Sunday 17 April 2016

Critical Reflection on SEM2902

After receiving the list of modules we have to take in the second trimester, i was kind of scared for the COM 150 as my English language was not as strong as compared to my mother tongue. At first, I thought that i would be struggling to get through this course. Apart from having the disadvantages at minor things such as grammar and spelling, i'm also not a good reader and a listener. The thought of having to just listen and read during my past English classes made me unexcited about COM 150. Apart from that, i also thought that this class was going to be pointless, similar to all the other English related modules i have taken during my polytechnic days.

However, i started realizing the importance of the module or more precisely, the things that were taught in the module after attending a few classes. For instance, one of the things covered in this module was on active listening. Referring back to my background, i was and never am a good listener. Reflecting back, this module has helped me in improving myself in a few areas without knowing. For example, the way i present myself to someone more superior, my writing skills and language and etc. On top of learning new things, this module have also given me the opportunity to discover myself such as the type of listener i am and etc. To strain the importance of things taught in the module, we have also decided to do our project based on the things taught such as active listening and resolving conflicts. Therefore, my biggest takeaway for this module was when we learnt about active listening.

Monday 11 April 2016

Critical Reflection on Project Learning

For the project, my group and I have decided to talk about "Active listening and resolving conflicts within a family". Why active listening? As a student, we feel that many of us are able to relate to it easily. Apart from that, we as team also feel that we should strain the importance of the things taught in class such as active listening and conflict management or resolving conflicts. As for the project, we were given specific time requirements such as the 5 minute presentation and the 3 minute video.

Coming from the engineering field, I rarely had the chance to practice my language and also my oral presentation skills. Previously, my idea of a presentation was to read out everything from the slide clearly and get it done and over with. From there, I have gotten a lot of feedback about eye contact and other non-verbal cues. However, my perception of a presentation changed after attending this module called “Interpersonal and Work Communication” taught by Brad. Through this module, I have learnt a lot of things that applies to our presentation skills such as verbal and non-verbal communications and etc. With that, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on my oral presentation skills.

In this module, we were given two chances to present. Firstly the mock presentation and next, the actual presentation. Referring back to constructive criticisms that was given to me on the actual and mock presentation, I realized that my posture and non-verbal cues has always been an important factor affecting my presentation. For example, not making enough eye contact and the position of which I was standing at. Apart from that, I also have the tendency of repeating a few word which may be very annoying to the audience. Despite the criticisms, I have managed to improve on my verbal articulation and voice projection. As a whole, I am very pleased to be given this opportunity to explore more about myself and also learn more on how I am able to improve my language and oral presentation skills. Thank you Brad (:

HyirahhSyahirahh
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Edited on:
11th April 2016
18th April 2016


Thursday 3 March 2016

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

Most of us live in a dynamic and complex network of people, constantly surrounded by our family member, colleagues, friends, relatives, or even our classmates. In most situations, we tend to try and find ways of getting along with other people. However, this does not apply every time. Every once in a while, you get into situations like getting cut off by a driver on the road, a sibling making noise while you are studying and hung up by person. When contrary beliefs and opinions or misunderstandings and miscommunication occur, interpersonal conflict may be inescapable.

Similar to the causes, there are a few ways of dealing with a conflict. A few months back, I experienced a conflict between one of my family members, my mother. This incident happened during my exam period, two days before my math final exam. Since young, I have developed a habit of studying late at night. Personally, I found that studying late at night works better for me as compared to studying in the morning. As usual, I was at home studying for my exams when my mother came into the room and started scolding me.

Mum: “Please go to sleep, NOW!”

Me: “Ma, I am studying. I’ll sleep later.”

Mum: “Look at the time now, it’s late. Go to sleep or you’ll be grounded.”

(Raising my voice)

Me: “But ma, my exam is around the corner and I study better late at night”

(Replying angrily)

Mum: “Don’t be rude. Stop giving me some lame excuse. Study in the afternoon instead.”

Me: “but ma …”

(Mum interrupts)

Mum: “This is your last warning. Sleep or you’ll be grounded this weekends”

(Mum walks out of the room)

Upon calming myself down, I realized that there were a few factors contributing to the conflict. Firstly would be the emotions that we were having. Thinking back about the incident, she was only concerned about my well-being as she thought that I was being too hard on myself. Second would be the difference between our opinions. Everyone is different in their own unique ways. To some people, for example my mother, studying late at night is unproductive and tiring but to some, it may be more productive due to quiet and peaceful environment at night. How should I convince my mum that I am more productive at night?

HyirahhSyahirahh
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Edited on:
18th March 2016

Commented on:
- Steven: http://steven-iwcom150.blogspot.sg/
- Zong Hong: https://captainzonghong.wordpress.com
- Angela: https: https://heyhihelloangelacom150.wordpress.com

Four Ways to Improve Your Emotion Communication

This online article “4 ways to improve your emotional communication” written by Susan Krauss Whitbourne (2014) in Psychology today, focuses on four skills:  perceiving, facilitating, understanding and managing emotions to improve one’s emotional communication.

Firstly, perceiving emotion is about being emotionally aware of oneself. When  one  is  able  to perceive  their  own  emotions,  they  will  be  more  resistant  to  the  bad  moods  and  be  able  to maintain their composure during bad situations.

Secondly, facilitating emotions is about evaluating different emotions in a situation and putting them together in a useful way. Identifying one’s emotion, figuring out where it’s  coming from, and  then  deciding  how  to  act  in  a  way  to  resolve  the  situation  is  likely  to  produce  the  best possible outcome. Generally, this strategy works the best.

Thirdly, understanding emotion is the ability to understand how one react to various situations. By doing so, they will be able to have a better prediction on how they will react to the similar situation in the future. Thus helping them in making better decisions.

Finally, managing emotions is the ability to keep one’s coolness while they are expressing strong emotions or when someone is in a stressful situation. Being able to do so will prevent them from impulsive behaviors and this will also manage their frustration in one’s personal life. As  whenever  one’s emotions  get  out  of  control,  the  less  likely  it  will  be  that  they  will  get  the outcome they desire.


These are the 4 skills to successful emotion communication.

Team Members: Angela, Lin Zaw & Kok Zheng

Response to Mr Beta Han - Complaint Letter

Hi Mr Han,

Thank you for considering us as one of the top selling audio product companies. On behalf of JYSS Creative Pte Ltd, we apologize that the product that you have purchased turns out to be faulty. We acknowledge that your warranty for the product has expired. Taking into consideration of the situation, we are unable to provide you with a refund. Out of goodwill, we could make a one-to-one replacement of your product at the nearest electronic store. Please send us a copy of the serial number on your registered product so that we can make necessary arrangement for the replacement.

We hope for your continuous support for JYSS Creative Products.

Thank you.

JYSS Creative Senior Executive
Customer Support Services


Team Members: Js & Syaifudin

Wednesday 10 February 2016

Evaluating verbal and non verbal communications

Communication is basically an act of delivering information from one place to another. There are a number of ways for people to communicate, depending on the message and its context of which it is being sent. Therefore, the style of communicating and the choice of communication can also affect communication. There are a few types of communication. For example, verbal communication and non-verbal communications.

Verbal communication refers to the use of words or sounds in order to express ourselves. For example, saying "yes" when you want to confirm your food orders. In contrast to verbal communication, non-verbal communication is basically a wordless communication established largely by visual cues. This includes body language, gestures, eye contact and facial expressions. One good example of a non-verbal communication would be the shrugging of the shoulders when we are unsure of something.




Communication can also be affected by other factors such as age, gender and culture. Culture could be defined as a set of characteristics shared between a group of people. This may include their beliefs, languages, values and also attitude. Apart from that, culture can also include regions of the country. For example, the shaking of hands between opposite genders is not practiced by the Islamic cultures unlike the USA where handshakes are common.

As for age, the younger generations especially the teenagers prefer to communicate through social media e.g. twitter. Teenagers rarely share their emotions or problems directly to people but instead, they express themselves through social media. As for the older generations, for example my mother, she tends to write in her diary or shares her problems directly to her loved ones.

Apart from that, I have also observed a few incidents where verbal and non-verbal communication brings a different meaning. The first incident happened a few years back when i was having dinner at a local coffee shop. There was a little commotion between a Chinese national waitress and a local man. Apparently, the woman felt offended after the man called her "xiao jie", which means "young lady" in Singapore. However in China, the word was mainly used to label prostitutes. After a few explanations from the locals, the unhappiness was resolved.

The second incident happened when i was in Malaysia. My cousins and i have decided to take a tour around the village. After a few hours of walking, we took a break. Upon noticing a full moon, my cousin started to point towards it using her index finger. In less than a minute, she was scolded by a villager nearby and was asked to use her hand or thumb instead.

Referring back to incidents, it made me realize that age, gender and culture does influence the way a person communicates. With that, it is up to us to observe, research and learn more about a certain culture in order to prevent any miscommunication.

HyirahhSyahirahh
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Edited on:

Commented on:
- Steven[6 C's] :  http://steven-iwcom150.blogspot.sg/
- Daphne Tan : https://daptan.wordpress.com/

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/