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Monday, November 10, 2008

Final Reflection

Looking back at my first blog post, it suddenly strikes me how much more there is to communication than I first thought. Although I was aware of the importance of communication, I was somewhat ignorant of the magnitude of its impact. This module has allowed me to understand the other many different areas of communication. Like I mentioned in my first blog post, non verbal communication is a component that most of us have either neglected or ignored. It is especially important for a teacher to understand the importance of non verbal communication in order to be effective.

I am fortunate that in this module, I have the chance to witness a real life example of an effective teacher in our lecturer Brad. He is the quintessential lecturer and I enjoy the way his class is conducted. To give an example, Brad’s friendly yet firm non verbal cues have encouraged members of the class to participate and share their thoughts. His ability in paraphrasing students’ words has further motivated them to speak up instead of continuing their restraint due to lack of confidence. Some of my other classes are conducted quite differently. Though most of us will be listening attentively to our lecturers, we will be refraining from participating in class in order not to embarrass ourselves.

I especially like the “mock interview session” we had. It was a chance to garner feedback from my fellow classmates. It reflects how sincere the students are in trying to help one another. It is also a chance to observe how others give feedback to their friends – to watch and examine effective communication in action. However, at times, I did notice that some feedback is very direct, even potentially embarrassing. I wonder if that is because it is between friends and one has more leeway over it. I think this issue bears more examining.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

About me

I am Zong Neng (Max), an honours student in Applied Mathematics. Having immense interest in sports and outdoor activities led me to taking up numerous related courses and certification. Currently, I am working both as a part time fitness instructor with the Singapore Sports Council and as a free lance personal trainer. It is my personal belief that a balance diet and regular exercise is essential to the up-keeping of a healthy and alert individual. More importantly, with my acquired knowledge in sports, I am able to help assist others in making life style changes effectively.

Passion for the outdoor is what motivated me to join the Outdoor Activities Club in both my Junior College and University years. As the Vice Chairman and Head of Publication in both institutions respectively, I had been overseeing numerous major events such as the Annual Campfire and Amazing Race. I would have to manage the hundreds of participants in attendance. It was necessary to make sure that all details were taken care of, from the facilitation of events to the logistic maintenance. There was no room for mistake.

My instructional appointment as a platoon commander during my National Service has equipped me with the ability to act decisively during emergencies. This skill is especially useful in the outdoor arena. Thus, not only am I capable of taking care of others in need effectively as a trained instructor, but also efficiently without second guessing myself in dire situations. In addition, as a platoon commander, communication is ever on going. Though it took a while, but eventually, I learnt that to succeed as a team, it is indeed necessary to communicate effectively with one another.

Friday, October 10, 2008

My thoughts..

This group project had been an enriching experience for me as this was my first experience of formal essay based project in the Faculty of Science. There were a lot of valuable lessons that I hadlearnt from the process. As we did not know one another well in the beginning, building a strong interpersonal relationship was vital for the success of the project. All of us soon began to feel comfortable with sharing our thoughts with fellow group members, and through sharing, we started to know one another better in terms of our working style, our specialties etc. Hence having a clear communication had enabled us to be able to allocate the different parts of the project effectively.

We started out doing the research, though it was not a brisk reading of non-scientific journal, we managed to get through it without much problem. Being a team player was essential for the project, I was glad that the group was very helpful toward one another especially doing the report writing phase. As my grasp of English was not extremely strong, my fellow project mates were willing to lend me a helping hand. An interesting observation that I had made was that as the four of us are from different backgrounds, our style of writing the report varied over a large scale. Even the parts where our work overlaped, different people working on the same thing, at times the end work pieces were totally different! It certainly showed the importance of communication. Even though I would be the first to proclaim that my group was a close knitted one, sometimes miscommunication might occur however unintended it might be. It took a lot of effort to make sure that we had achieved effective communication so that all our work would be able to integrate upon the rest smoothly.

Overall, I am really glad that the group was exceptionally cooperative and helpful toward one another, making the report writing a pleasant experience.

Edited as of 121008

Saturday, September 27, 2008

As mentioned in my previous post, I am currently working as a part time fitness instructor with SSC. In my dealings with the numerous gym users, I have garnered some observations on the intercultural communications which I would like to share.

The ratio of Caucasians and non-Caucasians in the gym is quite evenly distributed. The usual practice in the gym is to greet each incoming users. Whenever I greeted them, I came to realize that it is the Caucasians who are more willing to maintain eye contact with me. They would also response with a smile or a greeting in return. Non-Caucasians users, however, tend to ignore both the greetings and the instructors.

Yet, it does not necessary mean that these non-Caucasians users are aloof or arrogant. In fact, most of them are extremely sociable when you get to be on friendly terms with them. From what I understand, these people are simply not comfortable with greeting strangers. It is nothing against the instructors per se but a cultural habit. To them, it would seem presumptuous to greet a stranger when one barely demonstrates affectionate gestures to family!

It would seem that, regardless of how one’s initial reaction is, in order to achieve effective communication, one of the most important things to do is to break the awkward barrier that exists between strangers. I have tried to do so by making small talk with them and maintaining eye contact and a smile on my face at all times. To date, this method has not failed me yet!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

A Green City?

Over the years Singapore has had many campaigns to raise recycling awareness in its citizens. From the 1980s “Clean and Green Week” to the recent “Carry your own bag” initiatives, much effort has been put into inspiring Singaporeans to do their part in saving the environment. However, if one were to carefully observe the streets at the end of the day, one will not fail to find the streets littered with tissue papers and plastic bags. In addition, newspapers articles have also reported that recycling bins are often abused – instead of throwing the refuse into the appropriate trash bins, litters of all kinds can be found in the recycling bins. Recycling companies have also expressed their unwillingness to carry on their business, stating that not only is the profit margin low, the time and effort taken to separate the rubbish is astronomically high.

The main purpose of the report is to highlight that most Singaporeans have taken our title as “Garden City” for granted. People have been depending heavily on the government to maintain not only the cleanliness of the country but also to take care of the environment. Take for instance the recent “Carry your own bag” campaign that the government has initiated. Although the people have been strongly encouraged to bring their own bag while doing their grocery shopping, few have adhered to it. Most can still be seen carrying numerous plastic bags after having done their shopping.

Personally, despite the negativity displayed by many people, I do take pride in the achievement of the younger generation. Every year, several schools – primary, secondary and junior colleges have participated actively in recycling projects. Students have accumulated a huge amount of old newspapers and aluminum cans in the bid to do their part for the environment.

I do believe that while our education system has done well in highlighting the benefits of recycling to the youngsters, much can still be done to educate the general public. Though campaigns can indeed raise awareness, I think that it would be more effective if we were able to cultivate recycling into an everyday habit. The difficulty lies in how to go about achieving it.

My research question will be: To what extent will the public be willing to integrate recycling as part of their daily lives? In this case, an attitudinal survey is essential to collect feedbacks from the public on how they feel about recycling and to examine the extent of willingness in adopting recycling as part of their daily lives. We may be able to find out the reasons on the lack of enthusiasm in putting recycling into practice.


Part 2!

Haha.. Thanks for all the comments! Anyway, what happened after that was that I managed to bring Peter to the counter area. Luckily I succeeded in calming him down by explaining the rationale of the towel. In order to make him feel better, I lent him an old towel that was avaliable behind the counter.

Through this incident , I have truly realised the importance of effective communication.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Gracious Retreat?


I am a part time fitness instructor with Singapore Sports Council. As part of my work scope in the gymnasium, I am to ensure that all gym users are dressed appropriately in their sports attire and equipped with towels for the duration of their work out. One day, as I was making my rounds in the gym, I spotted a user (who will henceforth be named Peter) exercising without a towel. I approached him and enquired, “Sorry to disturb Sir, but do you have a towel with you?” To my astonishment, Peter shouted back at the top of his voice, “I don’t have a towel. Why do I need a towel when I don’t sweat much in the gym?” While I was trying to explain the reasons for a towel in the gym, Peter simply grab on to a t-shirt nearby and claim that it is his towel! While there might be a chance that Peter really thought that a t-shirt would suffice, his upturned face, bulging eyes and aggressive posture indicated otherwise.

As much as I would like to let the matter rest, I had to fulfill my responsibilities. If my supervisor were to walk in and discover a user without a towel I would be severely reprimanded. Hence I replied, “I’m sorry sir, but this is not a towel. If you do not have one kindly purchase a towel at the counter for a dollar. Thank you.” Things got uglier immediately as Peter started shouting and claiming that I am trying to make things difficult for him, all the while hurling vulgarities at me. Although I was fuming inside, I backed off quietly and resumed my rounds in the gym. I had thought to give Peter a chance to cool down and be more reasonable. However, instead of using the respite to cool off, Peter came after me to continue his verbal abuse. What would you have done if you were placed in my situation?




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