Monday 15 April 2013

Reflection on FOP

For FOP, we were given 1 week to prepare however due to time constraint, I only had a mere 4 days to prepare. It was definitely a challenge but I am really glad I had overcome this hurdle!
Firstly, I would like to thank Brad for the continuous support and guidance he had given me throughout this whole process of learning. Through this whole learning process, I gained much more confidence presenting infront of a crowd.

In particular for FOP, despite having so little time to prepare, one thing I really learn from doing presentation is to "believe in your content" - other than "faking till you believe in it". It is only when you believe and you have the confidence in your own content, then it is possible to fake it till you believe it!

I felt I done pretty well for the presentation as I was quite fluent in giving my content.
After my first GT experience, I learnt to not rely on script so much and hence throughout my presentations, all i had was to internalize the content and follow the sequence of the slides to present.
I am really glad to say that, I did it! haha

For the discussion, I felt that my group did it very naturally as we had 0 practice on it. Hence almost everything had to be at your fingertips and you have to think on the spot. It was a challenge but I am really glad everyone had the opportunity to speak their parts and it was really good as all of us had different role to play. Bryan especially kept reminding us the timing which was one of the crucial thing. I must thank everyone for their efforts and time in making this whole thing a great success!

Thank you Chloe, Bryan, Huiqi for these wonderful experiences!


Saturday 30 March 2013

My GT Experience

First of all, I had a really good experience working with my own team mates.
We started off thinking of concepts to making this presentation interactive and interesting.
and we really wanted to have the "fun" element in it and hence, making our Q&A different with a game session where we felt everyone could learn more from it.

For some reasons, maybe due to pressure or environment, I felt more nervous than I previously was during polytechnic. In my own personal opinion, presenting during those days was a breeze to me and didn't felt like I had so many points I had to take note of. Perhaps this will take time to adapt myself comfortably to the new environment.

One thing I felt about our group presentation was that everyone did a really fabulous job. Before the actual day of presentation, we were giving each other feedbacks on the tone/volume and posture which are really critical for a good presentation. But still, although we all had our bad/good points, I still felt that we were much better as compared to each of our rehearsal. For that, I am really proud to say I am part of this group with awesome people.

For my part, I felt that the entire presentation content were really very theory based and it was really inevitable. As compared to the 1st/2nd group which had a much lighter content, it was a challenge to all of us. This was because we had to think of ways to put things as simplified as possible with little words on the slides (if not may end up become wordy). But yeah, there were many constraints.

For my own presentation, I cannot exactly put a feeling to how I felt that day. But, I was rather disappointed by my own performance. When I entered University, through ES2002, it made me realised that my pace was really fast. From what university requires given the feedbacks, it seems to me that there must be great spacing in between your presentation. Somehow, I found it hard to do it because if i were to speak any slower, I would not be myself anymore and I am afraid it may come off as being too fake or just not right. So this sets me pondering, how to do it naturally?






Sunday 17 February 2013

Essay on Article C

Week 4 Report

What is the problem?
  • NUS students are not as daring to give comments and in articulating their ideas across as compared to SMU students. 

    What is the purpose?

  •         How could the quality of NUS students’ oral communication be improved.
  •         Convince NUS to take up the programmes (New curriculum) suggested 
   What are the questions?

  •       How could the quality of NUS students’ oral communication be improved.
  •             How should NUS curriculum be changed to facilitate better oral communication skills?
  •         What the areas students are weak in? (Pacing, Pronounciation, language)
o   Presentation Skills
o   Interviewing Skills
o   Analytical Skills
o   Confidence Skills
  •      How are the existing courses facilitating oral communication? 
  •     For courses that don’t facilitate students oral communication, is there a way for it to be re-configured. (Engineering Courses a component that require them to take presentation)
  •        Different oral aspect, sieve out the courses that could help
  •      Should we have oral communication examinable? 
  Outline
Introduction --> Background --> PPQ --> Findings --> Recommendations --> Conclusion.










Sunday 20 January 2013

Interpersonal Conflict


Interpersonal conflict occurs due to myriad of personalities in each individual.

My friend Nancy told me about how she was confronted during physics tuition. It was a norm that homework questions would be revised through during lesson. The method of revising through would be seat by seat, each student will have to give the answer they had written for the question.

While Nancy did not complete the tutorial assignment she was supposed to do, she asked Joe for help as Nancy felt that Joe was the closest friend she has and she did not want to feel left out without answering the question. Instead of being helpful, Joe went to confront her and said nastily “It is your problem that you did not complete your homework, why should I be so kind to share answers with you”

As seen, Joe had a very direct and confrontational personality however, Nancy even though was in the wrong, she had a passive character where she does not know how to retaliate in situations like this.

Yes, even though Nancy should be responsible for her own homework and her friend isn’t wrong in saying words like this. Can’t conflict be minimized if Joe used words that aren’t so nasty? He could have used words that will not hurt the other party feelings.

If you were to face any confrontation, be it whether you are right or wrong, how will you face it/deal with it?

*Nancy & Joe are fictional names*