Week 12 Final Reflection

In my first year of university a few years back, I wanted to take this module to improve my communication. I knew that communication skills are important and that I am weak in this area. However, due to the high bidding points, I failed to get this module for many semesters. When I finally got this module, I intended for it to really improve my communication.
This module has really taught a lot of things about communications. It taught us on verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication, the 7Cs of written communication, writing minutes, resume and of course, a lot is learnt through the research project too.
Of all these, I find the part about writing business correspondence (like emails, letters, agenda, minutes, resume) to be most useful. In addition, the research project is a good platform for us to work with others as well as learn about how to give a good presentation.
However, I think that communication is a subject that requires more than one semester of effort put in. Constance practice and effort is needed to improve my communication skills. Nonetheless, this module is a good starting point for me. One pity is that because of the other modules as well as my CCA, I could not find more time for this module that will make my learning experience more rewarding. Despite this, I think I still have put in very much effort in the research project and have enjoyed working with Yu Yin and Mushtaq (also my blogging buddy). Thus, this three months plus of work has been a satisfying and pleasant one.

Week 9 Biodata

My name is Teo Yuan Lin and is currently a third year life student in NUS Faculty of Science. My area of concentration is Biomedical Science. The analytical and investigative natures of the scientific discipline match my character and interest. Even so, my hobby is playing music and has been in the school band for 8 years, since my secondary school years. I also joined the NUSWS percussion section from 2006 to 2008 and was the vice-sectional leader of NUSWS percussion section in year 2007. In addition to the enjoyment of music making, these years at the band also help me to be a more determined and self-motivated person. During my free time, I also liked to read both English and Chinese storybooks.

Week 8 Reflecting on the Research Project Experience

For the Research Project, Mushtaq, Yu Ying and I formed a group. Our research topic is to find out the students’ sentiments toward bell curve grading in NUS and make appropriate discussions and suggestions to it.

Investigation on this topic of bell curves grading is an enjoyable experience although it is not easy (due to NUS reluctance to disclose information on this). This topic is very interesting because of its relevance to us. Thus choosing of an interesting topic is very important too and from the beginning of the project, everyone is consensus on the survey report topic.

In this project, we also recognize the value of dividing and assigning task according to our strength. For instance, Yu Ying is better in language thus it was best that she help us with the editing of grammar and expression. Mushtaq knows many people across the four major faculties in NUS thus he volunteered to distribute the survey forms and collate the survey results. For me, I am familiar with researching on relevant articles and information thus I looked into article for information and use them for the discussion on bell curve grading. Through this, we can also learn from other people’s strength.

In addition, an open environment for us to speak up and voice out differing views and any doubts that we may have is important to clarify doubts as well as resolve the differing views. Sometimes, different viewpoints within the group are good by preventing Groupthink from occurring. This way, our report can be more objective and critical.

In conclusion, skills like empathy and understanding of group mate’s feelings, tactfulness, and articulation of ones opinion as well as contributing your strong points to project, are needed in order to work well with other people. These are experienced through this project and will be very useful for our oral presentation or any other projects that we might do in the future.

Recess week Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

Intercultural communication is the communication between people from different culture and such interactions are becoming more common in Singapore as we are progressing to be part of the global village. Many foreigners are coming to either work, study or live in Singapore. Among them, Japanese makes up a considerable proportion too.

Some time around the late August, I, together with my friends went to a Japanese Summer Festival held in a Japanese Primary school in Singapore. Although the festival was mainly for Japanese in Singapore to get together (and it even rained beforehand), many locals turned up too. That may be because Japanese culture is interesting to locals due to the popular media (like anime and JPOP). My friends and I were also interested in their culture but our understanding of it is very little and limited to the portrayer by the popular media.

When we were buying food and souvenir, we felt that most of the Japanese that served us was very polite. They received payments and give out changes with both hand, greeted their customers. We have known that politeness is highly emphasized in their culture and so we were not surprised. However, I realized that most locals (including us) did not really follow their cultural etiquettes and most of us did not receive changes with both hands. Looking back, I think that receiving something with both hands is a kind of politeness that is universal across culture but maybe Singaporeans do not always do that. I feel that the locals are not purposely being rude but are just not very concerned with etiquettes.

In addition, I was mildly surprised when I was given a plastic bag (to put my shoes) just when I was about to enter the hall. This is because we have to take off our shoes in the school hall. Later, I found out that Japanese usually do not wear their outdoor footwear into school halls and houses for hygiene purpose.

All in all, the trip to the Summer Festival was fun as we tried their food and watched their traditional art performance that was something different from us. Together with these, I also, get know more about their cultural etiquettes that are also different to ours. Although our cultures are different, with understanding of each others culture, misunderstanding and mistrust can be avoided.

Week 4 Potential Research Project Topiccs

You have just finished reading a chapter of the text book but you still have 2 more to go. It was 2 am now and tomorrow is the exam. It seems like tonight you would not be getting any sleep.

This scenario seems familiar to many student especially university students. Inevitably, during the exam period many of us will have to sacrifice our sleep time to mug for the upcoming exam. Perhaps some will think it is okay to sleep less for only a period of time as long as in the other times, we have adequate sleep. However, it is unknown that if generally the university students are getting less sleep than they should. Researches have been done in NUS on the effect of stress but very little/if any have been done to investigate on what is the proportion of tertiary students getting insufficient sleep and the consequence of such practice. (The research question)

Sleep is defined as “A natural periodic state of rest for the mind and body…”[1]
On average, most adults need 7 to 8 hrs of sleep but some may need more (10hrs) or less (5hrs).[2][3] Lack of sleep may cause many problems like reduced concentration, hand-eye coordination, ability to carry out math calculations, impaired memory and even hallucinations and mood swings (If one continue to be deprived of sleep)[2][4] and is generally bad for our mental and physical health.

Thus, it would be useful if a survey is done to find out how much sleep is the students in NUS is getting and whether they are being sleep-deprived. Now and then we have heard of students complaining about not having sufficient sleep and we have also seen quite a number of people falling asleep in lectures. This survey can thus prove or debunk the general assumption that (most)students are not having enough time for sleep. Following the results of the survey, advice would be given in the report regarding the importance of sleep and inform students of the adverse effect of sleep-deprivation. Suggestions gathered from the surveyed may also be reflected to the school if most of the students feel that their lack of sleep is due to too heavy study workload.

As such, more attention can be given to this much neglected problem of sleep deprivation of students.[5]

References

1. From http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=sleep&r=66
“A natural periodic state of rest for the mind and body…, in which the eyes usually close and consciousness is completely or partially lost, so that there is a decrease in bodily movement and responsiveness to external stimuli. During sleep the brain in humans and other mammals undergoes a characteristic cycle of brain-wave activity that includes intervals of dreaming.”
2. From National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep, http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brain_basics/understanding_sleep.htm
3. Although the amount of sleep needed is varied among individuals, “Experts say that if you feel drowsy during the day, even during boring activities, you haven't had enough sleep. If you routinely fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying down, you probably have severe sleep deprivation, possibly even a sleep disorder. Microsleeps, or very brief episodes of sleep in an otherwise awake person, are another mark of sleep deprivation.” In addition to this, “the amount of sleep a person needs also increases if he or she has been deprived of sleep in previous days. Getting too little sleep creates a "sleep debt," which is much like being overdrawn at a bank. Eventually, your body will demand that the debt be repaid. We don't seem to adapt to getting less sleep than we need; while we may get used to a sleep-depriving schedule, our judgment, reaction time, and other functions are still impaired. ”[2 ]
4. Other that the adverse effects mentioned above, it also will affect growth and for repair of body (‘Deep sleep may truly be "beauty sleep." ’) and less than optimal ability in emotional and social functioning that require emotional control, decision-making, and social interactions. [2]
5. Actually the Singapore Neurology and Sleep Centre, had conducted the Teen Sleep Survey in 2007 on the amount of sleep secondary school students in Singapore have. The results is that “80 per cent of them are getting less than eight hours of sleep on school days, while only 2.6 per cent are getting the recommended nine hours.” However, the situation with tertiary students (eg in NUS) might be even worse since the studies is more demanding and parents have less control over their child’s sleeping habits.
From Asiaone-health, SleepLESS in Singapore, http://www.asiaone.com/Health/Wellness%2B%2540%2BWork/Story/A1Story20070625-15642.html

Pictures from http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~lah/emma/Images/Shots_of_Emma/Smiling_in_sleep.jpg

week 3 Interpersonal skills

Interpersonal conflicts are sometimes inevitable and would happen even with your close ones. In the case of S and J, the issues that came to pass are: should the effort that one friend put in for the friendship, be equal to that of the other?

S and J have been good friends for a long time now. J has a more helpful personality and has always helped S whenever S needed help.

Thus when S has to work at a very far place before 5am, J volunteered to drive S to work. However, there was once, J could not make it because she has worked overnight and wanted to sleep in. S was angry that J refused to help her and that the reason was she wanted to sleep in. So, S called J and chewed her out on the phone. J on the other hand, thought that S was not being understanding and took her help for granted. J replied that S was selfish and only wanted to make use of her. J then hanged up on S. Since then, they have gotten into a kind of cold war.

We are always told that friends should help one another but in this case, did S make use of J’s friendship to get J’s help? Or was J being too petty or even selfish? In addition, the emotions of S and J played an important part and needed to be understood. Why did S felt so angry when J has no obligation to help her? Why did J felt that she was made use of when she helped S in the past willingly?

Last and most importantly, could they have made the situation better?

Week 2 Effective Communication Skills

Communication has always seems to me a difficult thing. I used to think that communication only needs a good command of English/or your language, but then I soon realize that effective communication really needs more effort than just that.
Personally, I think effective communication is important for me (that’s why I spend 900++ bid points for this moduleJ). Firstly, when you graduate, you will need good communication skills to get pass the interview to get your ideal job. After you got the job, effective communication and good interpersonal relationship will be as important as your working capability. You need to maintain a healthy working relation with your boss and your colleague to prevent unhealthy competitions and nasty rumors. Even in university now, I can already understand the importance of this, especially in my CCA (Wind Band), interacting with other band members is a big part of band activities.
To put in my own experience, when I was in secondary school, there was once I had not listened carefully to my teacher in a lab session and had accidentally caused a small fire (luckily no one was injured). In another more recent case, I misinterpreted the test question in a CA and put in a lot of unneeded answers (a page long).
Not to forget, communicating with your close ones also needs you to put in effort. Otherwise, misinterpretations of feelings and motive can put strains on the relationship.
Communicating well is something I find it quite difficult and so for the past few years I have been avoiding it like voicing my inquiry to my lecturers and even my opinions to my friends. The result is that I become even not confident and not comfortable to speak out. However, I believe by having the willingness to learn and change (speak up more), I can definitely improve my communication skills.




Calvin and Hobbes from Gocomics at
http://www.gocomics.com/feature_items/explore?page=3&tag=13008
by Bill Watterson