Blog post #5: Final reflection - Endless journey

With a lot of gains, and of course many pains, my ES2007S has come to the end. However, my journey of learning English is endless, and seems even longer than before.

To be honest, I took a lot of courage to take this module. Thought this was just an English module, I was hoping to improve my oral English, meanwhile vary my academic life. But later when I was involved in the peer teaching, oral interaction, mock interviews and team project, I found that it was much more different than what I thought.

The peer teaching is my first team project in NUS. I feel quite honored and a bit stressed to work with Sam and Chaoyi. I learn a lot from their enthusiasm in working, critical thinking and good commutation skills. Especially when I find that Chaoyi’s English is much better than many of my seniors from China, I really admire him. And I believe that he must have put a lot of efforts in practicing English. Compared with him, many times I feel very frustrated when I fail to get my information across. And I am wondering whether I can reach his level when I am in year 4. Anyway, everything went smoothly on the real day of the peer teaching. Although I had many things to improve, but I was quite pleased with my presentation since my last presentation was 2 years ago. And it is a very good experience to work with Sam and Chaoyi.

The next impressive thing in ES2007S is the mock interview. Being the very first interviewee, I was quite nervous and stressed. Even worse, because of my poor English, I could not express myself clearly and answer the questions coherently. All of my confidence collapsed at this time. I was thinking whether I could do it well if the interview was conducted in Chinese. However, when I became the interviewer, I realized that perhaps language was only one aspect, the way of thinking and occupational planning were more important. Therefore it was a fortunate that the frustration led to my change in attitude. The attitude also applies to my other modules and my life.

The second phase of the module focused on the team project. I would thank my teammates Kent, Jerina and Ho Zong for their great patience and encourage when I had difficulty in expressing my thoughts during the project. Compared with the peer teaching, I think I improved a lot on the eye contact, speech fluency, confidence and tones varying on the day of presentation. I also tried to engage the audience when I found they did not maintain attention on me=D. I fear most on the Q&A session, as I said, I was never afraid of the presentation since I could be prepared for it. But the Q&A session was a totally different story and such an interaction was my weakness. Besides, I also realized that to convince my audience, I need to convince myself first.

Anyway, the last day of the module should be a happy day since our team would finish the presentation and it was also Kent’s birthday. But I felt a bit sad when everything went to the end. I should say that I have benefited a lot from this module, from the 13 weeks efforts, from Ms Happy Goh, and my dearest classmates. But I also have many regrets because of my poor English. No pains, no gains. I will keep moving forward to improve my English and commutation skills.


Once again, a great thank you to Ms Goh, for your kindly help and encourage. Thanks to my classmates, it is nice to know you all. And all the best for the final exams.

Blog post#4: Fostering Intercultural Communication

Innocent junoir

Culture is very broadly defined. People with different nationalities, languages, educations, ages, genders or etc may have different values and believes. Intercultural communication is everywhere in our daily life, and it is problematic if misunderstanding or improper reaction occurs.

I am always nervous and highly alerted when my grandmother talks with me. With a 60-year gap between us, I am always trying to find appropriate tones and words to react with her, just in case that sometimes the way I talk may sound like I am not respecting her. For example, once I say words such as “anyway”, “whatever” or “let it be” to my grandma, she will be angry as she feels that I am not concentrating on our conversation, and I should have an enthusiastic attitude when talking with her. Worse still, even when I am misunderstood, I can never argue with her saying that I am concentrating. Therefore, most of the times, I will keep silent in such a case.

Similarly it also applies to me and my aunt. My aunt used to be a teacher, whereas I was always a good student in my family. Good students mean that they must rule themselves strictly on their speech and behaviors at anytime. Therefore, when my aunt hears me saying “oh shit!” or “Angelina Jolie is hot and sexy”, she will definitely remove my name from the good student list.

As a junior, I am quite innocent because the way my generation talks is sometimes unaccepted by the old generation. But in fact, I am never offensive. And the more I explain the more troubles I will be involved in. Therefore, silence is gold.

Blog Post#3: Application Letter

Job discription:

HEWLETT-PACKARD SINGAPORE

HP has the world's second largest computer research laboratory. We invent new technologies and innovative information products. Change markets. Create business opportunities.

We also help to plan and broaden company strategy, and deliver the science and technology that achieves it. That gives HP leadership.

We're focused on e-services, technologies and solutions. On internet and computing platforms, printing and imaging technologies, storage and intelligent information appliances, and we're chasing down broader alternative technologies and basic research.

INTERN (Singapore)

Responsibilities:

-          Understand the existing OSR system (online shipment request) written in C# Programming.

-          Enhance and integrate the new changes requirement.

-          Verify the new system performances to meet the requirement.

-          Provide a project status on weekly basis.

Requirements:

General IT knowledge on

-          Microsoft SQL Server Database

-          C# Programming

Able to complete task with given time frame (3 months) to meet Project Objectives & Goals

Able to cope with work stress

Able to communicate and establish good working relationship with the team

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear sir or madam,

       I am currently a 2^nd year student majoring in Computer Engineering from National University of Singapore (NUS). And I am writing to apply for the internship from May to July. To be an engineer, I always want to apply my knowledge in workplace. And HP is the one that I want to be involved in. I believe I am well qualified for your requirements and I would contribute my best to your programs.

      

Programming languages are the basic tools of computer engineers. With strong skills of C/C++ programming, I am familiar with the object oriented programming style, as well as different data types and their implementations. From my own interest, I am also self-learning C# and Java. In addition of above high level languages, I am going to finish “assembly language” this semester. Therefore, I have enough confidence in understanding your OSR system within a reasonable time. My ability of modeling real problems into prototypes will be enhanced after I finish learning “software engineering” this semester. Besides of the software knowledge, my major also focuses on hardware knowledge. The knowledge of hardware mechanism helps to differentiate me from general programmers. And I believe this will contribute to your project in a positive way.

       I can cope with stress easily as I am also engaged in various activities outside the busy academic life. I am keen on community service, thus I join the “Uni-Youth club” and “NUSSU Volunteer Action Committee” to give back to society. Besides, I am also a vocalist in Geyao, which is under NUS Chinese Society. And on 31 Jan 2011, my team held the “Chinese New Year Celebration gala”, which we had prepared for 1 month and attracted nearly 300 audience. Therefore, I believe I can work effectively in a team as well as individually.

       I am looking forward to an interview as you may know more about me. I believe you would definitely select me. And thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely,

Zhang Jiao

Blog Post#2: Resolving Interpersonal conflict

Close live, close friends?

Before I came to NUS, I studied in Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT). In HIT, 5 other friends (Cai, Zhao, Zhou, Yao and Li) were sharing a room with me. We were from different parts of China. And as freshmen, we had few friends, so we were always together for lecture, dinner, bath and almost everything. We were close to each other, however, perhaps we would never become close friends.

Within the 3 months of my stay in HIT, I tried to minimize interpersonal conflicts between my roommates and me, as I had experience of living in dormitory before. But things were different for my roommates, in addition that we were from different backgrounds and had different personalities.

Gradually we found that Cai was never considerate to others. We were always awakened by his noise of snore and turning over. Sometimes Cai came back very late, even after all of us fell asleep. But he did not open and close the door gently. We had informed him several times, but he never apologized and improved.

Zhao was at the lower berth of Cai, thus he was most influenced by Cai. One day, Zhao lost his temper on Cai, he expected Cai to improve, but Cai behaved innocent. And Zhao tells me that since then he seldom talks to Cai.

Li was interesting as he always interfered with others’ business, and we did not know if it was because he was enthusiastic to help others at anytime, or he was just curious about others. And such a person could not resolve the conflicts between Zhao and Cai, but sometimes caused more conflicts.

Yao and Zhou were quiet all the time. Even when they were awakened by Cai, they just complained a bit. And they could not contribute to resolve the conflicts of others. Also we would never know their ideas.

So how do you resolve the conflicts, which are mainly caused by personality clash rather than communication skills?

Blog Post#1:Why effective communication skills are important for me?

I used to think that as an engineer, I would just operate on machines and hence I do not need to talk, machines would not response me either. But now I believe that I would gradually become a machine if I seldom communicate. Human is never isolated as if he was in a solitary island. Engineers do not marry machines, but they also have their life besides work. Furthermore, nowadays working as a team is always more productive than as individual. Thus, to communicate and effectively is essential.

For me, I believe I am a good listener. I can easily concentrate while I am involved in a conversation. It is easy for me catch the information that others are trying to convey. However, things are different when I am going to talk (in English). As I learn English by memorizing vocabularies and grammars rather than from communication, sometimes I would fail to express my thoughts clearly. Occasionally people will misunderstand what I actually mean. It is impossible to enlarge my vocabulary within a short time. Therefore I think, effective communication skills would primarily help me understood easily by others.

That is also the reason why I take ES2007S, which most PRC students extremely fear. I wish as time being, effective communication skills will not only help me understood by others, also help me become impressive and lead me to a success.