So, it's the end of the school year already, and our ES2007S has come to an end. However, I believe that the skills that we took away and the memories that we created together will last.
For me, ES2007S was not the first time I learn about communication. However, it was by far the most memorable. Perhaps, it was because of the small class size and various activities which Ms.Lim provided that bonded us together. The workload is heavy, that's no doubt. But it was worth it. In term of communication skills, what I took away was the better knowledge to write application letters, to behave during interviews, to write and present proposal. In addition, knowledge about the "silent communication" (gesture, body language...) also helped me when during daily activities, such as when I was conducting talks for my juniors, organizing meetings or just simply talking to someone. The best part out of it is to have a successful application to NUS's Overseas College program in Silicon Valley, where I get to study in Stanford and work for a start-up company - VSee - for a year. And I am glad that I was able to applies the skills that we learned from Ms. Lim and our peer-teaching friends to that. Plus, it wouldn't have been as successful if Ms.Lim hadn't generously helped my to refine my application resume as well. So for me ES2007S was definitely beneficial.
However, the most that I was able to gain from this modules was friends and the chance to get out of my daily engineering - computing student's routine. Back in the first year, I spent most of my time at labs, working on programs, electronic circuits and computers. Hence, it was rather lonely. Plus, I only 1 or 2 modules that had project work for each semester so I didn't have many people to work with, although my teammates was very nice. As a result, having a class that requires a lot of talking early on every Monday and Thursday was refreshing. In fact, it's the only time that I didn't fell asleep when studying so early :) I got to talk with everyone about all sorts of things, not just things what Ms.Lim asked us to discuss (haha) and found out many interesting things, like how people from different countries do express their anger; how to say "I love you" in different languages... all adds up to the missing part of my student life.
And I found wonderful teammates at the same time. Firstly, it's Akash, Ao Yun, Hui Ting in our peer-teaching group. Everyone was very open-minded and was willing to contribute a lot to the success of the team. For peer-teaching, there was a day that we spent the night together at SoC, till around 3AM plus, to finish our slides and ideas. Hui Ting was on fever as well, but she tried her best to stay as well. Then, it was LiSu and Shawn for our proposal, which they helped me a lot on when I was busy with my CCA and interviews. They are also very nice friends :) Then it was everyone else in the class that makes these whole 13 weeks so memorable. And every Monday and Thursday was more of a gathering than a class, which I really wished to had more of.
In short, ES2007S was more than just a regular module. It was a special time that I enjoy, treasure as well as learn from. There are certain thing that I wish I did during the last 13 weeks: write on my blog and comment on my friend's blog more, as well as being more helpful when it comes to the proposal. It was a extremely busy period for me, but there are times that I should utilized for to do that, instead of sitting around and doing silly things.
I was thinking of the paper that we stick on our back at the start of the class. Mine has a lot of "tall" and "smart" on them. And I wonder if you have a chance to do it again now, what would you write on it? :)
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
A journey of the whole semester
So, the last session is over and the term has ended. It was really sad not to be able to come to Science early on Monday and Thursday... For me, a module is a journey and it has always been hard for me to end such "adventure". For that, I will try not to talk very much about the skills that I gained, but rather feelings that I had.
For me, the topic of effective communication is not very unfamiliar. I have been taking communication workshop, reviewing my resume and such after I graduated from high school. It had go quite okay, as I had managed to secure jobs during interviews for a few times already. Because of I that, I was quite alert to what I say/do (though I haven't been able to get rid of all the bad habits). However, an effect that comes along with that is making myself too "formal". For example, during the first activity in class, most of the words I received was "tall", "smart" but not a single "friendly" impression. My friends and colleagues also said that only seems to open up and being casual after a very long time (about a year or so).
And I think after a semester, my friendliness actually increased, not much, but it did increased. For example, I talk more on out-of-class things with my teammates, Akash, Hui Ting, Ao Yun, Li Su and Shawn, instead of just technical issues. The number of people that I actually felt "close" was bigger also, 7 instead of around 2-3 people in my previous classes.
Admittedly, it haven't been able to make much friend in the past, due to certain incidents in the past. However, I do took part in activities that involves a lot of people, like leading a group in orientation camp, organizing gathering and even do some work as a youth mentor for kids. Plus, I am still approachable for others to seek help in study and work, which many mistook for "friendliness". But I have rarely go beyond that border. As a result, there was a time where I was able to count the number of friends on one hand...
Having gone through the modules, I think I was able to understand more about communication and use it why I talked to my friends. It really helps, especially when my friends are depressed and don't want to tell me, since I can try to observe things like gesture, facial expressions and try to guess what's going on. It also helps me to loosen up while talking with others, becoming more "friendly" at the very least.
In short, I really glad I took the modules, because not only it teaches me things to use in my work life, it also aided me tremendously in my personal relationship with friends and family members. And that 's really more enough for me to appreciate the past 13 weeks.
The semester comes to an end, but I still hope that we can keep in touch :)
For me, the topic of effective communication is not very unfamiliar. I have been taking communication workshop, reviewing my resume and such after I graduated from high school. It had go quite okay, as I had managed to secure jobs during interviews for a few times already. Because of I that, I was quite alert to what I say/do (though I haven't been able to get rid of all the bad habits). However, an effect that comes along with that is making myself too "formal". For example, during the first activity in class, most of the words I received was "tall", "smart" but not a single "friendly" impression. My friends and colleagues also said that only seems to open up and being casual after a very long time (about a year or so).
And I think after a semester, my friendliness actually increased, not much, but it did increased. For example, I talk more on out-of-class things with my teammates, Akash, Hui Ting, Ao Yun, Li Su and Shawn, instead of just technical issues. The number of people that I actually felt "close" was bigger also, 7 instead of around 2-3 people in my previous classes.
Admittedly, it haven't been able to make much friend in the past, due to certain incidents in the past. However, I do took part in activities that involves a lot of people, like leading a group in orientation camp, organizing gathering and even do some work as a youth mentor for kids. Plus, I am still approachable for others to seek help in study and work, which many mistook for "friendliness". But I have rarely go beyond that border. As a result, there was a time where I was able to count the number of friends on one hand...
Having gone through the modules, I think I was able to understand more about communication and use it why I talked to my friends. It really helps, especially when my friends are depressed and don't want to tell me, since I can try to observe things like gesture, facial expressions and try to guess what's going on. It also helps me to loosen up while talking with others, becoming more "friendly" at the very least.
In short, I really glad I took the modules, because not only it teaches me things to use in my work life, it also aided me tremendously in my personal relationship with friends and family members. And that 's really more enough for me to appreci
Publish Post
The semester comes to an end, but I still hope that we can keep in touch :)
What matters is your confidence (Oral reflection)
[Wow, I actually missed the deadline for this blog, because I thought that there 's only one left :( Hope everyone still read it :D ]
Individual reflection
I believe that as students in NUS, we have already experienced oral presentation, or at least had a chance to stand in front of a group and talk about something. I have going through a few, but this presentation is really something special, since it's a presentation that I never have thought about.
Previously, all the presentation that I have joined was those that I am confident about, or at least have a big interest in. However, for the topic that we chose, I was having a lot of doubt about it at the beginning, to be honest. It was because of the past experience in working on environmental-related project that shows me how hard it is to implement such an idea. Hence, even when I am working on the proposal and a few days before the presentation, I was going back and forth the idea, think how should I convince the others if I can even believe in it.
However, the weekend before it, I talked that over with one of my friend, who is doing a campaign about recylcing. And it was that talked that reassured me, as she told me that all the "green" ideas are actually not-at-all feasible, unless you believe in it. For example, if you don't believe that people are going to recycle, you are not going to facilitate them with proper recycling bins and thus, lose a chance to get them recycle waste. Moreover, if you don't believe in the idea of recycling, there 's a high chance that you won't do it yourself, which is worse. After that, we talked more about the technical part of the proposal, which aided my a lot during the Q&A session.
During my presentation, I have made several "silly" things, for example, touching my hair; forgot to look at everyone and focus on Ms.Lim instead; looking up & closing my eyes when I was thinking; not smiling much...etc and I was nervous when it was about my turn to present also. These are things that I have been trying to improve and perhaps haven't archived by talking this class. However, I will just try again, until it's done.
I think that I was able to do quite well in the Q&A sessions, because I made myself believe in what I am presenting about. And perhaps that is the most important thing about a presentation. In reality, it's not that easy to present flawlessly, I believe that as long as you have confidence in what you talk and equip yourself with presentation skill knowledge (you needn't do it correctly all the time, just whenever you remember is okay), you can make a good presentation.
Team-wise
I am quite glad for the efforts my team have made. As my usual routine, I started off the wiki first, then the proposal as well as the slides. But after a while, I started to slack off a bit, to be honest. Then there was NOC interviews, work for NUSSU Welfare and Vietnamese Community as well as my projects and so call "promise" with my prof to help him write something. There was a week that i didn't bother to check my email and thus, the proposal. So I am very glad that Shawn and LiSu helped completing it.
I was rather pleased about our slides. Though I still think that is missing something (compared to the slides that I have seen), it might just a nameless worries because many others said that it was nice :D
For me, I really want to make slides design like these, but I have to admit that I don't have that kind of talent :D
Our presentation went well. Shawn's intro was interesting and caught the audience attention, and LiSu left the audience with laughter, which makes them remember us. And it was because of their part went smoothly that I could start smoothly, too.
Overall, I am glad that I have a good time in my team, and I am grateful for having Shawn & LiSu as my teamates :D
Individual reflection
I believe that as students in NUS, we have already experienced oral presentation, or at least had a chance to stand in front of a group and talk about something. I have going through a few, but this presentation is really something special, since it's a presentation that I never have thought about.
Previously, all the presentation that I have joined was those that I am confident about, or at least have a big interest in. However, for the topic that we chose, I was having a lot of doubt about it at the beginning, to be honest. It was because of the past experience in working on environmental-related project that shows me how hard it is to implement such an idea. Hence, even when I am working on the proposal and a few days before the presentation, I was going back and forth the idea, think how should I convince the others if I can even believe in it.
However, the weekend before it, I talked that over with one of my friend, who is doing a campaign about recylcing. And it was that talked that reassured me, as she told me that all the "green" ideas are actually not-at-all feasible, unless you believe in it. For example, if you don't believe that people are going to recycle, you are not going to facilitate them with proper recycling bins and thus, lose a chance to get them recycle waste. Moreover, if you don't believe in the idea of recycling, there 's a high chance that you won't do it yourself, which is worse. After that, we talked more about the technical part of the proposal, which aided my a lot during the Q&A session.
During my presentation, I have made several "silly" things, for example, touching my hair; forgot to look at everyone and focus on Ms.Lim instead; looking up & closing my eyes when I was thinking; not smiling much...etc and I was nervous when it was about my turn to present also. These are things that I have been trying to improve and perhaps haven't archived by talking this class. However, I will just try again, until it's done.
I think that I was able to do quite well in the Q&A sessions, because I made myself believe in what I am presenting about. And perhaps that is the most important thing about a presentation. In reality, it's not that easy to present flawlessly, I believe that as long as you have confidence in what you talk and equip yourself with presentation skill knowledge (you needn't do it correctly all the time, just whenever you remember is okay), you can make a good presentation.
Team-wise
I am quite glad for the efforts my team have made. As my usual routine, I started off the wiki first, then the proposal as well as the slides. But after a while, I started to slack off a bit, to be honest. Then there was NOC interviews, work for NUSSU Welfare and Vietnamese Community as well as my projects and so call "promise" with my prof to help him write something. There was a week that i didn't bother to check my email and thus, the proposal. So I am very glad that Shawn and LiSu helped completing it.
I was rather pleased about our slides. Though I still think that is missing something (compared to the slides that I have seen), it might just a nameless worries because many others said that it was nice :D
For me, I really want to make slides design like these, but I have to admit that I don't have that kind of talent :D
Our presentation went well. Shawn's intro was interesting and caught the audience attention, and LiSu left the audience with laughter, which makes them remember us. And it was because of their part went smoothly that I could start smoothly, too.
Overall, I am glad that I have a good time in my team, and I am grateful for having Shawn & LiSu as my teamates :D
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