Final Reflection on Learning

I have already taken four English modules before I came to Singapore, but it was the first time for me to have an English class with native speakers. It is a challenging task to communicating with them. After the peer teaching, mock job interview and oral presentation, I felt much confident with my spoken English.

I would like to talk about peer teaching first. I have not had any experiences of teaching others in English before. In my part of teaching, a discussion was initiated. I did not expect the discussion to happen. Luckily, I managed to discuss with my “students”. It was the first time for me to have a live discussion with others without any preparation. Although my performance was not as good as my teammates, I came to realize that I could express my idea clearly.

Then the mock job interview came. This time I felt confident to speak with my “interviewers” since peer teaching helped me to build my confidence. I was surprised by myself that I could finish a job interview in English. Instead of giving yes or no to a question, I could speak out a long sentence fluently. This kind of ability could only be tested under a certain condition. I began to feel lucky to select this module. I have never got a chance to know my level of spoken English.

The oral presentation was the most exciting event. I did not do well in the mock presentation and I worked hard to prepare. With some presentation experiences, I was quite sure that I can perform well. I think I showed my confidence and presenting skills.

I got unique experience from this module. It helped me to test my English skills from different aspects and gave me confidence. I built friendship with my classmates through the process of learning. The most important is that I have acquired useful skills for my future.

I would like to thank Brad and all my classmates for giving me feedback after each activity. You helped me a lot in this module.

Reflection on Oral Presentation

Finally finished everything and it is time for reflection on the oral presentation. We spent a tough time preparing for the presentation. Personally speaking, our presentation met my expectation. All the slides looked neat and nice, the video and audio worked properly, the visuals were relevant to our content and enhance the impression left on the audience (as far as I have concerned).

To be honest, I did not even prepare anything for the mock presentation because I remembered the date wrongly. The coming quiz of other modules also drove my attention away from preparing the presentation. As a result, I did really badly in the mock presentation. What I said at that time was all that I could recall from memory. The mock presentation motivated me to work hard to prepare and I spent the whole weekend before the presentation to practice.

Generally speaking, I am satisfied with my performance. The most important is confidence. This made me to have eye contact with everyone. I got a full control of my pace. It slowed down to a proper speed for me (may be too slow for others).

I was stuck for a moment nearly to the end of my presentation. To break the embarrassment, I had to repeat the sentence that I had just said. I think that is where Brad thought I was reading from memory. The truth is, at that part when talking about the teachers, I got totally lost from what I have prepared and I had to improvise. Getting a little bit nervous at that time, I had a blank mind and did not know what to say. I got back to my pace after several sentences.

At the end of the reflection, I would like to thanks my teammates for their work. Thanks Eric for the video, thanks Arij for the slides and thanks Noelle for all the ideas. It is really an enjoyable experience to work with you.

#4: Evaluating intercultural behavior

To be honest, I did not have much experience in intercultural communication until I came to Singapore. In Singapore, I made a lot of friends from different parts of the world but most of the cases I did not feel any inconvenience caused by different cultural background due to the limited time I spent with them. However, I experienced a great culture difference when going out with one of my roommate who has a different cultural background with me.

The story happened on a Sunday about a month ago. I, my roommate and my friends decided to go out to have a big dinner since all of us were fed up with the canteen. At the beginning, we planned to go to Clementi to have a buffet. When we got there, the restaurant was full and around thirty people were waiting outside the restaurant. Obviously we needed to change our plan. My friends and I decided to eat somewhere near so we can get back early because it was already 6:45 pm and all of us had early class tomorrow. My roommate suggested going to east coast to have BBQ buffet, which means we needed to spend one more hour. We are not willing to go since it was too far away but he insisted and spared no effort to persuade us. Finally one of my friends had no choice but to go back since he had a meeting at 9 pm and the rest of us went to east coast. Worried about my left friend and time, I did not enjoy the meal.

In my point of view, the meaning of eating out is to have fun with friends and the most important is to meet everyone’s demand. Since we had one person who needed to be back before 9 pm, we should choose a place not far away from school. However, my roommate felt that we had planned to have a buffet so we must have it. 

a GOOD NAME is More Desirable than Great Riches: Video Links (Intercultural Communication - Peer Te...

a GOOD NAME is More Desirable than Great Riches: Video Links (Intercultural Communication - Peer Te...: This is a video related to "Intercultural Communication Sensitivity" by Tracy Goodwin. To access to all her related videos, go to youtube a...

#3 Application letter

8th September 2011

FANG Bing Michael (Mr)

XXXXX,    

XXXXX,

XXXXX,

XXXXX,

XXXXX

Ph:XXXXX                                          

XXXXX@hotmail.com

Mr. XXX Koh 
XXXXX

XXXXX
XXXXX
XXXXX
Ph: XXXXX

XXX@XXX.com.sg

Dear Mr. Koh,

Application for Electronic Engineer position

I am writing for the electronic engineer position advertised in http://www.jobstreet.com.sg. I am a fresh graduate from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. I majored in electronic and information engineering in the university. My major ensures me to have the knowledge and skills for the job.

I am eager to work in electronics industry. I really treasure this opportunity and I believe my skills could make me a competitive candidate because:

l  I am a fluent user of AutoCAD which is powerful in 2D drawing. This ensures me to understanding 2D drawing quite well.

l  I am studious. I taught myself AutoCAD and SolidWorks because I consider these two to be helpful in product design.

l  I have good problem-solving skills. I have received two months factory based training at school.

I believe I can apply my knowledge and skills to the electronic engineer position. I am looking forward to discuss with you about the details about this job.

Attached is my detailed resume for your reference. Thank you for your consideration.

Yours Sincerely,

Michael

#2 Interpersonal conflicts

I am not a talkative person so it is not likely for me to have conflicts with others. Unfortunately, I did have a conflict with one of my classmates and the problem is not solved yet. The conflict is between me and H, the sports committeeman in my senior high school.

Three years ago, my final year of senior high, there was a long-distance relay race in our school. Each class needed to have five male and five female athletes to participate. Since it was a long-distance race, each athlete needed to take a physical examination to make sure that their physical condition allowed them to participate in the race. Generally speaking, it is the sports committeeman’s responsibility to choose the athlete and take them to the physical examination. There happened to be a briefing session organized by a Netherlandish university in the afternoon of the physical examination day and H joined the session. H did not tell anyone about the physical examination before he left so no one knew about that.

Our head teacher went into the classroom at around 14:00 and asked me whether the physical examination had been finished. I told her H was not in the classroom and no one knew the physical examination. She asked me to call him back. I could feel her anger from her voice.

I went to the front door of the lecture theater, pointed to H and signaled him to go out. He shook his finger to show his rejection. I told him that he forgot the physical examination and the head teacher was in anger now by lip language. He seemed to notice the seriousness of the situation and entrusted me the responsibility for the physical examination.

After rushing back to the classroom, I gathered all the athletes and informed them to go with me for the physical examination. The head teacher came into the classroom again when we were about to go and asked me why the sports committeeman had not came back. I told her that he could not go back and I would replace him temporarily. The head teacher was in a rage and went to the lecture theater to call H back. H was criticized by the head teacher.

From then on, H never talked to me. I guess that he believed I snitched on him and made him criticized. I tried to negotiate with him for some times but failed. After the college entrance exam, we were admitted by different universities and lost contact.

I supposed to let it be. Unfortunately, I still need to face the problem. H will go to my home university to study for the rest two years to get his bachelor degree and we are in the same department. We may have many classes together. To avoid the embarrassment between I and H in the coming semester, I should solve the problem before I go back.

I have sent him an e-mail but got no reply. What should I do next to explain to him?

#1 Why effective communication is important for me

Communicating with others is always a problem for me. I remember clearly that my parents reminded me the importance of being a good communicator again and again when I was young. I simply ignore their advice and left the problem there.

I did not realize the seriousness of my communication problem until recently I arrived in Singapore to begin my exchange semester. In a foreign country and without friends, I need to explore all the things by myself. That involves a lot of communication with people, especially with strangers. As a result, expressing myself clearly and precisely becomes extremely important for me. That urges me to sharpen my communication skills. Effective communication may help me to communicate effectively with people and prepare me for the future work or study.

Whenever at a family party, I am the one speak the least. I only respond to others' questions and seldom start a new topic to talk with others. I took for granted that I was not an outgoing person and it was natural for me to talk less. I reflect myself recently and find out that my quietness may be resulted from my poor communication skills. It is high time for me to improve my communication skills.

In the future, either in my further study or in my work, I need to discuss with people and explain my idea to others. If I can communicate effectively, the effectiveness of my work may be highly increased.

Those are almost the reasons why I take ES2007S. Hope I can improve myself in the following study.