Reflection of ES2007(final post)

Time passed by so fast, it is week 13 now. I have learnt a lot from this module. Not only enhanced my communication and writing skills, I also made a lot of friends in class.

First of all, my communication skills had enhanced throughout these 13 weeks. As a Science student, I seldom got the chance to present in front of public. Even during a tutorial presentation, we only need to write down our tutorial answers on the whiteboard. On the contrary, in this project base module, I got chances to do presentations twice. Although my presentation skill is lousy, I do see myself improving through the entire course. We also need to talk a lot for class participation. Although my performance was not quite active in class, I still got a lot of chances to speak. During our project meeting, we again practiced our communication skills in terms of negotiation about project.

Moreover, I got more chances to practice my writing skills as well. We have to write blogs each week and comment on each other. This is a very good way to improve our writing skills, as others can always see mistakes and areas to improve that we cannot recognize by ourselves.

In addition, I got the chance to taste how it is to write a resume. Although it seems quite late for a year 4 student like me, I think year 2 and year 3 students did benefit a lot from that, at least they got the chance to try before they write a real one. And I have to say that I should take this module in my year two!

In conclusion, I gained a lot from this module. My communication skills have improved in terms of verbal and nonverbal. I have enhanced my writing skills trough writing blogs and proposals. All these experiences will help me when I go for future interviews with my potential employers.

Reflection on OP

Our presentation ended this Thursday. Before I start evaluating my own performance, I would first like to thank my group-mates Luigi and Zhengyang for giving me such great help during the entire process of OP preparation. Without their help, I would not have made it.
I evaluate my performance as follow:

Preparation:
Our interview was held on Wednesday afternoon, we have to work out the slides and prepare for OP right after that. In order to be well prepared for the OP the next day, we practiced till 5 am in the morning. We recorded our rehearsal to control time and see where we can improve. I put in a lot of effort to prepare and as result of all the practice we had, I became quite familiar with the contents.

During the OP:
I am able to deliver my points clearly, maintain eye contact with my audience and audibly. However, there are a few areas which I can improve on.

I was a bit nervous when I was presenting and I could hear my voice shaking. Moreover, due to the nervousness, I forgot one of the points which I prepared. I felt that I fared better for our rehearsals, but I was too nervous for the real presentation. This showed that I will need more experiences to enhance my presentation skills. There is an area which I have to improve on.

In addition, Ms Goh mentioned that we shouldn’t speak while we walk across the slides to pass on to the next person. I have to admit that I was the one who did that. It was a silly mistake I made. The reason I did that may be I was not aware that it would be very odd to do that. I will not commit this mistake again.

In conclusion, I felt that I performed better for this OP than my peer teaching. Although there are areas where I can do better, I was more familiar with my contents, was able to deliver my points more clearly, and looked at the audience from time to time. This presentation has been a valuable experience for me.

Open Topic Blog---Misunderstanding

There are always misunderstandings through our life. Sometimes misunderstandings can cause a lot of trouble. Today I would like to share an experience of my friend with you.

One of my friends A works in company C. Her role is IT analyst, so she is always catching up deadlines for projects. Their working format is always worked as a group of two.

One day, she and her groupmate, B, who is also an IT analyst, were having a distribution on the distribution of work for the two of them. However, since it was almost the time to off duty for the day, B was talking to A while packing his bag. After the discussion A was still a bit confused about the distribution. However, she thought that there will be no problem since they have discussed about it many times.

2 days later, when it is the time to show the rest of the group their part of analysis, A and B found that there is still a portion they haven’t done. A and B both thought themselves were not in charge of that part. Because of this, their Boss was so angry of them and decided to punish them by deducting 5% of their salary the following month.

From this experience, we leant that we should always make sure of our job assignments. Never think in the way that “That’s more or less the things I need to do”. Because if you have this kind of thoughts, you will always get punished by your boss.

Evaluating Intercultural behavior

In Singapore, it is natural to order in Chinese at canteen if you know how to speak it. I felt that there was no communication problem at all until one day.

On that day, I was at business canteen ordering my dinner before class. I planned to order shrimp noodles at the noodles store. When the uncle asked me my order, I said in Chinese: “I want a bowl of ‘Xia Mian’.” The uncle looked at me, and asked: “Ha Mian?” I shake my head and repeated my order: “I want ‘Xia Mian’.” The uncle frowned at me and asked again: “Ha Mian??” I felt very puzzled, and repeated: “Xia Mian.” Then the aunty who is cooking noodle came and said: “you want ‘Ha Mian’ or not?” This time, I told her in English “I want shrimp noodles.” Then the aunty whispered: “eh, ‘Ha Mian’ loh.”

After this incidence, I felt that although I have been here for almost five years, there are still a lot of intercultural differences I haven’t found out. Although most Chinese Singaporeans know how to speak Chinese, The ways we speak, and the words we use are very different.

I also have the feeling that English have played an extremely important role in today’s world. If I don’t know English, I could never have that bowl of shrimp noodles ordered.

Biodata of Wang Danhua

My name is Wang Danhua, I’m a year 4 statistics student from National University of Singapore. I chose statistics major because of my strong interest in numbers. However, I don’t like a theory, that’s why I don’t chose maths as my major. Because of my strong interest in numbers, I also took a minor in financial maths. My aspiration is to find a job related to finance.

In my four years of university life, I have joined a lot of Co-Circular Activities, such as Chinese Drama, Wushu, Video Community, and etc. I gained a lot from these CCAs. Joined Chinese Drama made me learned how to be a team player. Joined Video Community made me learned to always hold a good attitude toward my work. Joined Wushu made me gained the spirit of insist on something.

I love travelling. Although as a student, I don’t have much time and money to travel, I have made a lot of travelling plans for my future life, hope I can made them come true some other day. I also like music and reading books, especially Chinese books. Whenever I was reading books, I was also listening to music.

Finally, as a graduating student from NUS, I hope I can find a job related to finance. I think my personality and my experience have made me a suitable person for this kind of jobs.

Cover Letter for Internship program of Risk management Institute

Wang Danhua
435 Clementi Ave 3
#10-204
Singapore 120435
Phone no.90923601
U0602663@nus.edu.sg

September 6, 2009

Dr Oliver Chen
Program Director
Risk Management Institute
21 Heng Mui Keng Terrace Level 4
Singapore 119613
National University of Singapore

Dear Dr Chen,

I am interested in applying for the RMI Research Internship Program listed from the RMI website.

As a statistics major student, I have strong interest in finance, and hence took a minor in financial mathematics. After finished the entire minor courses in my second year, I am now also taking statistical courses related to finance. Therefore, I have confidence to handle works related to your research projects.

I am sure that I can get used to the work environment very fast. I am willing to learn, and can learn fast. I like things to be way ahead of schedule, thus I always finish my work earlier than expected. My personality also involves face every difficulty in life optimistically, willing to help people, willing to accept advices. Having these good tempers help me to improve myself from day to day.

I will be an asset to your program, and this internship would provide me the ideal opportunity to expand my research skills. Hope I can meet you soon in the future.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and time.


Sincerely,

Wang Danhua

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict (Post #2)

A and B both worked in company X (A famous magazine company). They are friends. As a writer, they always need to work until late night. One day, in order to finish the article before deadline, B worked until the next morning and was too tired to do anything. A saw all the things and kindly suggested that she could hand in the article to the chief editor for her. B thanked A and told her that her article was saved in the red thumb drive on her desk. However, A couldn’t find it on B’s desk, because her desk was in a mess. Instead, she found a pink thumb drive in B’s bag. Therefore, A handed in the pink thumb drive to the chief editor.

Later in the afternoon, the chief editor called B into his office, and asked why she handed in a thumb drive without the required article. Because of the wrong submission, the releasing time of the magazine had been delayed. The chief editor was very angry at her and said he would fine her this month for sure.

From then on, although B still acted the same as before at work, she’s avoiding talking to A. They are not friends anymore. As long as it was not about work, B acted as if she didn’t know A at all. A was very upset about this. She didn’t want to lose her friend. What would you do if you were in A’s situation?

Why effective communication skills is important for me

Effective communication skills are essential in our life. When you talk to your professor, when you communicate with your interviewer, when you talk to your colleagues, it will make your life easier. However, the skills not only include speaking, but also listening, reading and writing.

Talking about speaking, this week we have read about asking questions effectively, a bad question may ruined the conversation, this is very important when we are doing an interview or a talk with our professors.

Secondly, about listening skills, usually we thought we have heard all the things and knows everything, but actually we can only remember 25-50% of the contents we heard after less than 10 minutes.

Moreover, effectively reading is also important. It may not be essential when we make a conversation, but when we prepared for an interview, it is crucial. If we couldn’t effectively read all the materials, or we have understood wrongly about the material, we may ruin our opportunities.

Last but not least, writing skills. If we couldn’t write effectively, for example we couldn’t satisfy the 7C’s. There may produce a lot of misunderstandings in our reports or essays.

I have to say none of the four skills is perfect for me; some of them are even not good. For instance, sometimes for me, I can only remember 10% of the things I heard, even worse is that none of those is the key points. Moreover, as a graduating student, I’m going to the workplace in less than a year. Communicate effectively with others will make my life easier. Due to the reasons above, effective communication skills is important for me.