how i define sensitivity. At the same time, knowing how to respond in relation to that specific individual’s background – social, cultural or religious – is what soci0-cultural awareness is about, in my own opinion. I feel that both tools help both parties to have a mutual understanding and a true appreciation for each other.

Being a product of an interracial marriage,  cultural sensitivity has always been a constant in my life. It has helped to iron out the differences my parents occasionally have (even though it was tough at some times). It has given me opportunities to build relationships with wonderful people all around the world. And it has certainly widened my perspective of the world and the people around me, instead of confining myself (and my mind) to this tiny island I have been living on.

I did have a few unpleasant experiences which involved a lack of cultural sensitivity from the other party. This lack of sensitivity, I believe, was out of ignorance. But nevertheless, it had resulted in a fair amount of hurt and an unwillingess to communicate thereafter. Therefore, I am clearly aware of the importance of how sensitivity and awareness can prevent such negative outcomes to occur within a social interaction. Sometimes we may subconsciously hurt someone with what we say if we do not put some effort in thinking through beforehand.

p.s. this post on effective communication skills may not be exactly relevant to the communication skills related to formal meetings or presentations which will be taught in this module. However, this is what “effective communication skills” is to me on a personal basis.