Reflection time! Looking back, above all the skills we've learned and acquired from this course, I find myself looking back with a smile. This was one module I didn't really dread coming to school for! Well, maybe just the part where I have to wake up rather early to make it to school at 10am, but that's beside the point. The point is, this was a class where interactions were aplenty, and I found myself removed from my Engineering formulas and theories and what not. In came conversations, discussions, peer teaching, blogging, MIRC(Team Rocks only), presentations, resumes, cover letters and many more.

It was the people that made this module so enjoyable. Thank you Brad for being informative yet entertaining at the same time! And all my classmates who have actively participated in class, I have truly learned a lot from you guys as well.

What have I learned? I learned that I was so inadequate for what is to come for me in the coming year when I graduate, but now I feel much more confident in preparing myself for the inevitable resume and application letter submissions as well as all the intimidating interviews I will have to go through. I will graduate safe in the knowledge that at least I got a head start on my career! :)

Oral Presentation Review

I felt in the end, I was presenting to skeptics. Not that all of you were skeptics, but it was the first time in a presentation I felt like the audience were actually against our ideas to begin with instead of the usual neutral viewpoint, and the 3 of us had to push really hard to "convert" the audience.

And I'm glad we did well. It was a topic close to everybody's heart, and hence everybody had opinions about our presentations and our recommendations. Suffice to say, I didn't quite foresee our Q & A session to pan out the way it did, but I'll take it, cause it means everybody was listening!

Kudos to Joshua and Amos who have been great group mates in this project! I think our presentation was clear yet concise and convincing at the same time! Our delivery was good and our slides were simple and effective! I love how Steve Jobs does his presentations and hopefully I managed to emulate a little bit of him in my presentation!

If I have to identify a flaw, I would say I always talk too fast. I reminded myself before presenting that I should slow down, but ultimately I fired off like a machine gun, but I guess I'm forgiven right? :)

Intercultural Observation

Hey all, sorry for the really late post. Typed out my blog entry in my laptop and it failed on me. Sent it for repair! So I lost my entire post :(

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Back in my army days, I had a navigation exercise in Taiwan where a group of us would spend 4 days and 3 nights in the wilderness. We had to look for several checkpoints before heading back to the main camp when we are finished with all the checkpoints.

On the 2nd day, we had to quickly find a place to rest for the night as it was fast approaching night and it was impossible to find a good place once it was dark. Unfortunately we couldn't find a good place to stay in the forest and found ourselves stranded! Luckily for us, a local spotted us and actually invited us to stay in a spare room in his house. We were quite taken aback at first cause in Singapore it's rare that strangers talk to us, and even rarer that someone invites 3-4 strangers into their house to stay over night. We politely refused at first cause firstly we were warned not to be spotted in anything that resembles civilization during the whole navigation exercise, and secondly we just felt it was highly impolite to stay in a stranger's place. But the local was adamant and insisted we stay. It was quite a funny conversation all round cause my group consists of a malay, an indian and I. My group members couldn't understand the language spoken and could only keep smiling and offer their thanks by nodding furiously and bowing whenever he directed comments at them.

We finally agreed to stay, but the hospitality didn't stop there. Our host then proceeded to give us food, mats and offered us a warm shower. We politely said no to the warm shower, but took the rest gleefully. After the host retired to his bedroom, , my friends and I discussed the whole situation and couldn't believe our luck, but after much debate, it wasn't really our luck. It was just that the people's hospitality here is far greater than back home in Singapore. If the situation was reversed, I highly doubt I would offer a stranger a place to stay in my house. We wondered though if people in the cities of Taiwan would offer us a place to stay, and we figured it would be highly unlikely as well. Maybe affluence affects how we treat strangers, with hospitality or contempt.

Cultures differ across countries, but it also differs greatly across the affluence divide.

Personal Statement

The ability to listen is probably my greatest strength. I enjoy simple conversations over coffee, and how I can help others by simply offering a listening ear to them. In this fast-paced, quick-fix society, too often we seek solutions to our problems when we decide to open up and share them to others, hoping they can solve our problems for us. However, I believe that having someone to share your problems with is in itself a wonderful thing to have. Even if they do not offer solutions to our problems immediately, by confiding in them, we share our burdens and lighten our loads! I believe I have been offering that listening ear to many of my friends, so much so that if I wanted to, I could share with you many secrets that shouldn't see the light of day, but that would be betraying my friends' trust in me.

Listening goes beyond just being a confidant, it's a skill that can make the difference between making a potential client happy or falling short of their expectations. It makes things easier for you to establish good working relationships with your boss and colleagues. It is what makes leaders good, by being an effective listener. By listening, I have served customers and made their dining experience a pleasant one by understanding their needs with regards to their food. I helped my army unit achieved ISO 9001 re-certification by listening, understanding and make appropriate changes with regards to the requirements of the auditors during their pre-audit visits. By listening, I have led young teenagers and have them come back and express their gratitude simply because I listened to them.

"Most People will not really listen or pay attention to your point of view until they become convinced you have heard and appreciate theirs" (Nichols). Listening isn't my unique ability. I'm sure they are people out there who listen, but I'm glad I have listened effectively and I have seen how it has shaped many facets of my life and impacted people's lives around me.

Application Letter!

Hello All!

Always wanted to be a teacher, so here are the job details!

______________________________________________________

“Are You The Right One?”

Not everyone can be a teacher. Not only must you have the passion for education, you need to know how to engage the students in their learning, be a good role model and an inspiration to them and prepare them for the challenges of life.

A teacher is the heart and soul of a class, the pulse that keeps a lesson lively and engaging. Teaching as a career is an exciting journey filled with challenges and rewards. You play a critical role in nurturing the spirit of innovation and the passion for learning in our young, grooming them into all-round individuals. In turn, you will grow both as a person and a professional. Come take up this meaningful career and experience the wonders of teaching.

We recognise that our teachers have different aspirations. The teaching profession provides a challenging and enriching career with varied fields of excellence that cater to your talents, abilities and aspirations.

_________________________________________

Chin Jun Yong Joel

Block 111 #01-111

Woodlands Street 11

Singapore 730111

6th September 2009

Mdm Peh Tzu Feng

Manager, Recruitment Unit

Recruitment and Placement Branch

Ministry of Education

1 North Buona Vista Drive

Singapore 138675

Dear Ms. Peh,

I am writing to express my keen interest in joining the Ministry of Education as a teacher. I will be graduating in May 2010 from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering (Mechanical Engineering).

I believe I have the passion and drive to equip students with a good education. Above that, I also believe in empowering students with life skills and not just things taught within a classroom. As a tuition teacher, seeing my students doing well for their exams gives me great pride and satisfaction, not because I delight in my abilities in improving their grades, but rather seeing them embracing learning and placing higher priorities on their studies.

Being a cell leader in Church, I have to lead and mentor 8-12 secondary school boys. I have to look after many aspects of their lives and not just their studies. It could be issues with relationships, CCAs, their involvement in Church and many more. The greatest satisfaction comes when after spending 4-5 years with the boys, you see them growing into better all-round individuals.

When I was a student councilor in my junior college days, I have learnt and developed leadership and organizational skills, and above all these, the ability to communicate with my peers and well as teachers or superiors. The ability to communicate with students as a teacher is very important because it is the teacher that ultimately can inspire students to greater heights.

Lastly, I want to become a teacher because I had great teachers in the past. Teachers who have inspired me to learn new things, take a different path and to stand out in the crowd.

I would welcome an opportunity to further discuss with you my qualifications and how I can be of service to the education ministry as a teacher. Please find enclosed my resume with my contact details.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours Sincerely,

Joel Chin

Enclosure: Resume

____________________________________

(My Address is fake since this can be viewed publicly)

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict - Oasis Style

28th August 2009 - Noel Gallagher has left Oasis!

"The details are not important and of too great a number to list. But I feel you have the right to know that the level of verbal and violent intimidation towards me, my family, friends and comrades has become intolerable."

And the lack of support and understanding from my management and band mates has left me with no other option than to get me cape and seek pastures new."

Talk about resolving interpersonal conflicts!

For the uninitiated, Oasis is an english rock band and one of the best selling UK bands of all times. The band was fronted by the Gallagher brothers, Noel and Liam. Their music include Number 1 hit singles like Wonderwall and Stand By Me. Success however, has come at a cost. The Gallagher brothers have always had a fractious relationship even though they've been together in the band for 18 years. Liam admitted in an interview that he rarely spoke with his brother and seldom travelled with him even when they were on tour together, only seeing each other on stage because they had to.

"He doesn't like me and I don't like him, that's it," Liam said.

The two have had bad fall-outs, but the last straw came on friday night while on tour in Paris. A backstage fight between the brothers culminated in Liam smashing Noel's guitar. The night's performance was cancelled minutes before it was to begin. Two hours later Noel put up this statement on the band's website.

"It's with some sadness and great relief to tell you that I quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer."

I'm pretty sure both were clearly unhappy with the other party, yet through all these years both hung on together in order that the band could go on. People knew the brothers were different, yet they managed to set aside their differences for the good of the band, until now.

If you were Noel, and you know you have issues with your brother, what would you do after all the fracas on friday? Lose your pride, make up with Liam and salvage the band? Or walk away with good memories but leave the conflict unresolved?

Effective Communication Skills. Why are they important?

On a scale of 1-10, how would you grade yourself when it comes to being an effective communicator? If someone had asked me this question before I attended the 1st week of ES2007S, I would have said,

“5. I think I'm pretty good with my language and my presentation skills, but I think I'm a tad nervous at times, so I guess my communication skills are average.”

How ignorant of me! All these time I allowed myself to believe that communication is all verbal, and that being nervous is the only factor that will affect how good a communicator I am! Ask me the same question now, and my answer would be one of uncertainty, simply because communication encompasses so many different factors! From body language, facial expressions, the language we speak, the communication channels we use and many more. The fact is, communication isn't just one-way, it's both-ways! Being able to comprehend what others are communicating to me is just as important! The truth is, communication is happening all the time and all around us, even if we don't notice it.

Whenever I play live with my band (I'm the electric guitarist), we try our best to arrange the music before we go on stage so that everybody knows their parts and play appropriately when we're on stage, but when situations arise and things need to be changed, the leader of the band would use various parts of his body to tell us what he wants the band to do. He might use his hands, feet, eyes or even nodding his head to tell us to change the tempo, change the key of the song, move on to the next song, start instrument solos or vocal solos and many more! I've been playing for so many years, I have taken for granted this facet of communicating! If not for these signals, we would have messed up so many times on stage I would probably have quit playing with the band for fear of further embarrassment!

As I was typing this post, I decided to attempt an experiment. The scenario is, I'm sitting on the floor in the library in a manner which is rather... queer. I asked my friend to observe people's reaction around me when they saw me. These are some reactions and comments that were barely audible.

• While walking pass, an uncle stared at me while frowning his eyebrows the whole time.
• “Siao” (Crazy in hokkien), exclaimed an elderly man.
• A child telling his mother about “that guy in the corner”, while pointing his finger at me. The mother nodding in agreement after she noticed me.

I'm giving everybody around me a bad impression of myself, when in fact I'm actually a normal person, and I didn't even speak to any of them.

Effective communcation skills are certainly important, not just for the tangible results. Writing good resumes and leaving a good impression during a job interview are good skills to have, but we should also see how effective communcation skills can be used to impact the lives of people around us. I for one, will attempt to communicate better with my girlfriend. It's mind boggling whenever I ask her if something is wrong and she says,

“Nothing.”

It never means “nothing” right?

Edited Monday 24th August 2009 10:40pm - Changed the sentences BB sensei talked about in his comment