Blog#6 Final Reflection on learning

This shall be last blog post and assignment before I graduate from NUS. ES2007s , in my opinion is one of the most useful module I have taken in NUS. I had learn the principles of good communication, intercultural communication, interview and CV writing skills, and making effective presentations in just 13 weeks. It is no doubt challenging but the skills I pick up for this module is going to help me in my future career.

The most memorable event for me is the mock interview.  That is because I was job hunting during that period and the mock interview provided me invaluable experience. Playing the role of both interviewer and interviewee, I was given the opportunity to look at the interview process from different angles. I enjoyed giving feedback to the interviewees and also received valuable feedback from the mock interviews. Thanks to ES2007s, I was able to land a job before I graduated.  I would certainly recommend this module to anybody who is looking for a job because the things taught in this module actually works.

Of course, the best thing about this course is that I made many friends in the class. ES2007s didn’t feel like an academic module to me, instead it felt like a place where we came to class to talk to friends and friendship is built upon mini assignments and projects. I am sure most of us will agree.

Well, that is the end of my post. I wish everyone all the best. Good luck and Bye!

Blog#5 Reflection on oral presentation

I was really excited to do a presentation on Intercultural communication because I am a foreigner myself. Together with Suren from Singapore and William from Sweden, we are an ‘International’ team in the class.

It was an exciting learning process for me and my teammates as we stepped into the teachers’ shoes and prepared the lesson plan for the peer teaching. There was much planning and research to be done. Compared to other project titles, our project is a bit more challenging because the topic is very wide and there are many things to discuss. After some brainstorming, we narrowed down on some of the more commonly discussed issues encountered in Intercultural Communication such as language barrier, cultural norms, contexting etc.To make the presentation more interesting, we agreed to bring in our own experiences to relate better to our topic.

In the end, I feel that my group did well for the presentation. Although I must admit that we did not rehearse as aggressively as other groups, our team chemistry was excellent and we engaged our audience actively through the quiz, examples and class activity. I was heartened to know that everyone in the class had learned something from us on intercultural communication.

As for me, while I do not think my performance is excellent, I think that I am more confident in public speaking as compared to what I was when I entered NUS four years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed the time working with my teammates and I feel that I learn a lot through the process of working towards this project.

Blog#4 Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

Hi Guys

Since I am a foreigner myself, I shall share my intercultural experience in Singapore.

Let me start off with greetings. In Hong Kong, we have the habit of greeting our family, neighbours, friends and colleagues ‘Good Morning’ in the morning. It is rude if we do not greet. In Hong Kong, we are taught to greet since young. In, fact I was scolded many times by my parents for forgetting to greet them in the morning. However, in Singapore, I think it is not so strict. Last year, I was working in an engineering company for my internship. When I greeted ‘Good Morning’ to the company staffs, they all looked shocked and seemed to be caught off guard.  It seemed to me that they had not expected the greeting and many only replied back after a while. And it was then I realized that the Singaporean staffs do not have the habit of greeting each other in the morning. Maybe this is not the norm, but generally I do not see many Singaporeans greeting in the morning.  However, this is not to say Singaporeans are rude, but maybe the habit of greeting is not common in Singapore.

My hobby is eating and I really LOVE Singapore foods. Some of my favourites are Chicken rice, Satay and Roti prate. I always go to the nearby hawker centre where I can order a variety of food at very affordable prices. Sometimes we can see packets of tissues on the seats and tables. Of course by now, I fully understand the function of these tissues. However, thinking back, when me and my family just arrived in Singapore, we were clueless about it. In Hong Kong, water and tissues are free in most restaurants and eateries.  Hence we mistakenly thought that the tissues were free for diners to use. It was really embarrassing when the people who had occupied the seats came back with their ordered food and explained to us that the tissues belonged to them.

These are some of my intercultural experience in Singapore. I am sure some foreigners, like me may be able to relate to my experiences above.

Blog #3 Cover Letter

BLK 295B

COMPASSVALE CRESCENT #12-235

SINGAPORE 542295

February 17, 2013

MR EDWARD LIM
DENKA SINGAPORE PTE LTD
4 SHENTON WAY, #29-02 SGX CENTRE 2
SINGAPORE 68807

Dear Mr Lim

Application for Management Trainee (Sales) 

I am pleased to find your company’s job opening for management trainee (Sales) though my school’s career portal. I am currently a final year Electrical Engineering student at National University of Singapore. Due to my interest in corporate finance and accounting, I am also pursuing an accounting qualification (ACCA) at Kaplan financial.

There are two reasons why I think I might be suitable for this position. First, I am passionate about sales. During the past four years, I had been working as a part time retail and sales staff for Sony Vaio Co. I have gained extensive experience in I.T products sales and consistently hitting or outperforming the sales target. I enjoy serving my customers, find out their needs and commit myself to providing them with a great service experience. Being a senior sales promoter in the company, I also had the chance to educate new promoters on promoting techniques and product know-hows. These includes sales tactics, product demonstration and negotiation techniques. My greatest achievement was when I lead a group of junior promoters to clinch the top sales team at a local IT show in 2012.

The second reason is my ability to speak fluent Japanese. As this job requires the successful candidate to be posted to Japan for two years, I believe my knowledge in Japanese language shall be an asset. I had been learning Japanese for the past three years at my University and during this period, I had achieved the highest level of the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). I feel that I am been equipped with both the language and cultural skills to communicate in Japanese and work in a Japanese company.

I have enclosed a copy of my résumé for your reference. I hope to hear from you soon.

Thank You.

Sincerely,
Mok Siu Chung

Blog #2 Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

Interpersonal conflict is common in our life. Tension arises when the people we are working with fail to share and agree on the same views, and have different interests or goals. As students, we tend to encounter conflicts most frequently when we are doing project work.

I have a personal experience that some of us may have experienced before. My friend and I were part of a six person project group. My friend and I were third year students while the other four persons were final year students. During the first meeting, all the final year students claim that they had FYP and may not have so much time for the project. My friend and I understood their situation and agreed to do more for the team. We were voted to be the leaders of the team

Initially, they were very cooperative and they did their assigned part of the work dutifully. However, as the deadline for their FYP approached, they started to lose focus on the project. While me and my friend tried our best to accommodate their schedule, they still couldn’t turn up for meetings and did not complete their assigned task on time. We tried to reason with them that everyone had a part in the project and wanted them to stay focus.

However, things got ugly when one of the year 4 students complained to our project supervisor about us being too autocratic. We were shocked and felt betrayed by this member. Our team was scolded by the supervisor that our team lacked teamwork and communication. In the end, although we managed to come together as a team to finish up the project, we got a bad grade as we gave our supervisor a very bad impression.

I felt that our teammate could have communicated with us first before approaching the supervisor. What did you all think? And if you were in my shoes and find that someone complained about you , how will you all feel and what will you do?

I would appreciate to hear comments from you guys. Thank you and see you all next week!