WATCH THIS! I bet that you will singing along!

Who would have thought that TI’s song would be some inspiring? Students from Ron Clark Academy show us how to vote.. however we like!





I remembered watching ‘The Ron Clark Show’ on cable many times and loved it when Matthew Perry (Yup, Chandler from Friends.) busted out some moves during the President’s rap. What a way to learn in class! Do you think we can put what we learn in ES2007S into Rihanna's Umbrella? I doubt so!

By the way, did anybody watched Obama’s acceptance speech? That was a really, really well-written speech I must say!

Blog Post 7: My Love-Hate Relationship with ES2007S

Final Reflection (Blog Post #7)



For this final post, return to your first post and review what you wrote. Has your understanding of the value of effective 
communications skills changed since that time? If so, in what way? If not, why not? How do you feel about the communication 
skills that you have developed in this module? Please reflect on what you have done, on your interactions and your overall 
learning.

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I’ve always thought professional communication was going to be a stroll in the park given that the materials in the book was simple to understand and one do not need 3 months of class to apply it. OH BOY, was I wrong! The course has exposed to me that professional communication is a comprehensive and intensive field. One need to really understand it in order to be an effective communicator given any situations. The weekly classes gave me a chance to apply some of the skills learnt on my classmates.

Among all the useful tools that I learnt in the course, I think the most important one to me was learning how to write an impressive piece of writing. Firstly, my last report that I wrote was probably in JC for Project Work and as far as I know, my grammar has got worse since I do not write essay in Maths. At the same time, I prefer face-to-face communication when trying to express myself. I did not know writing a report could be so tedious. There are so many parts to it and details to keep in mind when crafting a report. I refer to the book every time I had to write the report. As for the rest of materials, I’m sure I will put it to good use when I go for job interviews, presentations and overseas jobs.

I have learnt a lot of things that I would never be able to learn in my other modules. I enjoyed reading, commenting on my classmates’ blogs and reading Mr Blackstone’s post on the elections. I even have a draft resume in hand for my future job search. All in all, I can say that I have achieved what I wanted to: Brush up on my communication skills.

To end off, I would like to thank Mrs Kim for all the advice, anecdote and guidance in this class. I need to really thank my group mates, Huimin and You Fei. I love doing the project with them and all our rehearsals for the oral presentation. It was fun while it lasted.

To the rest of the class, don’t be a stranger now! Do holler when you see me on the streets! Let’s meet up for Timbre!

This is Illya and I bid you goodbye!

BLOG POST 7

“You? A Maths student? You have got to be kidding, right!”

That’s the common reaction whenever I correct all my new friends about my major. My initial reaction to them was either a back-handed insult (‘What? Do I look like someone who could not han dle complicated theorems?!’) or a compliment; given that studying mathematics in NUS is no easy feat. Well, I guess this week’s blog post may give an insight into my very quirky world. So here goes…

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BIODATA

I am a year 3 NUS undergraduate pursuing a degree in Applied Mathematics. I would like to be in the tourism and travel sector where I would be able to incorporate two primary interests of mine - travel and business. I am drawn towards numbers and the major role it plays in our everyday life. Studying Mathematics has trained me to be more analytical and logical in problem solving, with a disciplined and perseverance attitude.

I have an interest in the theatre and indie music scene; and am currently a publicity manager of an independent theatre company. I am able to exercise some managing and interpersonal skills on all the people that I have met and worked with.Besides backpacking and art, I enjoy photography and is currently experimenting with a Holga. I am an extrovert, outgoing, quirky person with a zeal for life.

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BLOG POST 5

Bonjour Mademoiselle and Monsieur!!! 

For this post, look at Appendix 2 of the skill builder Documenting Reports 6: Peer Review. Use the questions there as a 
guide for writing about one aspect of your learning experience, be that your success in teamwork, communication amongst 
your group, problems encountered, etc

Let’s face it! We all have cursed under our breath, vented our frustration out and raked our brains to perfect this research project. And my my, can I tell you that despite all this tedious and time-consuming project that we have to do, I’ve thoroughly came out of it with a positive experience. It wasn’t a smooth ride though. We had some minor scares and a whole lot of editing along the way. However, my group mates (Huimin and You Fei) are pretty satisfied with the report so far.

When it comes to communicating with my group members, I had my reservations at first. After all, they were really good friends and I may feel really awkward just being in the group. However, there wasn’t a moment where I was made feel uncomfortable.  Assigning of task was simple and most of our meetings were very focused. We got most of our work done on time and if any one of us slipped up, there is always another who are ready to solve the mistake. Hui Min was great at spotting all my grammar mistake (Yup, all that maths has totally made my English rusty!) and updating the report. You fei was really good at phrasing out our sentences, given that Hui Min and me had a hard time trying to express our opinions on paper. Well as for me, I tried not to be my usual ‘klutzy’ self and since I was much more familiarize with the topic, I tried to fill the group in with details. Everyone was pretty much a team player and not any of us had any major attitude that would have caused problems in the group.

In terms of research, the Internet was a great source and I also emailed some links of some local arts scene WebPages so that the group would take a look at. There was also no problem crafting the survey questions, as we just had to cut out those that we didn’t want. We had to spend a whole night mass emailing the entire NUS Science students since our deadline was drawing near and we have not reached 100 respondents. Let’s just say emailing a whole faculty of students was really tiring! However, our first real scare was when we could not access our survey result. I remembered vividly when Hui Min called during dinner and said we had to pay US$25 each just to access to it. Apparently, the three of us were so engrossed in the number of respondents that everytime we logged in to Zoomerang, none of us spotted the notice in red. However, we managed to contact Zoomerang office and they were nice enough to extend our membership for a week so that we can access our result. That incident really had us on edge but with a stroke of luck, we recovered from it. The report was the dreaded part of the project; partly because something is always due in every lesson and that it clashes with all our exams. We cringed everytime we got our report back and saw all the purple markings all over the paper. Since it has been ages since I wrote a report, I was glad that I had the textbook and the 7C’s of writing to guide me. 

Our upcoming team project is our oral presentation and I can’t wait for that. I like presentations as compared to writing but I have some problems in it. Like I said in my 1^st post, my major problem was finding a balance between professional and informality so that the audience doesn’t go ‘ZZZ’. The non-verbal cues that I learnt earlier in the module may come in handy and some of the writing methodology may help in making my presentation slide. Oh well, we have to see how it goes later on.

I did enjoy working with my group and pretty much like our project topic. =)

Just a little side-note, do give the local arts scene a try! They have some good works and some of them are recognized internationally. If you are into films, try Eric Khoo’s 12 Storey or there is always Army Daze. By far, Eric Khoo is the best Singapore filmmaker. Or try check out some local music! There's some great music under WakeMeUpMusic, a local records label!

Blog Post 4: Business Meetings

Hola! I’m back on the blog now for my next blog post. So the next blog post is as followed:

For this post, return to the skill builder for Fostering Intercultural Communication. Describe in writing the intercultural 
scenario that you observed for that task and present an interpretation in light of your understanding of cultural norms 
and values and the fundamentals of effective communication.

During my holidays, I used to tag along with my dad whenever he has any business meeting. My dad has adopted an informal way of holding meetings in which he doesn’t like having one in an office. His favorite joint when it comes to holding meeting with foreign client is the Straits Kitchen, Hyatt Hotel. Partly because a large pool of his client is Muslim and Straits Kitchen is one of the two Halal fine dining in Singapore. The ambience is also suitable as it is a balance of informal and a formal setting. I usually sit at the table next to them, chatting with the restaurant’s manager or doing Sudoku. YES, a self-professed geek I am!

Once seated and placing their order for drinks, my dad tends to socialize first. Usually, it runs along the lines of:

• How's the family doing?
• Manchester United lost again!
• So, how do you find Singapore's food?
  

Anything that involves family, health and general interest. This part of socializing tends to occur over the entire meal. It may take a good hour since the buffet spread may probably take that long to cover. After the last plate has been cleared from the table, my dad will order another round of drinks before officially starting the business discussions. It’s usually very quick and most probably is over in 20-30 minutes.

However, after one of his business meetings with an American business partner, his partner made a ribbing remark about how in America, they always get straight to business first before socializing. My dad kind of took that remark to heart and throughout the whole journey home in the car, he kept asking me whether he was rude.

I personally feel that my dad didn’t do any harm. Since he has been hosting clients from the Middle East, they tend to discuss personal issues before business. I think that Asians tend to be interested in building long-term relationships. This is in contrast with some other countries such as America, where the purpose of the meal is to discuss the matter at hand (i.e. the business) before socializing.

So what say you?