Reflection on Learning : ES 2007S

Dear Reader,

If you are reading this, I would have already completed the bulk of my work for ES 2007S. Yes, I know it sounds as if I were dead; but sadly, no I am pretty much alive. I can very much summarize the entire course with six words:

"It has been quite a ride."

From the theories of communication to communicating itself, there are many learning points to take away. The ride was not exactly smooth at the beginning of the journey, considering the background that I had, but I guess everything went just fine. I was not exactly sure if the class wanted additional information regarding the outside world at first, so I decided to share it, hoping that it would benefit the class in some way or another. I was being active then, not because I wanted to boast about what I had achieved, but because the knowledge I had would benefit other students.

As the curriculum progressed towards written communication, I had met up with one of my friends from CELC. If I had not scrutinized the hierarchy chart on the notice board on that very day, I would not have known that my friend held such a position at CELC! Regardless, we were merely catching up with one another, of which we may have chanced upon certain topics of improvement with regards to CELC modules.

This was probably the turning point for me? Things started getting a little quieter after a certain presentation on communication styles between different generations. I realized that this was not the class that I could fit into. I was questioning myself, was I any different from anyone else in that room? The presentation did indeed clear my doubts on why I was taking this module, but is this the communication style of tomorrow? Change takes time, but if change is the only constant, why are we not changing ourselves? Would we not learn more if we change for tomorrow? I ponder still.

Dear reader, do you understand the definition of augmentation? How about that of culture? Inter-cultural communication was covered a couple of weeks back. Is it really just about the analysis of the culture between various groups of people? Is it really about differentiating ourselves and adapting to one another? If that is the case, may I share this quote with you?

"When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind."

-- J. Krishnamurti

Dear reader, do you not see why I am writing all this now? The problem does not lie with the system of communication, it lies in us humans. The more we separate ourselves to create an identity, the greater the need for us to understand one another to prevent violence from breaking out. But why go through all that trouble when we can all be the same and live in harmony? I wonder still.

Let us move on to peer teaching. It was probably one of the best ways to learn more about a certain topic in the classroom setting, yet also the best way for students to zone out if they were not presenting. I initially offered a whole truck load of feedback for other students, but was being the Simon Cowell (American Idol Judge) of the class really necessary? I was unsure if everyone would take feedback positively, so I started being more passive in giving feedback - this also applies for certain questions that I would ask in class or for the oral presentations.

Dear reader, do you understand now? The problems that I face? I was just wondering, how many students in class actually treat the research project as an actual project that may be implemented in future. Or would they think otherwise and see it as "merely another college project to be submitted"? I am not criticizing on the rest of the projects, I am just curious - are students actually wasting their time in college when they can start contributing to the society? I do not have answers. I want answers, and perhaps feedback as well.

Dear reader, are you convinced that I had "quite a ride" for this module? I remain perplexed with this predicament. I understand that this is merely a level 2000 module, but I am sure I am not the only person capable of higher-order thinking, perhaps you could help me by taking this discussion further?

I have learned much from this module. I understood that change starts from within, and that people do not change not because they do not realize the benefits of change, but because they fear their losses incurred for the change. With that said, the future is at stake, I can be the change, how about you?

Regards,
Joey Wang

P.S. I have not learnt much with regards to professional communication because I had to learn the ropes before my journey as an entrepreneur. Honestly, no one is able to tolerate an entrepreneur who communicates poorly. If I were to be successful, I had to learn the necessary techniques before venturing out. 

Reflection: Oral presentation

Dear reader,

I am here to reflect on my past oral presentations that I have performed over a period of three months. I must first be honest with you, that I had not memorized any script or main points for my presentations. I have been through much rigorous thought to have realized that I do not have much capability in memorizing text that do not form proper and interesting plots. So how do I go about getting my presentations up and running? How do I manage to perform with merely less than an hour for preparation? That is what I aim to share with you in this post. 

Indeed, this may not be the best technique for everyone, but it worked pretty well for me thus far and I believe, if I were able to cordon off an area for some peaceful conceptualization in my head, I would have done much better in everything else (speed, tone, posture). The technique is simple and can be applied to an array of presentation types (formal, informal, etc). 

To use this technique, you should perform the following:

1. Using a blank sheet of paper, draw or write the contents you have for your project. This can be done by drawing a flowchart, a couple of diagrams, or even just plain text (if that appeals to you). The aim of this step is to get those sandcastles in the air mapped onto paper so that they do not disappear when you are thinking further ahead.

2. Connect the dots. Now that you have got all the content back on Earth, the next thing to do would be to weave those thoughts together. This is the most important step in preparing for your presentation within a short amount of time (without the use of a script); you need to tell a story. Perhaps not all audiences would agree with me, but I feel that the one thing that captivates me the most in public speaking would be the ability of story-telling. Your presentation can be fluent, but the thing that makes the utmost impression would be a story that the audience can relate to.

3. Create your presentation conscientiously. You can choose to use various platforms for slide fabrication. A presentation made with Prezi will provide great visual appeal only if the context is appropriate. Most would prefer the widely used Microsoft Powerpoint, but it really does not matter much. What is most important is your ability to rationalize that Prezi or Powerpoint slides are meant as your presentation aids; you can use it as a cue for you to turn the page for the audience. These presentation aids help you relate the story in a more visual form, surely then, they can be used as visual aids to help you recall the story that you want to relate. Plan well and use your presentation slides to your advantage.

4. Observe your audience and be spontaneous. There are moments when your audience would express empathy or delight upon hearing your story. Use this opportunity to elaborate a little more on the details of that particular chapter. Try to keep it to a personal level, because in order to feel for a certain plot, one must relate the experience to his or her own. After which, you can then escalate it to your main points which are most likely to be in the macroscopic aspect.

With that, I have evaluated the methods that I had used for my oral presentations. I believe that in many of my presentations, I tend to be rather anxious. But as I had mentioned previously, if I were to be given the freedom to cordon off a tiny section of my mind for intense conceptualization, I believe I will be able to do much better. I do try to calm myself down during the presentations by injecting a little humor, which actually do work at times too.

Thank you for reading this post.

Joey WK

P.S. If life-hacking is your thing, do leave a comment below.

Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

Sorry for the late post, I wanted to post another earlier to update on why I am only posting this now, but I thought I should not since this would be the online portfolio for ES2007S. Here's why I decided to have this blog post rescheduled:

1. I was participating in the Liberty Challenge 2012 (in short, Liberty Hunt), which essentially was an amazing race that took place throughout the entire month around the Park Connector Network (PCN) in Singapore.  This leads me to point number 2 below.

2. I was conducting several intercultural experiments throughout the race and during the past couple of weeks in order to see how I differentiate or blend into the current societal norms and human relations. I believe this reason would sufficiently grant me the grounds to leave a "late" entry.

Throughout my life, I have been constantly questioning and unravelling my cultural identity; there are of course, a couple of incidents where I knew where the exact boundaries were, and I had marked them out clearly so that I could remember how different I was. The thing is, most of us are not exactly sure of their own cultural identity just like how a fish is being unaware that it actually lives in water (except the flying fish, mudskipper and a couple of other fishes that occasionally jump out of water).

Here is my first observation from the Liberty Hunt - "Humans are visual creatures".
Humans love to use their vision to identify and relate incidences, tell stories, tackle problems (and clues), last but not least, to ogle at things that might be of their interest. For instance, how would you solve this clue:
"Twin to the jeweled horseshoe, the convergence of two waters also brings forth the first light."

The first thing that entered my mind was not the word "sunrise" (from first light) but an image of a beautiful sunrise. I am sure that the reader of this post would form a similar image in his/her mind upon reading the clue. Regardless, humans attach meaning to visual images but not many are able to do so without the visual component; this applies to me too, although I am currently trying to kick that habit as it does not leave room for creativity.

My second observation goes here - "Humans are naturally lazy and social creatures".
The truth is somewhere in us; we know we are lazy, we know we have to complete a certain task, and we'll stop at nothing to get information from others who have already completed the task. Participants for the Liberty Hunt have been posting on the forums, trying to form collaborative teams so as to win the race (particularly with those who have already solved a considerable number of clues or have a convenient mode of transportation). For myself, I went about solving the clues alone as I wanted to experience the adrenaline that rushes through me while I am tackling the clues to win the race. I mean, why join the race when you are merely leeching off the efforts of other participants? This clearly shows that I am differentiated from the rest.

Many people were "beginning with the end in mind but not enjoying to process" of the hunt.
It is evident in most participants that winning is of the highest priority in this competition. Participants were whizzing around in cars and buses so frequently that they actually fail to notice the 16 different species of butterflies that can be found along the Pang Sua PCN. Indeed, $50,000 is a large sum of money, but the hunt actually allows mindful participants to know more about Singapore's green landscape. The hunt was essentially meant as an educational tool but most participants seem to have neglected that fact. This culture was something that I had augmented so that I could not only increase my chances in winning the race but also enjoy the process of learning something from the green landscape. During the bulk of the hunt, I was roller blading through the PCN around Singapore (occasional bus rides to inaccessible PCNs allowed me to save on travelling time). This allowed me to explore and appreciate everything that the PCN has to provide while still granting me a shot at winning the hunt.

On a side note, I did not win $50,000. I was contender number 57 out of 1000+ participants. Not too shabby for a hunter on roller blades (and some bus rides) around Singapore.

Notice that I did not write about the Singaporean culture, my family culture, the NUS culture, or even my company's culture. I feel that while culture and social norms are important in our lives, it must not be the plane of restriction that binds how one should behave or interact. Culture should be created and augmented, so that one can become a better person for this ecosphere. Adaptation and code-switching would be a useful tool in the quest of "culture-augmentation" and we innately possess that tool; so why not use it to create a better you?

With that, thank you all for reading my rambles. If anyone wants to know more about anything written in this post, do leave a comment below (I believe it will mostly be regarding the Liberty Hunt).