Critical Reflection on SEM2902

This post will be regarding my reflection on SEM2902 module which focus primarily on Interpersonal and work communication.

Before coming to this course, I did not know that the non verbal cues could be a hint to what I might be feeling at this moment.This course went through the types of non verbal and I was surprised that there are so many of them.Through this course, I learn to perceive others through their verbal and non verbal communication and also how should I respond to them.

This module also requires me to do blog posts on selected topics. The weekly postings and timely feedback from lecturer and classmates enables me to reflect on the ways I structured my post. Do I have any grammar mistakes, are they interpreting my post correctly or is my idea feasible and conveying the correct message I want to send. Those questions will always pop up whenever I read the comments.

I also learn more about myself and the ways I can improve in communication. This module taught me on the ways to resolve conflicts which I find it to be useful.  No two individuals have exactly the same expectations and desires, conflict is a natural part of our interactions with others.The Thomas Kilmann conflict mode instrument is especially useful as it measure a person’s behavior in conflict situations and this enables me to select the conflict handling mode when dealing with conflicts.

I greatly appreciate what this course had taught me and with the the experience and the knowledge that I had gained, I feel I can perform better in my future presentations and avoid miscommunication with my peers.

Critical Reflection on Project Learning

The topic that my team had chosen was “Interpersonal Conflict on Social Media among Singapore Teens”. What makes us choose this topic was because it happens frequently and it is something that my team had gone through or witness it before, hence we felt that this was a good topic to present as people can relate to it.

Through this presentation, I realized that it is important to link all our slides and the contents so that we are reinforcing the idea. For my part, I am researching about the way Facebook can adversely affect relationships. I found it was good that I am able to link it to our video and able to let audience see the effects. It was good that I can present without looking at my script and able to present to the audiences with confidence and ease.I would always write out the script that I am going to present beforehand, and I always seems to be able to memorize what I am going to present. I think this gave me a edge as I will not be flustered during presentation.

I also learn how non-verbal communication can reinforce or contradict verbal communication. During the mock presentation, I was slouching which translate into a bad posture which Rati noticed and pointed out to me. It was then I realized that even though my content can be interesting, the audiences can be distracted by my actions.

Some problems that I faced would be the projection of my voice is a little bit soft. I do want to speak louder, but I felt that whenever I spoke louder, my pronunciation seems to be worse than usual.

After presenting and receiving feedback, I received some pointers in how I can improve.  I was a bit speedy when speaking. This might be due to the presence of time limit  and makes me conscious of time. I tend to overuse Singlish in both speaking and writing.

Through this experience, I have to be more aware of my tendency to use Singlish and think through the words before speaking, pace myself so that I will not be so speedy when speaking. One thing I did not realise was that I use fillers word like ‘right’ when presenting, I need to be more aware of it and control myself from using it.

Updated: 15/04/16

 

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict (Blogpost #3)

Most of the serious conflicts in your life probably involve people you are closely connected to, such as your friends and family, your romantic partners and the people you work with. If a conflict isn’t resolved or is allowed to escalate too far, it can damage the relationship. If you can handle the conflict successfully, you can make your relationship with the other person stronger and more resilient by improving your understanding of each other.

The conflict I am going to mention is between my mother and my neighbour who is currently staying downstairs below us. In Singapore, it is common to dry our laundries using the designated poles installed outside. However, on one particular day, my mother found out that the newly washed clothes that we hung outside to dry have a very distinctive smell. It was reek of grease and she was perplexed why was there such a smell on a washed clothes. At that moment, my neighbour downstairs started to cook lunch and  she noticed a considerable amount of fog coming from downstairs. It appears that my neighbour had converted the laundry area into a cooking area and whenever they cook, the fog will be travelled through the windows and affect the clothes hung outside.

My mother was furious by this action and she went down to confront my neighbour. She told them “Hey, are you aware that whenever you cook, you dirtied my laundries?”. However, they were unaffected and was defiant, they replied with “This is my house, I can cook whatever place I want”. She told them back with “Then you could have installed a vent hood.”My mother threatened to call the housing board but they still continue cooking at the exact same place.At this point in time, both of them were competing with each other.In the end, this conflict was not resolved and calling the housing board did not do anything to solve the situation. My mother gave up in trying to dry the laundries outside and opt to dry them inside the house.

In the end, this conflict was not resolved and calling the housing board did not do anything to solve the situation. My mother gave up in trying to dry the laundries outside and opt to dry them inside the house, choosing to accommodate.

When faced with such situation, what would you all have done?

Blogs commented:

Zong Hong

Angela

Keryl

 

Reading Summary: Emotional Intelligence

On the webpage “What is Emotional Intelligence?” published by the University of New Hampshire, John D Mayer defined emotion as a feeling state whereas intelligence is the capacity to reason information. Mayer mentioned that the general definition of emotional intelligence is the capacity to reason about emotions, and of emotions to enhance thinking. However, the author defined emotional intelligence as an ability to recognize the meanings of emotion and their relationships, and to reason and problem-solve on the basis of the individual. The author believed that emotional intelligence involves the capacity to perceive emotions, assimilate emotion-related feelings, understand the information of those emotions, and manage them accordingly.

Evaluating Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior

In our interaction with others, we easily and naturally use our senses as we communicate and exchange information. To increase the effectiveness of our communication, we see an increasing need to use non-verbal communication to convey messages across more accurately.

While shopping at a  store, I saw 2 different couples and observed their differences. From my observation, Couple A are maybe in their 40s couple and Couple B are a young couple. .Let me differentiate them as young couple and old couple. In the case of old couple, they were choosing the curtain design and from the girl’s posture, I could see that she was not pleased. She was frowning and had her hands folded. However, when her partner asked her what was wrong, she did not tell him what was the problem. It might be she was not liking the design that the partner had picked but did not voice out her disagreement.  On the other hand, the young couple situation is the opposite. The guy  discuss with his partner before choosing the design and keep seeking each other opinions. From my observation, I  evaluate the interaction in terms of how culture, gender or age seem to influence communication.

Firstly,culture. Culture has a very important role in the way we were brought up. People who are brought up the traditional Chinese where they favour males more are more likely to grow up in a male dominant household. For males, the  chance of them possessing male chauvinism personalities are higher. This might caused them to force people to think like them and dislike people disagreeing with them.

Secondly, age do matters. As the society is stressing on equality rights and females are also working to support the family, both males and females have equal rights and they have a say in any decisions made. This is applied more to younger female as it is only in recent years that there are females in higher important post.

Hence, the younger generation view man and woman having equal rights and thus most things important are discussed together before making any decision.

Thirdly, gender. Male and Female think very differently and the way they respond to certain instances can be very different. Some females are more timid and therefore do not voice out their discomfort. I know female likes to say they are fine when in fact they are not, hoping their male counterparts would notice and show some concerns.

In conclusion people behaves very differently from each other because of multiple influences such as culture,age and gender.

Edited : 15/2/16

Blogs commented

Syahirah – 7c

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YaWen

Descriptive Reflection: Strengths and Challenges in Communicating

 

I am an introvert and I usually will not divulge too much of myself unless a person asks.This leads me to have some challenges in communicating with other people as they often feel that I am building a wall around myself and it is hard to feel close to me.This is especially so when meeting strangers for the first time, I do feel awkward and would keep silent.It used to be a big problem during my secondary school days. However, I have since tried to be more courageous and be the one who engages in the first conversation to overcome the problem.

However, if I feel the person is someone who I can trust and relate to, I will be super talkative and always initiate conversation and I treat my friend with sincerity and will help in whatever way I can. I will give my honest opinion even though I know they will not be happy to listen to it.

My strength in communication is that I am tactful when giving feedback and this trait works well in giving comments that are not nice as I will approach in a roundabout way so that the person will not feel so hurt and embarrassed as sometimes being too direct can harm relationships. I am also an active listener and I usually remember what they had said.It is maybe why a lot of my friends come to me when they have concerns and need just someone to listen to. One instance is when I have to decline helping some colleague as I was also busy with my own work, so I said in a roundabout way that I cannot give you a definite answer as I still have yet to finish my work, but it is highy that I cannot finish the work by today etc…

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Meiying

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