Sunday, 17 January 2016

The strengths and challenges in communicating

Communication plays a big role in our daily lives. Not only that, communication can also come in a variety of types such as oral communication, interpersonal communication and also written communication. From the different communication interactions we engage in daily, we can conclude that communication can be as simple as nodding to a friend when passing each other to as difficult as constructing a persuasive speech. Thus, knowing when to use a certain type of communication is critical as different types brings different consequences.

Everyone is not perfect. Different people have different strengths and weaknesses in everything we do in life. As for communication wise, it is not easy to master all the different types of communications. In my opinion, I do feel that one’s personality affects the way they behave or communicate. For example, one advantage or strength of an extrovert when it comes to communication is their ability to adore and interact with the crowd, making them feel appreciated. Coming from an outgoing extrovert, I tend to be very sociable which makes it very easy for me to get comfortable with communications. I feel that my past experience as an outdoor instructor has helped me a lot in building my up self-confidence. Being exposed to a big group of students and interacting fluently, clearly and confidently have become very usual for me.

However, being an extrovert does have its challenges such as my listening skills. From my personality, being silent has never been in my dictionary. The craving for attention makes it hard for us extroverts to really be silent and listen as we tend to talk especially when we are surrounded by our peers.

HyirahhSyahirahh
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Edited on:
- 4th February 2016

Commented on:
- Keryl Tham  - http://keryltham.blogspot.sg/
- Kim Chuan  - http://kc-sem2902.blogspot.sg/
- Chor Sheng  - http://chorshengdennis.blogspot.sg/
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8 comments:

  1. Keryl Tham21 January 2016 at 20:37

    You have some grammatical errors but otherwise good content. It was easy to understand and relate to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown7 February 2016 at 09:25

      Hey Keryl,

      Thank you for the compliment. As for the grammatical errors, i will try my best to improve on that.

      Delete
  2. Unknown24 January 2016 at 02:24

    Hi Syahirah!

    Good blog post. It was open and the flow was smooth.

    To be honest, as an introvert, i've always admired your self-confidence! The way you interact with others make it easier to be comfortable around you. That is a good strength of communication to acquire especially in the professional field where we are required to talk to different people or in front of a crowd.

    I'd like to ask, how do you avoid from being nervous in front of a big crowd? Is there anything you do beforehand? e.g self-talk your way through it?

    Yours Sincerely,
    Hany Humaira

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown3 February 2016 at 21:29

      Hello Hany,

      Thank you for the positive feedback. I really appreciate that you took the time to read and comment on my post.(:

      Regarding question, i honestly do prepare myself beforehand not by practicing or thinking about what i am suppose to present but instead, to calm myself down and prepare to embrace the crowd's presence. However, no matter how confident i am, there are a few times where i get uncontrollably nervous. Thus, one advice from me is to just be yourself and imagine that you're talking to an old friend or colleague. That method works well on me too.

      Yours Sincerely,
      HyirahhSyahirahh

      Delete
  3. Brad Blackstone28 January 2016 at 23:59

    I enjoyed reading this post, Hirah. You contextualize the topic and your own comm skills by presenting some thoughts on the importance and ubiquity of communication. The only area where I might differ from you in the intro is when you classify communication into types, separating, it seems, interpersonal from oral and written. In fact, interpersonal communication can be both oral and written, as well as verbal and nonverbal, when you think about it. I like your example of the 'nodding' to a friend -- which is a nonverbal form of interpersonal communication.

    The rest of your short essay flows well, with the same sort of move from general to specific. I like the way you describe 'the extrovert,' stating that they don't just 'interact with the crowd' but that they adore it. :)

    I also appreciate your self disclosure as you state that listening has never been a strong suit for you.

    There are a few minor language issues that can be improved upon:

    1) Being exposed to a big group of students, interacting fluently, clearly and confidently has become a regular thing for me. >>>
    Being exposed to a big group of students and interacting fluently, clearly and confidently have become very usual for me. (The only real action here is 'interacting,' but since 'being' is also a noun, you need the plural verb.)

    2) One of which is my listening skills. >>> (a sentence fragment --- see the Purdue OWL website for an explanation)

    I have a few questions: How did being an 'outdoor instructor' help you to become more confident. Can you explain in more detail?

    Don't let these minor criticisms eclipse all you have done well in this post. I've enjoyed the detail description and look forward to reading more from you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown4 February 2016 at 14:30

      Hello Brad,

      Thank you for taking the time to read and comment on my post. Apart from that, thank you for the small motivation to not get discouraged over the criticisms given too. I really appreciate that (:

      Honestly, I am the kind of person who takes criticisms as constructive criticisms. Instead of getting upset, i prefer to think of it positively and learn from my mistake.

      Regarding your question, I must say that being an outdoor instructor is tough. Apart from constantly interacting with a big group of students, you are also required to lead and bond with them especially during the activities such as hiking.

      The factor that makes it tough is that on top of all the tiredness, you are still required to demonstrate activities, conduct briefings and instructing the students while ensuring their safety.

      Being an outdoor instructor has taught me that a lot of things such as knowing my strengths and weaknesses in communication, learning to accept compliments and also to use criticism as a learning experience as everyone makes mistakes. With that, i started to improve and coming back stronger and better than i was before. The whole experience has managed to boost my confidence as i believe that if i am able to overcome those situations, i can overcome anything if i put my mind to it.

      HyirahhSyahirahh

      Delete
    2. Unknown5 February 2016 at 04:43

      Edited the last paragraph: 5th February 2016

      Being an outdoor instructor has taught me a lot of things such as knowing my strengths and weaknesses in communication, learning to accept compliments and also to use criticism as a learning experience as everyone makes mistakes. With that, i started to improve and coming back stronger and better than i was before. The whole experience has managed to boost my confidence as i believe that if i am able to overcome those situations, i can overcome anything if i put my mind to it.

      Delete
    3. Brad Blackstone9 February 2016 at 22:29

      Thanks for your reply and the fine effort with this explanation of what it means to be an outdoor instructor. I can see that doing that job was a great experience for you.

      There is one minor language issue that I want to bring to your attention, the rule for parallel structures:

      1) ...you are still required to demonstrate activities, conduct briefings and instructing the students while ensuring their safety.
      >>>
      you are still required to demonstrate activities, conduct briefings and INSTRUCT the students while ensuring their safety. (Do you see how the verb structures are now parallel, or similar, in structure?

      Here is another problematic sentence:

      ... such as KNOWING my strengths and weaknesses in communication, LEARNING to accept compliments and also TO USE criticism as a learning experience....

      Do you see why "to use" is a problem?

      See me about this if you have more questions, okay?

      Delete

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