Friday, November 7, 2008

Final Reflection

Looking back at the semester’s effort, I believe I have succeeded in achieving a sufficient understanding and competency to face the challenging work place as an effective communicator. In the context of the daily life the importance to express our ideas in accordance to the 7 Cs was demonstrated to us. It is vital to be able to convey a message as it is without distorting the original idea in a clear, concise and courteous manner. The understanding of the 7 Cs is very handy to produce an effective communication not only in the society and work place but also at home.

One interesting aspect I learnt through this course was the different intercultural behaviors we happen to encounter in society and how we can adopt ourselves accordingly, so as to accomplish a pleasant rapport. We happen to associate people with numerous cultural backgrounds everyday; our inter-cultural differences often give rise to conflict situations due to the lack of communication. Therefore it is important to gain a good understanding about the other person’s unique ways related to his culture.

In addition, I immensely appreciate the knowledge and skills I gained on report writing, resume writing, presentations and job interviews. Even though I have been performing these tasks throughout my 4 years in NUS, I have been merely following the conventional styles that appealed to me. This course gave me a constructive knowledge on the different ways of approaching such tasks and means by which we can select the most effective and efficient technique.

All in all, I believe that my initial expectation of the course, namely, to learn how to communicate effectively while identifying and overcoming the potential communication barriers, was fulfilled. Furthermore I ought to add this final note that, I enjoyed a very pleasant, enlightening and interactive experience throughout the semester within “Blackstone’s World without Walls”.