Course Reflections

Coming to the end of the course, my feelings are tinged with regret that it was over all too fast. 13 weeks is hardly enough to cover even half of what truly constitutes communications, even though we certainly did try. Still, I learned more about communications than I have ever did in my life, and this knowledge has already manifested itself in many of the daily interactions, leading to new insights on how people communicate with one another. The skills learned (resume writing, job interviews, presentations) were also the most useful and relevant things I have learned in NUS, in contrast to many theoretical lectures that hold no further value once out in the working world. I applaud those who came up with this course, for I am sure many students both before and after me will benefit deeply from these skill sets that are taught.

Perhaps more important than the knowledge I gained, are the friends I made in the class. Each of them kindred spirits, forging a bond between everyone of us that I am sure will not be broken even when the class ends. Through all the different things that we were made to do (OP, Job interviews etc), I got to see the many different quirks and habits that make all of us tick. For example, to be able to witness first hand Chaun Ting's 'pride' in her mannerisms, Vanessa's awesome tolerance level, makes me thankful of the course, for only through this would I have known such individuals so 'intimately', giving each and every one an individualism I would never have seen in any other modules in NUS.

Last but not least, kudos to our teacher, Brad Blackstone, who somehow manages to turn something that would seem to be boring lessons on writing into one which I eagerly turn up for, week in, week out, knowing that every lesson promises to have I can benefit from.

Cheers,
Jake

Oral Presentation Reflections

Hi people! Here goes my reflections on the oral presentation done on Friday 8th April.

Firstly I would like to apologise to my two lovely group members, for I thought that my part could have been much better, and I might have caused our marks to be lower than what we should be getting.

With regards to the presentation itself, I found that being the first person of the first group to present was quite nerve-wrecking, in spite of the multiple practices that I had done both individually and with the group. My non-verbal communications were particularly bad, with leg shifting and my eyes straying all over the place, which Jing Horng kindly pointed out to me. Strangely, I was not able to detect these movements while I was presenting, as these 'signs of nervousness' were actually just usual habits of mine, regardless of whether I feel nervous or not.

Also, there was a point where I fumbled for words, leading to observations that I had memorised from a script prior to the presentation. As much as its going to sound like me trying to be defensive about my mistakes, I can honestly say that this was not a result of trying to recite from a script. Rather, due to the many times that I had rehearsed for the presentation, the style and wordings of each slide had sort of been internalised. So, when I read that particular sentence out of whack, having put the word problem in front instead of at the back, no suitable substitution came to mind immediately, leading to the fumbling.

I can't really find any good points for my part of the presentation, but Hwee Teng and Stella were, in my opinion, excellent in all aspects of the presentation, being very in control of the content and exuding confidence that the proposal was in fact both viable and beneficial. I thank them for giving such an excellent presentation that the class were convinced of the benefits of our proposal, and of course, the very awesome teamwork we showed! =)