Monday, April 19, 2010
Final reflection
Monday, April 12, 2010
Oral presentation
"There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave."
-- Dale Carnegie
Monday, March 22, 2010
Methods and procedures - Draft 1
Methods and procedures
The following are the methods and procedures used by the team for this project.
Firstly, job advertisements in the field of conservation hiring fresh graduates were referred to and it was found that good communication skills are almost always one of the most sought for skills by employers in this area.
Further research on secondary sources was conducted to explore need for communication skills in the conservation field. These sources have been referenced in the background section of our proposal and they serve to support the need for our research.
In addition, the team also conducted a research on compulsory communication modules that other universities are offering. This allows the comparison of the differences in the communication skills development that students from NUS undergo with students from the other universities.
A short survey focusing on the attitude of NUS Life Science undergraduates towards developing their communication skills in NUS was created, to target NUS Life Science students who are intending to be in the Biology concentration. This survey aims to explore the adequacy of NUS curriculum in providing these undergraduates with the necessary communication skills in conservation related workplace. It also aims to gather their opinions and attitudes towards acquiring communication skills in their study in NUS. The online survey tool used by the team is www.surveymonkey.com.
An interview was also conducted with Mr. N. Sivasothi, a Biodiversity lecturer from the Department of Biological Sciences at NUS, who is actively involved in teaching at NUS as well as numerous conservation efforts with the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research and other conservation groups. This interview was crafted to inquire the current development of communication skills in the NUS Life Science curriculum as well as the possible barriers that may be preventing NUS students from mastering these skills. The team also used this chance to discuss about the feasibility of the options and ideas that will be proposed during the oral presentation.
Lastly, the team plans to interview NUS students who have previously worked at the conservation related workplace, such as the Singapore Zoological Gardens and the Night Safari. From these interviews, the team aims to obtain first-hand information from the horse’s mouth regarding the communication skills required in these workplaces and the adequacy of the NUS education in developing these communication skills.
Challenges
There are several challenges faced by the team in the process of conducting the research. For the online survey, due to the difficulty in determining the actual number of students who are both in the Biology concentration and those intending to concentrate in Biology, the extrapolation of results from the survey may not entirely reflect the opinions of the entire population of Biology students targeted. Next, the interviews with the NUS students who worked in a conservation related workplace might be insufficient to determine the general picture of the specific communication needs in this workplace.
Nonetheless, with these limitations in mind, the team will make careful analysis of the data and information that would be collected in this process and attempt to make sound recommendations and conclusions.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Job interview comments, a post out of the norm
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Evaluating Intercultural Behavior - "Chope-ing" seats
This intercultural incident happened during my summer program in Korea. Although no conflicts happened, we were ashamed of our actions.
To most of the NUS students, it is a norm to place our bags unattended on our seats in the canteen while ordering food. It served to give us an assurance that we have seats after we buy our food. While in one of the university’s canteen in Korea, we did the same thing. However, when we were queuing for food, we felt that something was amiss as some of the Korean students gave us weird stares. Few moments later, it finally dawned on me that everybody had their bags with them while queuing for food! What made it worse was that there were students with food standing around waiting for seats in the canteen while our bags were happily seated on the chairs. After we got our food, we went back to our seats, ate quickly and left the canteen feeling guilt-stricken. It was one of the worst meals I had in my life.
Frankly, I think we should have paid more attention to our surroundings before we acted. We should not have assumed that what is the norm in NUS is applicable to everywhere else. I felt that the Korean students understood that we were new exchange students, as things could have turned out ugly if they decided to throw our bags aside and sat on our seats.
This incident had made me realize that the Koreans are more of a “we” culture as by not placing their bags on the chairs, more students will get to utilize the chairs. Overall, the “efficiency” of the chairs would increase as it can serve more diners at a given period of time. Singaporeans on the other hand are more of an “I” culture as we deny others of a chance to utilize our chairs when we are queuing for food by placing our bags on the chairs. Although the “efficiency” of the chairs would decrease, being selfish creatures, we are guaranteed a seat after we buy our food. This difference in culture is also seen in trains in both Korea and Singapore. In Korea, commuters would automatically move to the center of the carriages allowing more commuters on board. While in Singapore, commuters tend to cluster near the doors of the carriages, denying others the chance to board the train.
I feel that Singaporeans have much to learn from the Koreans with regards to this aspect of their culture.
Edited: 21 Feb 2010, 1956h
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Application Letter 2nd Draft
Dear friends,
Thanks in advance for taking the time to look through my application letter, I would admit that there are still plenty of areas that require improvement.
The job that I am applying for can be found at http://www.ge.com/careers/students/eedp/asia.html
RE: Opportunities in Undergraduate Leadership Program
Dear Sir/Mdm,
I am writing in response to your recruitment over the internet for the Undergraduate Leadership Program.
I will be graduating from National University of Singapore with a degree in Electrical Engineering with 2nd Upper Class Honors, specializing in Power, Drives and Control. My final year project required me to have an in-depth knowledge of power converters and renewable energy. In addition, it placed my analytical and problem solving skills to the test while working individually.
During my course of undergraduate study, I held the position of Vice President for NUS Outdoor Activities Club. During which I co-managed and groomed a team of 15 individuals to run the club. I have also organized 3 treks to Malaysia for the undergraduates of NUS. I gained precious experience from planning and leading these overseas trips in the fields of risk management, public relations as well as leadership. Furthermore, the trips that I organized trained me to remain calm in the event of any emergencies, and to handle them appropriately.
I was also the project director for Race 6, a nationwide adventure race. In which I successfully led a team of 20 individuals in planning for this 3 days 2 nights race. Race 6 attracted more than 100 participants and also garnered sponsorships amounting to over $7000. My communication skills were heavily tested when I had to communicate with the sponsors as well as the management of the locations that we used. I am confident that my ability to work well with others and my experience with leadership positions qualify me for the Undergraduate Leadership Program.
I am greatly interested in a position in General Electric as they are often invested and groomed by the company. I am also drawn to the challenges that the participants of this program will face. Obtaining a degree with 2nd Upper Class Honors while being heavily involved in co-curriculum activities is a testament of my time management skills; and I am quite sure that I would be able to cope with the intensity of this program.
My resume is enclosed for your reference, and I look forward to hearing from you. If you have any questions or wish to contact me, I can be reached at 9999-9999 (mobile) or at Chuakunlin@nus.edu.sg. Thank you.
Best Regards
Chua Kun Lin
Friday, January 29, 2010
Solutions needed please!
(This is based on a true story)
John (not his real name) was one of my closest friends. He was the main person I turned to when I needed a listening ear. However, this relationship turned for the worse when the 2 of us decided to join a planning committee together.
Despite the many ideas we shared in common, I realized that there was one huge difference between the two of us – work ethics. John was the person who would want to start and end the meeting punctually. Therefore, if there were still items in the agenda that has yet to be covered, he would rush through them and often try to haphazardly decide on a solution without further discussion. More often than not, his opinions became a disruption to our meetings. On the contrary, I am one who would almost never end a meeting unless all the items in the agenda have been properly discussed.
Our meetings were conducted in the evening and it often lasted for about 3 hours, sometimes, it might even extend to 4 hours. Nearing the end of the meeting, all of us would usually be tired and hungry however most of us would still want to discuss the agenda properly. As the saying goes “a hungry man is an angry man” so there were a few incidents when I could no longer endure John’s rushing and asked him to keep his opinions to himself in order to let us think of a proper solution. Needless to say, he was not very happy about it so I have always SMSed him after the meeting to apologize. On a few occasions, we even trashed it out with each other and discussed about the things we disliked of each other after my apology.
Sadly, the trashing out did not solve the conflicts. In the next meeting, the exact same thing happened and this time round I did not apologize. I felt that I was simply voicing out the thoughts of most of the members. In addition to that, I did not like the idea of constantly being the first to apologize as I believed that he was also in the wrong too. Being the first to apologize in every conflict made me feel as if I am a subordinate to him. After that incident there was a cold war between the two of us and I felt very miserable that I have lost a very close friend.
What could be done to salvage this friendship? Is there anything that could be done in the future to prevent this incident from happening again?
Friday, January 22, 2010
Why communicate professionally?
The answer to the above question is simple. Why not? The first barrier that stands between everyone and their job would be a test of communicating your skills and achievements to your future employer. No matter how good are the qualifications of the interviewee, without the basic ability of communicating properly, the interviewer would not be impressed. After we get employed, our communication skills are further tested when we are supposed to work as a team. Sending wrong signals or messages at this point might result in a poor appraisal or even something disastrous.
One of the major incidents that happened was the loss of a $125 million Mars orbiter by NASA. It happened because one of the teams used the English units of measurement while the rest of NASA used the metric system for measurements. To put it simply, the NASA engineers mistook 12 inches for 12 cm. I guess this is a classic example of miscommunication which led to a great loss of assets.
To give another story (so as to prevent my readers from falling asleep), I would like to relate the recent McDonald’s blunder. I am sure most of us know about this incident whereby McDonald removed the Doraemon-pig soft toy from the zodiac collection. To give a brief background of the incident, McDonald released its Doraemon soft toy zodiac collection to celebrate the upcoming lunar New Year. In order to be sensitive towards Muslims, they have removed the Doraemon-pig version as a pig is considered non-Halal and therefore unclean. This incident caused quite some commotion among Singaporeans. In a simple search on the internet by me, I learnt that monkeys, snakes and rats were also not Halal, though I am still not quite sure whether a dragon is Halal or not. Through further probing by the media, it was discovered that McDonald has not consulted the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS), which is Islamic religious council of Singapore, regarding this decision. This is an area where a lack of communication resulted in an issue that McDonald now has to handle. McDonald followed up by apologizing to its customers in print (which I think was quite standard and professional on their part), and also started selling the Doraemon-pig to its customers. However, I got a slight feeling that they did this in order to create some publicity for themselves (which they really succeeded!). What do you think?
To summarize, effective communication skills are very important not just to me but also to everyone else.
P.S. I tried my best to be grammatically correct by writing my first draft in Microsoft Word, hope it helped!
P.P.S As much as I smiled and laughed while typing this blog post, I felt constipated as I was unable to express my feelings in the forms of emoticons or “haha” and “lol”. So dear friends, do me a favor and read the above post in a light-hearted way by adding in smileys, “haha” and “lol” in your own imagination. Thanks! (:
References
1. Nasa incident, http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/
2. McDonald's blunder, http://www.timeslive.co.za/news/world/article272599.ece
3. Halal and Haram food, http://www.central-mosque.com/fiqh/fhalal1.htm
Pilot
This is my first blog, I hope we will all have fun and laughter in ES2007!
Cheers
kun lin