Grant Final--Reflection on ES2007S

Goodbye, my fellow classmates. Goodbye, Ms. Lim. Farewell~~
--- By Ella Liu Chang

For the final blog post, I would like to quote my own words. Actually, these sentences were locked in my heart during the last class of ES2007S. I tried to find an appropriate time to say goodbye for everyone. However, finally, I failed to take action, because I was afraid I would be very emotional and tears would drop down if I did so. Therefore, now, I must seize the last chance to express my feeling of this module ES2007S.

I have confidence to say that ES2007S is one of the most useful and intensive communication module I have encountered. The skills introduced by this modules are closely related to my career in the future. It equips me with a lot of interpersonal and intercultural skills. When I was interviewed by my internship supervisor, I would like to tell him that I am the person who have strong problem solving skills and leadership. When I have a speech in front of my club committee, I would like to tell them that I am the person who have very good decision making skills and you would like to rely on me. All in all, all my confidence comes from this beneficial module---ES2007S.

Besides fulfilling the requirement of the last blog post, what I really want is to highlight the activity we did in the last class. That is really insightful and it touched my heart.

I could not throw away the first two roles in my life --- "Daughter" and "Girlfriend", as well as the third one --- "Friend". Without friends, I was not be myself anymore. That is why I always choose double room in the hall of NTU instead of single room. I would like to chat with my friends and it makes me feel alive. For the role as a girlfriend, although there are always some conflicts between my boyfriend and me, I still cherish this kind of relationship and I will try my best to save it as long as I can. The most important role for me is daughter. I love my parents, I love my family. I seldom say thank you to my parents before I came to Singapore. However, now, I strongly feel that I have responsibility to take care of my parents. In the past 20 years, they put too many efforts on me and help me to reach the peaks of each phase of my life.

In the name of friendship, love and family, I have a big thanks for you, for everyone appeared in my life, including my fellow classmates of ES2007S. Thank you very much.
Wish you all the best in the coming exams!!!

Cheers~

LIU CHANG

Reflection on the presentation today

In order to give an overall reflection on my own presentation, it is better for me to write it with the “fresh” memory for today presentation.

Firstly, I want to say that “Congratulations to all the presenters. Thank you very much for my team members, Akash and Chenchen. We are all done the good jobs! Cheers!” Indeed, today, all the presenters performed very well and show the full confidence to the audience, including myself.

This semester is quite special for me, because I am an exchange student from NTU. I took 2 modules in NUS and 6 modules in NTU as well. In fact, taking 8 modules in one semester in NTU is still in the average level. However, I am a partial exchange student. That means I have to travel frequently between NTU and NUS. That means I have to sleep on the floor of my friend's dormitory in NUS. Hence, that is not so easy for our team to organise group meetings as frequently as we want. Actually, due to my Taekwondo training on the Wednesday night, we only have less than 2 hours to rehearse the whole process of our presentation on the coming Thursday morning. Meanwhile, due to the video, it took about 2 minutes out of 20 minutes presentation. Therefore, how to control the time is the biggest challenge for us. Fortunately, although we were so passionate during the real presentation, the time was still in control.

Actually, when I was an audience sitting on the chair and listening to the presentations from other groups as well as my team member, I strongly felt the confidence coming from their hearts. At that moment, I have to say that I became more and more nervous, because I feared that I couldn’t perform as excellent as they did. Therefore, to reduce the sense of anxiety, I started to take deep breath and spoke to myself, “You have put a lot efforts on this project and you fully prepared for this coming presentation. Based on your excellent presentation skills, as long as you show the passion and enthusiasm to the audience, you will be the winner for today! Go, go, Ella!” Although these words looked quite stupid, they were the sunshine shining in my cloudy sky. They were essential for me to build up the confidence and help me jump out of my speech script. Without these stupid words, my presentation would go down to the hell.

The biggest improvement of my presentation is the volume and pace. I still remember that after the peer teaching, I saw many comments on my "soft" volume and shortage of confidence. The same fault won't occur twice in my life. Therefore, I grabbed this opportunity and turn up my volume and show my full confidence in front of the class. On the other hand, the weakness for my presentation would be the inappropriate pauses. There were still many “en”, “ah” involved in my presentation and make it sound not so fluently. Also, probably, I have used up my power and passion in the presentation session, so that, during the Q&A session, I didn’t answer as many questions as I could with strong evidences. I think there is a long way for me to improve my presentation skills and the weakness will be my direction in my further study.

Last but not least, thank you for the attentions from all the audience. Wish the following presentation teams all the best.

Cheers~

The Tuition Fee for Culture Shock

Last summer vacation, I participated in the program called “ Work and Travel in USA” and that’s why I wrote in my resume that I have ever been a housekeeper at the Ramada Hotel in Virginia, USA. Many people were curious for the reason why I chose this kind of low-knowledge level work. The answer is very simple. I just want to challenge myself to see how I can survive in a different culture.

As you know, tip is indispensable to the life in USA. For example, for a taxi driver, the tip is usually 10%-15% of your bill and for a waiter, it is above 20% of the bill. In general, tips are not compulsory for the customers to pay and the amount of tip is dependent on the quality of services they provided.

One day, in order to save the money for the following trip, my friends and I rejected the service offered by a tour guide and just let him drive us to the destination. Then, we paid for the petrol fee and it seemed that everything followed our plan well. However, at the end of the day, the tour guide called me and asked us to pay for his “compulsory tips”. He said this is the “unwritten rules” of America. Finally, although we didn’t get the agreement with the tour guide on the issue of tips, we still paid the “compulsory tips”, because we just treated that as the “tuition fee of culture shock”

Till today, I still cannot understand why I need to pay for the tips without services. But whatever it is, it let me bear in mind that different culture has different value system. If you want to immerse with that culture, sometimes, you need to pay your “tuition fee”. This is my opinion. What do you think, my friends?

Application letter---- 2nd draft

Hi, my dear classmates,

The URL below is my job ad.
http://www.techsemiconductor.com/career/jobs/ENMFG0111A-E.htm 

My application letter is shown as below. Please kindly take a look and share your comments with me. Thanks.

Feb. 10, 2011

Ms. Tan Ming Hui, Staffing Manager

1 Woodlands Industrial Park D, Street 1,

Singapore 738799

Dear Ms. Tan,

Application for Manufacturing Engineer in Wafer Fabrication Department

I would like to apply for the position of Manufacturing Engineer in Wafer Fabrication Department (ref. code: ENMFG0111A-E, dated Jan. 6, 2011) which is posted on your company website.I was very excited when I saw this vacant job position with TECH. Meanwhile, after reading through the details about overall introduction of your company’s Profile, Mission Statement, Corporate Values and Milestone as well as the Message from the President Lee Kok Choy—“Develop your Potential to the Fullest”, I was strongly touched and attracted by the company culture.

I am PRC student on the MOE Scholarship Program since Dec.2007 till now. After 2 years’ study at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, I earned my way up as a top student majoring in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE). Currently, my cumulated Grade Points Average (CGPA)is 4.82 out of 5.0 and I was honored to be on Dean’s List in 2010.

I am a very outgoing and energetic person and I am involved in many extra-curricular activities. For example, I am the Chairperson of Traditional Teakwondo Club in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, which provided me with a lot of opportunities to develop myself on many skills—Planning and organizing events; Problem solving; Communication and motivation, etc. These experiences are very important to the job position that I am applying for, which requires the same skills that I have gained through managing the Traditional Teakwondo Club in the past 2 years.

I am a hard-working and strong willed person and I am able to work on permanent 12 hours per day or night shift. Based on my previous work experience, I worked very well with a team and have the capability of decision making. Therefore, I believe my education background and skills could assist TECH greatly.

If you have any questions about me and my qualifications, or you would like to schedule an interview, please give me a call at 65-9476-1376. I would welcome the opportunity to talk about ways that I could put my experience and drive to work for you.

Sincerely,

Ella Liu Chang

Enclosed: Resume

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict---BF&GF

In the fact of life, conflict occurs frequently at different level of communication, for example, at work, between friends or within families. Also, conflicts with a loved one are in the different situation from negotiating with a stranger. Thus, to learn how to resolve the conflicts becomes more and more important. If the conflict is handled well, it will lead the person involved to be mature and deeper understanding.

I am the person who is quite talkative, but my boyfriend is poor in expression. Although the relationship has been maintain for more than two years, small conflicts still occur frequently between us. For example, a few days before, my boyfriend, my best friend and I had lunch together. I paid my full attention on talking with my friend and totally ignored that my boyfriend has a habit of napping. Unfortunately, he used up his patience to tolerate with the feeling of ignored and strode angrily. At that moment, I was so angry with his rude behavior and felt shy in front of my friend.

However, when I calmed down, the sense of guilt gradually came out and I realized that I need to show my respect not only to the audience, but also the person around me. Because I was also keen on face-saving, sending a text message was the best way for me to tell him my apologies in the tone of honesty. As expected, five minutes later, he replied me and forgave my fault.

At the end of the story, I want to mention that sometimes, conflict is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, a relationship with frequently conflict may be healthier than one with no observable conflict. Because nobody is prefect, the conflicts may help you find out and modify the weakness of your personality.

Therefore, what do you think about the interpersonal conflicts? Do you have the same problem between you and your lovers? Could you find a better solution to resolve the conflicts? Waiting for your sharing... ThanksJ

The Key of Effective Communication ---- The Audience

“By getting to know your readers, you will find it easier to talk to them as they would expect you to."

                    ----- From the website http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tips/effective-communication/

Everyone has their particular role in the society and communication happens all around us. It is very common to communicate with your friends or colleague face to face or by written materials. However, there is only a minority group of people who are able to convey their information in the most effective way. Therefore, to communicate effectively is essential for us to be professional or hospitality and it also help you to show your love to your girlfriend or boyfriend clearly and emotional.

I have been introduced a model of effective communication, called PAC-SSS. From the name, it shows us that there are 6 parts involved, which are purpose (P), audience (A), channel (C), substance (S), strategy (S), and style (S). In my opinion, the most important part in this model is the audience. If without the audience, the conversation is disappeared immediately and the communication is meaningless.

I would like to make friends. However there are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes, different background will reflect on my information in the very different way. Therefore, before or at the very beginning of a conversation, what I need to do is to understand what the audience already knows and what he/she wants to know from me. If I could be clear with these two criteria, I will tell myself that I have found the key to open the door of the effective communication.

At the end of my first blog, I want to say that there is a long way to go to be a professional communicator and the first step is to accumulate as many effective communication skills as you can. So, let’s do it together.

Cheers!