Final Reflection on the Course

The course ES2007S has finally ended. What a huge relief! But hold on, no more Calvin’s environmental talks and others’ lame jokes? No more opportunities to learn more useful life skills? Now I am beginning to feel the loss. Looking back, I can say that besides the USP classes, ES2007S is the most interactive and useful course I have ever attended. What I have gained from this course is more than what I can describe.

Soft-Skills

Needless to say, the numerous soft-skills that I have picked up from this course are and will be very useful to my daily life. Here I want to highlight the skills that I have learnt in presentation and job application assignment.

Before attending the ES2007S class, I was no different from any other inexperienced students who tend to squeeze a lot of content into every single presentation slide. Reading directly from the slides without further elaboration announces the death sentence of the presentation. However, I only came to the full awareness of its gravity after my ES2007S course tutor Ms. Lim had shown us examples of bad or ineffective presentations. Also, I used to neglect the usefulness of certain functions in MS PowerPoint. I tent to put an unbalanced emphasis on the content of a presentation. The rest, be it the presentation slide design or non-verbal cues, were just peripheral to me. ES2007S has helped me to realize the power of visual effects that animations and graphics can bring about. With visual aids when used appropriately, messages can be delivered in an incredibly impactful way. After such knowledge had been cultivated, the actual equipment of the embedded skills was actually done through a series of useful practices. Indeed, the peer teaching session and project presentation are the two main important practices which have sharpened my presentation skills. After going through these, I have now become more aware of how to prepare effective presentation slides with suitable visual effects and getting ideas across with the use of such presentation slides.

When I went for interviews before, I normally did not do extensive preparations. That was because I believed in impromptu responses which would best reflect my true self. However, from my past interview experiences, I realise that interviews can be unfair and judgmental not because that I have shown my true self but rather poor responses to the tricky questions. It could lead to a different result if such questions were answered with the same content but in a different way. Thanks to ES2007S, I’ve learnt various useful interview skills which can help me to present a very good first impression during an interview.

Personal Development

Time management is the greatest challenge for me - a super busy student taking an overload of work in this semester. The immense pressure I went through was really a threat to the quality or work I submitted. The enormous amount of work for the module ES2007S was sometimes a discouragement. However, having a tutor who always inspires us to put in our best effort in whatever we do was truly encouraging to me. Though working on deadlines, I always made sure that I put in adequate serious thoughts for every assignment I submitted. While recalling the countless burning-the-midnight-oil occasions, I still don’t know how I have survived this semester. Maybe one’s potential can only be unleashed and realised when one’s challenged. And I’m glad to say that ES2007S is indeed an enjoyable challenge for me.

Working in a group has really helped me to develop inter-personal skills. Everyone in the team has different personalities and modes of thinking. To perform well together as a team, we need to know when to stand firm and give in. I believe that being understanding and considerate is the key factor in good team work. And I have learnt that we can do so by starting acknowledging and accepting our own weaknesses. What we dislike about others are ultimately our own shortcomings.

I'm grateful to my class, the class tutor Ms. Lim for your unfailing dedication and all my classmates for making this learning journey enjoyable.

Although the module “Professional Communication” has come to the end, I will continue to learn by practising the skills I have picked up from the course as the old Chinese idiom says that “learning is endless”.

Self-Reflection on Oral Presentation

Scale: 1-5. 5: excellent; 1: very bad

Overall: 4

What I have learnt:

Improvement on overcoming stage fright and presenting in a group. After the presentation, I realize that I also have the potential to add creativity into formal presentation. I was surprised at the numerous ideas I brainstormed for the skit. It was an enriching learning experience.

Preparation: 4

Strengths:

Clear and logic way of putting the content into slides with minimal number of words. Efficient preparation. Able to use animated diagram and flow charts to illustrate points. The preparation of the skit component was efficiently done.

Weaknesses:

Didn’t standardize the format and design of the slides prior to preparation; therefore compilation of the slides was a bit inefficient.

Delivery of the content: 3

Strengths:

Transition between presenters was smooth and natural. Voice projection was good. Still tried to appear confident and enthusiastic though feeling a bit nervous.

Weaknesses:

Arrived late at the venue and took a relatively long time to get ready. This may have resulted a bad impression on us. Poor management of the slides, e.g. I accidentally did a left-click for at least twice. Time management was also an issue. I could have talked a bit faster.

Q & A: 4

Strengths:

Being very familiar with the content, we were able to understand what the questions asked and offer relevant information and answers.

Weaknesses:

The answers could be supplemented.

Inter-cultural Miscommunication

Culture is a collection of symbols that represent a certain community. Language is one of the cultural symbols. When I first came to Singapore, I had difficulties understanding what the locals said. The following experience is quite unique to me.

One day I was out in the street alone and looking for the bus No. 3 to get back home. While being lost and knowing barely anything about my whereabouts, I asked a man who just walked pass by. He said, “Oh, tree ah. Okie, you just go straight from here, and you will see tree lah. ” While being befuddled, I tried to visualize based on what I heard. Trees! That was all I could think of. What did the bus stop do with trees? “Oh maybe the bus stop is beside a tree. How humourous Singaporeans are!” I thought. So for the following one hour under the sun, I was frantically looking for a tree. I indeed found every single visibly tall tree in the area. However out of dismay, I didn’t see the bus no. 3 near any trees that I found. In the end, I was fortunate enough to be sent back home by a passenger.

Not until I shared my experience with my school teachers did my confusion over the “tree” event disappeared. I began to realise that besides British English, American English and Chinglish, there is one more type of English; that is the Singlish. Then I finally understood why miscommunication arose that day. “Three” and “tree” are pronounced in the same way in Singlish. The man who helped me that day actually meant “three” by saying “tree”.

From my own personal experience, I have learnt that we should never make assumptions when we are on a foreign land. Just like “tree” carries two different meanings in Singapore, things may be said or done in an entirely different manner in places that we are unfamiliar with. It is always helpful if we have done sufficient research on cultural difference besides geographical information before visiting a foreign country. This will definitely aid in our understanding of a new culture greatly. And miscommunication due to cultural difference could be curtailed as well.

Application Letter Draft 2

Internships at Shell Singapore

The most successful problem solvers look at things differently and see solutions no one else can. Who would have thought to use fish protein to stop gas freezing in subsea pipes? One of our people did. And right now we’re looking for more people who can bring a fresh perspective to the energy challenge. We’ll provide training, support and career choices to develop your potential. We’ll get you working with some of our most accomplished problem solvers. And together we can help build a responsible energy future. Think further.

Shell Internships are a win-win opportunity: you develop your skills and discover what we offer as an employer while we get the chance to see if you’ve got what it takes to be part of Shell.

Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd will be offering assessed internships, which will be conducted from January to June 2011 and July and December 2011 for students with Engineering backgrounds currently in their penultimate year. An internship will give you first-hand experience of Shell as an employer – and exposure to a range of real-life business projects. The projects provide well defined, business relevant and challenging deliverables, allowing students to independently manage their own area of responsibility whilst receiving management support and giving them sufficient exposure to the Shell environment.

My Application Letter

Long Xiaoxing

37 Prince George’s Park

Singapore 118430

H/P: 81877303

1 September 2010

Mr. Tan Been Soon

Human Resource Manager

Shell Singapore

56 Buona Vista Drive

Singapore 546783

Dear Mr. Tan,

Undergraduate Student Internship at Shell Singapore

I am currently a second year Chemical Engineering student at National University of Singapore. I am very interested in the student internship programme at Shell Singapore, a premier energy provision company. The internship programmes was advertised on the school career centre notice board on 26 August 2010.

With more than ten years of rigorous training in sciences and mathematics, I can offer your company a broad skill set with an emphasis on analytical thinking and problem solving. As you will see from the enclosed resume, my active involvement in numerous academic and co-curriculum activities has helped to further sharpen my critical and analytical thinking skills, which, I believe, will be great assets to Shell Singapore.

I understand that one of Shell’s strategic initiatives is to solve the current energy crisis. My interest and understanding of the current energy use can provide valuable insight in pursuing this initiative. Being highly responsible and committed, I am very adaptable to various working environments.

I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to explore how I may bring added value to Shell’s effort in solving the energy crisis. I am available for interview scheduled at your convenience on any day from 10 September 2010 onwards. Please feel free to contact me at 81877303 should there is anything to clarify. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Yours sincerely,

Long Xiaoxing

The Couple's Problem - An Interpersonal Conflict

This story involves a married couple – Andrew and Arlene. Back to 3 years ago, Arlene was 28 years old when she was first introduced to Andrew through a relative. Andrew is 6 years older than Arlene. Having owned a private house and a car and with a stable income, Andrew is a successful young man. Moreover, being virtuous and hard-working, Andrew has attracted a lot of girls who desperately want to marry him. Being near to her 30s, Arlene was also desperately seeking for a long-life partner. So apparently, Arlene was also attracted to Andrew. After four-month courtship, they both decided to get married. So they got married 4 months after they first knew about each other; and that was October. They both were very happy and satisfied with what life had offered so far. Soon afterwards, Arlene was expecting a baby which would be delivered in August the next year. Andrew was even overjoyed about the news. He was in a dire hope of having children after all. So the baby came in August. And both of them felt blessed.

However, life began to become not so blissful to them. Both Andrew and Arlene are working parents. Neither of them is willing to quit his/her job to become a full-time babysitter. Believing that parental care is crucial for one’s growth, they both do not wish to hire a maid. The common problem arises as so to many other married couples: who will and how to take care of the baby? In order to share parental responsibilities fairly, they have reach a compromise that they will have half-day off so as to take care of the baby alternately. It seemed to work out for the first week; however, being a workaholic person, Andrew started to feel uncomfortable leaving half-done work and returning home to attend to housework. Also having very minimal experience in doing housework, Andrew always felt that he was unable to do as much he would like to. Andrew is a person who can only be driven by a sense of achievement and self-confidence. However, his clumsy way of handling housework only made him feel like a loser. Deep inside, Andrew is a chauvinist who strongly believes that men should go out and work while women should take care of the household. No matter how unfair Andrew thought of the arrangement, he kept silent. Being aware of the mess Andrew sometimes made, Arlene said nothing. She was already grateful that they could take care of the household without getting a domestic helper.

One day, when Arlene came back from work and took over babysitting work from Andrew. Seeing that the baby had not been fed and the floor had not been cleared again, Arlene felt immense anger. She could not control her temper and started yelling at her husband, “look at the mess you’ve made, Andrew! What have you done? I’m a working mum and can still take such good care of the house. Every time I get back home, despite the stressful work, I have to clear the mess you’ve left behind. How come you are so inconsiderate and never think about how I feel! Can’t you have some self-awareness? You are practically useless in the house!” Upon hearing the word “useless”, Andrew immediately sprang to his feet; he threw an empty beer can to Arlene, and like an electrified cat, he shouted, “I’m useless? I’m the breadwinner. You women by principle should stay at home. I’m already kind enough to let you work. Why are you women always so greedy!” Facing the mess interspersed with the baby’s loud crying, Arlene was on fire, “If I knew it is like this, I wouldn’t have married you!” And with the door slammed, she left the house.

So here are the questions. Were they just facing a problem with parental responsibility only? What is the root cause of it after all? Was the hasty marriage the real problem to their relationship?

Why are effective communication skills important to ME?

As human beings who are capable of speech, we are bound to interact with one another using verbal cues. Effective communication is a situation where the thoughts of the communicators, are expressed and received in an undistorted fashion. To me, effective communication is indispensable for meaningful and enjoyable interaction with others. However when my thoughts and feelings are misinterpreted by my listeners, I do sense frustration; and if such negative experiences prevailed, I would undoubtedly gradually generate an aversion to human interaction, or if not to that extreme at least I would keep all my thoughts, no matter how wonderful they can be, within the artificial boundary that I have set up. And to be honest, I appeared a bit withdrawn upon my arrival in Singapore which was initially a foreign place to me. Can you imagine a rather talkative and spontaneous person could suddenly becomeso introverted and friendless? In such an awkward and anxious state, I was really in a dire need of help. Thank goodness, I was fortunate enough to have some really amiable people around me whose friendliness ultimately opened up my heart.

Having experienced a real personal conflict, I began to learn the similarities and differences in terms of perceptions, perspectives, values and cultural backgrounds of the people around me and myself. I also realised that “effective communication skills” is not a perpetual concept which applies universally. The world is yet “flat”. What I had perceived as effective communication skills earlier were, on my arrival in Singapore initially, to prove ineffective and hindered my progress in this different country with, to me, a unique culture. And like many other stubborn human beings, worse still, I was not even aware of my flawed mode of thinking. It all made sense. Outdated machines need to be replaced. So as you see, holding on to my old conventions only hypnotised myself into a self-deceiving state in which self-development was hampered. Hence, I need to consistently renew my skills.

To reduce conflicts, be it inter-personal, inter-cultural, or inter-religious, we need to put ourselves in other people’s shoes and try our best to understand their thoughts and deeds as much as possible. An enthusiastic heart is not enough, effective communications applicable in different social and cultural contexts are essential for me to become a true global citizen.