My journey so far...

Hello all

We have finally reached the end of the semester and the last blog post for this module. I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on my enriching journey through this module.

I have to admit that initially I was not too keen about this module as I thought it was going to be uninteresting. However, CG1413 proved me wrong as it turned out to be rather engaging and I genuinely gained interest in it as the module unfolded. Firstly, I found the idea of blogging very effective as it not only provides us a good avenue to reflect on various activities but also helps us develop our written communication skills and most importantly adds some fun to the learning process as blogging is generally perceived as a recreational activity by teenagers.

I also found the concept of video recording our meeting and oral presentations and later reviewing them highly interesting and effective. It was the first time I got the oppotunity to watch my own presentation and be my own audience. I would have to agree that the purpose of this activity was very well met as I learnt a lot after watching the recordings and managed to work on several weaknesses of mine and consequentially, managed to deliver better presentations. Previously I was not aware that non-verbal communication was so important that it contributed to an astonishing eighty percent of a person’s delivery of an idea. Through this course I learnt that and hence developed on my non-verbal cues such as body gestures and eye contact to enhance my presentation skills.

"Where the best and the brightest come together, the possibilities are endless"

Moreover, I also learnt countless invaluable lessons while working in a team for projects, which formed the core of this module as well as CG1102 which is a co-requisite of this module. Both the projects required us to apply teamwork and communication skills proficiently throughout the duration of the project. As a result I got more comfortable with essential teamwork skills like adapting to new ideas from teammates, voicing out any disapproval in a polite manner, keeping to deadlines, motivating each other in times of distress and so on.
All in all, I am genuinely thankful for having taken up this module as it has undoubtedly made me a better speaker and listener, and more importantly has found me some very valuable friends as well. I would like to end my post by shouting out a big Thank You to my wonderful tutor Ms Happy Goh, my encouraging classmates and also special thanks to my teammates in particular for having worked together fantastically well for each project.

Warmest Regards
Iswarya

Reflections on Oral Presentation 2

My CG1413 project group’s oral presentation was on Monday, 22nd March, 2010. My group comprising of Renuka Devi, Alden Ho and myself, led by our very responsible leader Ying Cong, performed relatively well. As a whole, we displayed team spirit by maintaining a coherent tone and pace throughout the presentation and by having smooth transitions between individuals. In addition, we also followed a black and white colour theme for our dress code to look more coordinated as a team. These factors and more added up to the overall excellence of our team presentation.

In particular, I will now be evaluating my own presentation based on both the verbal and non-verbal aspects of my speech.

In my speech, there were instances when I made references to points addressed by the previous speaker, Alden. This individual effort added to the team’s coherence. In addition, I also adopted a comfortable pace and volume throughout. Moreover, I emphasized on certain points to bring more attention to them. This is commendable as it is crucial for the audience to follow the presentation easily. However, some drawbacks I noticed were that I could have made more pauses during my speech to allow the audience to absorb what was being delivered to them.

Moving on to the non-verbal aspects of my speech, I have observed that I have maintained a confident posture throughout the presentation which is notably good. Moreover I managed to maintain constant eye contact with the audience as I did not refer to the cue card at all and only referred to the slides occasionally. However, I feel that I should not have held the remote control as well as my cue card as I did not even use them and they only resulted in restricting my hand gestures. Furthermore, I think I should have made more references to the slides to better connect my speech with the content on the slides in order to make the presentation more engaging.

Reflections on 1st meeting for cg1102 project (:

My cg1102 project team had the first meeting on the morning of 11th February, Thursday. The attendance was excellent as everyone turned up and was well prepared. We took a bit of time looking for a proper venue to do our filming. Soon after we found a suitable location, we started our discussion and started the video recording as well. However we encountered technical difficulties while trying to film our meeting. It was about 10 minutes into the meeting when we realized that the video we had been filming had not been recording any audio. We were lucky to have found out the technical glitch then itself and quickly fixed it after a few tries. Such obstacles in recording our meeting made us realize the importance of planning ahead and preparing and testing the equipment we were going to use in our meeting, ahead of time. Other than these minor problems, our meeting went smoothly as planned.
I had the role of a secretary in my team so I dutifully took down the important details as we discussed. I made use of point form notations so that the notes were clear and precise.  We managed to work together and each member in the team contributed a fair share to the discussion. All of us managed to get our ideas across without causing misunderstandings which further helped keep our meeting flow smoothly. However at times I felt that the minutes taking required me to step out of the discussion for a brief amount of time which was quite uncomfortable for me. 

In all, we managed to fulfill all the tasks we had specified in the agenda within slightly more than half an hour.
It was an interesting experience as it was the first time I have attended a meeting that was entirely caught on tape. I am very curious to have our meeting video critiqued so that we can receive constructive feedback on how to improve our discussion skills. In conclusion, I would say the first cg1102 project meeting was a successful one which left a positive impact on me.

Penny and Krystle... Resolving interpersonal conflicts...

There are these two best friends, named Penny and Krystle. They met when they were in primary school and have always found time to catch up with each others’ lives despite the fact that they went to different secondary schools and junior colleges and are now enrolled in different universities as well. They have made more common friends along the way and nowadays hang out in a clique of 6 people.


All of their lives got much more busy in University. It was especially busy for Krystle who had taken up an executive position as a secretary for her faculty’s main club. Hence Krystle was often caught up with meetings and doing reports for the club’s projects. Moreover, Krystle was also leading a community involvement project which required them to consistently organize events to raise funds and also call for meetings often to discuss on their progression. Penny and the other friends were not as highly involved in co-curricular activities, unlike Krsytle, and hence there happened to be more common time for the rest to meet up excluding Krystle.

One day, Penny and some friends planned a surprise birthday party for Krystle in a posh restaurant. Krystle had no idea about this plan and had been told that it was just a casual dinner with all the friends. Krystle initially told them that she would be able to make it on that day. However, due to unforeseen circumstances she had to call for a club meeting on that very day to clear up some urgent work. Since she was under the impression that it was just a casual dinner, she informed her friends that she could not turn up for dinner that day and told them she would join in another day and kindly apologized.This was not the first time that Krsytle was forgoing a friends’ gathering.

Penny and her friends were very disappointed when this happened as they felt that Krystle was involved in too many activities that she had to sacrifice a large fraction of her social life to cope with her work. Penny, in particular, was very upset that Krystle was not giving as much importance to their friendship as she used to and Penny stopped talking to Krystle after this incident. On the other hand, Krsytle was very confused that her action that day caused such an impact. She was unaware of how the other parties felt and Krystle felt that her friends were not understanding enough to think from her point of view, which made Krystle upset as well.

What do you think these friends can do to patch up their friendship? How do you think we can make them understand each others’ situations and feelings?

Observing a team behavior regarding intercultural communication

Singapore, as we know, has a vibrant multi-cultural society. As such, to make it even more interesting, we’re now in NUS where we get a myriad of opportunities to mix around with individuals from different cultural groups.

Recently, NUS conducted its orientation for the international exchange students who will be studying their current semester in NUS. In order to familiarize the international students with the main cultural groups in Singapore, the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) had requested several societies to set up their booths at the event. Since I am part of NUS Hindu Society, I gladly took part in this event.

Since nuts are very popular among Indians, our booth gave away various kinds of nuts mixed together in paper cones and we did not provide any spoons to eat them with as we assumed that it was normal for everyone to eat snacks with bare hands. However, we realized later that not everyone thought the same. Surprisingly, many international students gave us puzzled looks and asked us how we eat them. Some even started licking the nuts as it was packed in a way that resembled an ice-cream cone!

It was then that we realized that different cultures have distinctly different characteristics and we cannot take anything for granted. We had seemingly adopted a high- context culture subconsciously and it did not coincide with everyone else’s there. In order to avoid such situations, we have to be more accommodating when interacting with other cultures as it is extremely important to expand our cultural awareness and enrich our intercultural relationships. This is in order to preserve mutual respect and minimize communication breakdown across different cultures.

Why is communication and teamwork important to me?

Communication, in layman terms, refers to the activity of transferring information. When we mention communication, we usually refer to effective communication so that messages conveyed are well received with the intended motive unchanged. Personally I feel that good communication is very important as it is the key to good business and a good living. In a day about a whopping 70 percent of our time is spent in communicating with the others. Therefore it is important to do it well as only through effective communication can we express our thoughts and concerns well. One may be very talented and have brilliant ideas, but if they are not effectively communicated to others, it is hard to embody the ideas as intended. Since more often than not, teamwork is involved to implement ideas, good communication skills are an asset to a team.


Teamwork is just as important as communication as they go hand in hand. Teamwork refers to cooperative work by a group or a team. Good teamwork involves listening to fellow members of a team when they are trying to convey a message across and receiving it the same way as the speaker intended. Following that, fellow team members have to reciprocate good communication skills to effectively put their response across to the team. Communication is a two-way lane and when done effectively, it creates synergy in a team. A team can then embark on their journey to success with a more empowered way of working. With teamwork comes equity and camaraderie which promotes an energized working environment for the team to achieve their goals efficiently.


On a personal note, I feel that communication and teamwork make up the backbone of all strong relationships, be it among friends, family or colleagues and every individual ought to adopt it. (: