Back to "High School" Memories (:

Time flies and in a blink of an eye, 13 weeks passed! Looking back at our first posts where everyone was looking forward to the module with anticipation, wondering what awaits us to where we are now – a “high-school” class where everyone is comfortable of speaking up and voicing out our opinions in this little cosy class of ours. I believe everyone would agree with me that we have come a long way – from zero to hero! *a pat on our back* (:

Indeed, the reviews on the module were all right, the workload was really intensive and overwhelming! However, the immense takeaways from the module, the life skills learnt, the memories and friendships forged together with everyone have made it all worthwhile. I must say I am really glad that 13weeks back, I made this choice to take up this challenge to step out of my comfort zone, taking this module alone as the 6^th module. I have gained much life-long skills that could bring us a long way and experienced personal growth as an individual.

As I recall the first ES2007S lesson we attended, Ms lim had a hard time getting our responses as we were all cold and unresponsive especially on a Monday morning. She has to constantly say “Come on come on, I know it’s a Monday morning ~ this is an interactive class. It’s not a one way lecture class.” Yes! This is indeed very true and what makes our class so special. It does away completely from the conventional, boring lecture-styles we have attended. Instead, it focuses its attention on collaborative learning through the sharing of ideas as well as picking up the skills of effective communications along the way for our group project assignments and topics discussion in class. It is all thanks to Ms lim’s encouragements and never-dying enthusiasm that fuelled our participation. Thanks to the ice-breaker activity that warmed us up and gelled the class together. I believe we started our journey of practicing effective communication in class at the very moment that we are engaged in this activity. As little it may seemed, I felt that this little activity allowed us to utilise our skills of active listening when we listened intently to the introduction of the classmates we first met in class :)

Besides, we also practiced EQ and sensitivity where everyone wrote positive first impression of each other. This definitely builds a rapport among the classmates. :D I was caught by surprise the dynamic and interactive way in which the lesson was conducted.

There were many firsts for me in this module. First time creating a blog, blogging(to consolidate our thoughts and express our opinions through written communications), first time conducting a peer teaching session(Ao Yun, Mark and Akash *TINKKK*), first time writing a cover letter, first time using wiki(platform for us to collaborate online), first time doing proposal within such a short timespan(Team Clover rocks!<3), first time carrying out mock job interview(Terence, Kelvin, Ella, it was fun role playing and interrogating each other isn’t it?:D *laughs out loud*). It amazes me how much we have done within a short amount of time :)

Overtime, through these experiences, I have gradually improved the essential life skills of being an engaging speaker, a more active listener, and learnt how important it was for both verbal and non-verbal communications to complement each other. Peer teaching and our research project allowed us to practice what we have learnt and put them to good use as effective communications, mutual understanding(especially when everyone comes from different background and is very busy with our other modules and projects), and team work is definitely the fundamentals of a group project. These imperative skills acquired would definitely aid me in becoming a better communicator to build better interpersonal relationships.

As weeks passed, I gradually found a sense of belonging to this class. From stranger, we became classmates and friends!:D Even though, I dread waking up at 6am in the morning, I looked forward to every lesson we had and I enjoyed every bit of the interaction with my classmates(YES, YOU!:) who is reading the post now. You are part of these great memories forged that keeps my motivation for the class going)!(: I like the class dynamics and atmosphere when the class communicates. The openness and the different view point of each and everyone allowed me to view and understand things at different perspectives especially when our class has a good mix of science and engine students on top of being a multi-national one!

I especially like the lesson where we discussed about intercultural behaviour, I gained many insights on the intercultural behaviours. Different cultural backgrounds give us a different exposure to things and as a result we reacted in different ways due to the different perspectives. Thus, effective communications can only be foster when two parties put in efforts and have a mutual understanding. Thanks to Ms Lim for taking the efforts each time to mix us up in different groups such that I am lucky to have a chance to interact with everyone in class! :D

Also, I am really thankful to my peer teaching group; Mark, Ao Yun and Akash and my dear girls-power team; Xiu Qin, Doris and Chen Yan! :D I really appreciate the efforts that we have put in to cooperate with each other despite the packed schedule, to build a team with such great team spirit and rapport! :D

Every beginning has an end. It is really sad that to our “high-school” class has to come to an end. :’( I treasure the memories and friendship the class had forged thus far. I am thankful to all my dearest classmates and Ms Lim for all their constructive feedbacks during each of the lesson components and for providing so much motivation through encouragements. :)

Lastly, I would like to end off with one of the two quotes that I have shared with everyone in class:

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough, we must do.” ~ Leonardo da vinci

Knowing the fundamentals of effective communication is definitely not enough, if we do not put the skills that we have learnt from this course, the past 13weeks would have gone to waste. The last activity that Ms Lim went through with us has greatly enlightened us. Let us all start these life skills from the ones who we hold dearest to. (: I wish everyone all the best for the final exams and future endeavours! JIAYOU! (:

I have never regretted taking this module ES2007 (:

I LOVE GROUP ONE. THE "HIGH-SCHOOL" CLASS! <3

P.S: THANKYOU EVERYONE FOR ALL THE MEMORIES! (: IWILL MISS YOU ALL! ):

Lets have a class gathering together after our exams end yea? :D Please tell me when is the last day of your exams when you are commenting on my post so that I can try to collate a common date! :D

Dedicated to DEAR TEAM CLOVER!:D

"Coming together is a beginning.

Keeping together is progress.

Working together is success." ~ Henry Ford

---Beginning-------------------Progress-------------Success-- YAY! (Y)

The quote is similar to us isn't it? :D The Three Steps approach haha :D (Y)

From zero, we do not know each other and we come together as TEAM CLOVER for our research project, its the beginning. (:

Throughout the second half of the semester, we worked together and progress as a team and gave each other support through the process. (:

And lastly, by working hard together and through overcoming our fears, we succeeded! and our presentation was a success! YAY! (:

Loves,

ting <3!

Oral Presentation Reflections

Yayyy!!:D the heart accelerating oral presentation is finally over! Coupled with the finals of my laboratory practical module which lasted for 7hours yesterday, I heaved a sigh of relief as the week concluded. I am glad that it’s all over!:) I am having mixed feeling. On one hand feeling that it was over but disappointed on the other as I felt that I could have done much better. I was very disappointed and the presentation was below my expectations :(

As compared to peer teaching, I felt much more prepared and managed to rehearse a few more times. However, I was still very nervous(hope it’s not too obvious) and felt that there were much room for improvements on my part.I feel that there is a need to create an impactful start to capture the audience’s attention so as to get them interested in our presentation hence I refined how I can begin the presentation continually for a quite number of times; the actual presentation is the 5^th version haha.

I like presentation that starts with a quote as I feel that it is professional and sets the audience thinking. After several hours of search I manage to find a quote by Henry Ford, however we felt it would be better to use it to end the conclusion :D

During the presentation, I felt that I started quite well with confidence and managed to keep the audience engaged as I see many of them were nodding in agreement with the example I shown and especially when I relate an individual(myself)’s example of how alarming one can actually impact the environment in just one different approach – the choice of mode of transportation. However, unfortunately a small hiccup happened. 2 of my slides went missing and one of which was the objectives slide. This made my confidence level dropped. I was too nervous realising the missing slide and fumbled upon quite a few words :( I looked at my team for help but it dawned upon me that I am the speaker at the moment, delivering the presentation and I am the only one who can save myself out of the situation. Therefore, I tried hard to compose myself in the shortest period possible as I am aware that there is only 5minutes of airtime and I would not be given a second chance.

Upon reflection, I do know the objectives and content for my part at the back of my hand. I do not need the slides to guide me of what I am going to say next and should have just continue calmly and “pretend” that nothing went wrong as the audience can just listen to what I am going to say as the slides are just an aid which serves to emphasize my points. However, easier said than done. Regretfully, I failed to remain calm as I was taken aback as I did check the slides many times and all was well. It maybe because when one of my team mates edited the parts in the morning and not all the slides were copied over to her saved version. However, I must say it’s still negligence on my part that I did not do a final run through just right before the presentation. I will bear this in mind and make sure I run through every single slide the next time.

As compared to peer teaching, I feel that I referred less often to the cue cards. Cue cards give me additional psychological support :) however, while holding them, it made me want to refer and follow what is written exactly on my speech and actually distracted me. Thus, at the later part of the presentation, I decided to do away with them and deliver what I wanted to convey to the audience freely. From this experience, I learnt that I can express myself better and engage the audience without cue cards. Confidence is really the key to presentation :) and the continual practices have helped me in handling unanticipated situation and regain my composure. One thing I can and should really work is to be situation-smart so that I can better handle impromptu situation and do also without cue cards! I hope the next presentation(if I have a chance) will be cue card-less! Some of the good things were I managed to maintain eye contact with the audience, volume was appropriate loud and clear. I used non-verbal cues such as appropriate gestures to bring a point across(I hope so as when I practiced infront of the mirror looking at myself it was ok!:) ) and made attempts to emphasize the main points. Lastly, I remembered to acknowledge and thank the audience during Q&A session. However, there is still much room for improvements on my presentation skills.

Team reflections

I am thankful to be in Team Clover!:D I am really glad that Team Clover showed team spirit and gave each other encouragements and support throughout the presentation. Our team showed respect to our team members when each is presenting and nod with a smile on our faces when our team members look back at each other for assurance. I believed this is also what that give me support to regain my composure for the small hiccup. We standardise our dress code to white top and black bottoms and decided to put on a blazer!:) as it look more formal(and cool hahaha and we were secretly feeling suave!:D).

I am proud of the slides and animations we did for our presentation slides. :) I find the fonts, colours and animation used were appropriate as it effectively highlighted our important points. Pictures were also added to enhance the visual experience of the audience. We put in a lot of efforts into designing the slides and set aside time to standardise all the font sizes, alignment and animation so that it looked coherent as a team. I am glad that it turned out well and the audience were appreciative of them. :)

Team spirit is further displayed towards the conclusion part where we stood up one by one to further enhance the meaning of the quote! :D We were quite nervous for the Q&A session even though we were prepared but we did not know what questions await us! And WOW we have overwhelming responses!! Its good in a way as it means that we managed to engage the audience and they were listening to our proposed solutions with interest! YAY! Furthermore, the questions posted by the audience gave us a chance to clarify our solutions and emphasize our points. Our point that we have taken note is BRT could have been better clarified if both sides of the roads were shown. Some questions from the floor were not anticipated and we were alittle lost for answers. I felt that the Q&A session has room for improvements as some of our answers could be better phrased. I believe we will improve with more exposure to handling questions. (:

Overall, I felt that our presentation was effective! (: Through this presentation, it further emphasizes the point the both verbal and non-verbal communications are essential for an effective presentation.

ALL THE BEST TO TEAM ENERGY AND TEAM GREEN FOR THEIR PRESENTATION TML!:D hope everything will go smoothly for them too! I have really gained a lot out of this research project and I believe these memorable and valuable experiences will bring us a long way! (:

Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

Different cultures have their own unique beliefs, values and behaviours instilled. As our world expands and become increasingly more interconnected, the need for effective interpersonal communication among differing cultures has become apparent. Through globalization, it is no longer difficult to observe ethics of diverse cultures living together in a same society. For example, Singapore is an immediate example where our country has a mixture of diverse culture, in a multi-racial society. When people from different cultures interact, there is an intercultural communication. Growing up in a different culture entails us to look at things with a different perception, speak in a different language and create different interpretation of others actions and words. Thus, it is important for us to understand and adapt to the various cultural behaviours in order to foster effective communication.

Greeting is one way for us human to communicate with one another at the first instance and it is also the first impression we give to people. There are 101 ways that we can to greet each other. For example, in the U.S, the people are more hip hop and go “yoyo what’s up dude” when meet their male friends and go “yoyo what’s up babe” when they meet their female friends with a high-five even for the first time. French people usually kiss on both cheeks to show respect and affection between two people in general. In most western countries, a peck on the cheek is a very natural thing to do and simply a basic form of greeting.

Some other examples such as in Belize, when the people meet, they would press fists together whereas in Tibet they would stick their tongue out at someone to show that they have no evil intentions. However, these would be highly uncommon to be observed in the more conservative part of the globe, such as the Asian countries. In the Asian countries, a handshake would be a more common way of greetings. In Japan, the Japanese would bow from their waist when they greet someone as a form of respect for the person.

Thus different cultures have their own unique way of expressing themselves, however all these different ways of expressions seek to bring one objective across, which is to show that an acknowledgement or appreciation to have come across the other person on the receiving end. Sometimes, not knowing the etiquette in one culture may be bad manners and lead to an unpleasant experience. For example, a person who is ignorant of the French way of greeting through a friendly peck may miscomprehend that a French is taking an advantage of her. On the other hand, someone who do not know that Tibet stick out their tongue when they greet someone can misinterpret the Tibetan way of greeting as a form of disrespect and one may get the wrong impression for Belize’s way of greeting as an intention to pick a fight.

Therefore, I believe it is important that we should understand, learn and respect one and other’s culture. One of my dreams is to travel around the world to have a touch of the different cultures across the globe! :)

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict: Building better relationships (:

We all live in a dynamic and complex network of family members, friends, classmates or project mates. I believe in most situations, we try to find ways to get along with each other and often to avoid conflicts. Personally, I do not like conflict and feel that conflict would often hurt the relationship between the two parties. However, whenever there is more than one person around, there bound to have different view and perception. Conflicts are inevitable and arise when there is a difference in a perception of the situation, even between two ‘bestest’ friends or even with our closest ones such as our family members.

I would like to share a conflict which my friend shared with me recently. Not long ago, he went on a YEP trip to Inner Mongolia. They have 25 people in the team and most of them do not know each other beforehand. Due to the differences in personalities, many conflicts arise during the course of the trip. In the team, there were three girls who were very close friends and known each other before they joined the trip. These three girls were too straightforward and they were rather insensitive in their words. They often voiced out negative opinions in a sarcastic way. Unfortunately there was this girl within the group whom they were not fond of and they often find faults and picked on her. To make the matter worse, they were not criticizing her discreetly but out loud in front of the whole team. The people who were more supportive of the girl started to speak up for the girl and all these lead on to much unhappiness within the team. Being one of the only five guys in the YEP team, my friend was placed in an awkward position and not knowing how to resolve the conflict. Eventually, their YEP was split into different cliques and the tension could be felt throughout the whole journey. As a result, this YEP trip became a not too enjoyable experience for him :(

If you were in his shoes, how would you try to resolve this situation?

I believe emotion intelligence(EQ) and communication skills are two essential skills to learn in dealing with interpersonal conflicts. Many a time, if one was able stand in the shoes of the others and see things in another perspective instead of insisting on own’s stand, a lot of misunderstandings and interpersonal conflicts could be avoided. A positive attitude, the tone in a conversation, effective listening skills, and focusing on interests and solutions, would help to get through the rough exchanges more smoothly. However, it is often easier said than done, it is always not easy to keep a cool and calm head to logic things out at “THE MOMENT”.

Lastly I would like to share a quote with everyone (:

“Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.” ~ Albert Einstein

Personally I really like this quote and I find it very true. Conflicts are inevitable and I believe resolving them often takes efforts from both parties (:

Application Letter (2nd Draft)

Organisation: Health Sciences Authority

Position: Laboratory Officer, Food Safety Laboratory

Responsibilities
• To perform analysis of food sample in accordance to establish protocol independently
• To participate in local/international proficiency testing programme to ensure competency
• To participate in Quality Assurance Activities such as equipment calibration, method validation, quality control etc, to ensure that quality system is in compliance to ISO/IEC 17025

Requirements
• Diploma in Chemical Process Technology
• 3 to 5 years of experience in an analytical laboratory
• Experiences working in accredited laboratory (ISO/IEC 17025) as well as technical skills with HPLC, GC, ICP/MS and AAS would be preferred

------------------------------------------------------------------------- Application Letter Lee Hui Ting Blk xxx, Yishun Avenue x #12-345 Singapore xxxxxx 8th February 2011 Director, Human Capital Management Health Sciences Authority 11 Outram Road Singapore 169078 Dear Sir, Application for Food Safety Laboratory Officer Position I read with great interest the Food Safety Laboratory Officer position posted on www.jobstreet.com.sg. After reading through your company’s website, I am very impressed by Health and Authority(HSA)’s aim to play a vital role in supporting healthcare services and regulation, serving the administration of justice and enhancing safety in our community. Currently, I am pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Science (Chemistry) in National University of Singapore and would very much like to contribute and have a fulfilling career with HSA when I graduate in May 2011. Apart from following an intensive coursework degree in Chemistry, I was exposed to a great deal of experiments and trained to perform many laboratory techniques including Gas Chromatography (GC), High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and different types of spectroscopy such as Infra-red (IR), Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Ultraviolet (UV). Precision and accuracy are the key principles that I adhere to when performing a laboratory experiment. During my university mid-term break, I worked as an intern in A*STAR Institute of Chemical and Sciences(ICES) to assist a senior researcher, such as synthesizing catalysts independently in the laboratory and followed by analyzing the components in compounds in details. This internship experience has trained me to work efficiently with an analytical mind under the tight deadlines given by my mentor. I am very passionate about food samples analysis and concern for our society health. News about traces of harmful components in food products always bring me to high concerns. I would very much like to contribute to this role to bring justice and enhance safety in our community. This job requires knowledge of laboratory instrumentations for analysis and I believe my various exposure to laboratory work has equipped me with the necessary skills to analyze the food samples effectively and participate in Quality Assurance Activities in the regulation of food safety. In addition, I possess soft skills such as leadership, decision making, resolving conflicts and a proactive attitude. Being an house orientation leader, leading a team of thirty-two members for hundreds fresh undergraduates, I have learnt to shoulder greater responsibilities and honed my interpersonal skills. I am also a well-organized, highly motivated individual who seeks to bring awareness of Community Involvement Program(CIP) to the public. Organising volunteering activities together with my flag committee have displayed my care for our community. I am confident that my experience, together with the passion and enthusiasm I will bring to the job, makes me the right person for the position you are looking to fill. Thank you for your time and consideration for my application. I look forward to hearing favourably from you soon. Yours Sincerely, Lee Hui Ting Enclosed: Resume

The Importance of Effective Communication

The need for effective communication is imperative and it requires good skills to convey a message across successfully. For instance, for the exact same sentence of words, a different volume, intonation and body language give the receiver on the other end a total different feeling and interpretation. Hence, I strongly believe that both verbal and non-verbal are equally important when one is sending the message across.

Effective communication is especially important to me, as I foresee myself working in a service-oriented sector or a primary school teacher in the future as I enjoy the company of people. I like to interact with people and especially children as they give me different viewpoints of the way the situation can be viewed from. With a job that constantly revolves around people and human interactions, the crux of effective communication is essential.

Growing up in a Chinese-speaking family, I was not adequately exposed to English, both verbally and written. Back in junior college, we have a compulsory subject called project work where we are supposed to come up a proposal and eventually an oral presentation to 'sell' our ideas to our audience. I always admire my friends who were vocal and could speak really well on the spot without any script or reference material in hand during the oral presentation. In my mind, I always wonder how did they even do that? How could they speak so fluently in such a calm manner? Don’t they feel nervous in front of such a big crowd with all the stares focusing at them? Indeed, I believe these are the effective communication skills they possess and I have much to learn in this area.

I do fine in micro-manage on a one to one conversation but is never good in marco-manage whereby one needs to speak in front of a large crowd. Speaking up in front of a large crowd is never my forte. I feel the jittery, the adrenaline rush in the body and the butterflies in the stomach whenever I stand in front of a large class. As a result, I would fidget around and there would be redundant pauses, ermmm, ya, ahhaa, that come along as a combo set with my original presentation speech. At times, I do feel a little inferior during presentation or class participation due to my poor command of the English language :( Therefore, sometimes, this acted as a barrier to communication.

This time, I took a large step out of my comfort zone and would like to walk out of this barrier. As the saying goes, "It's never too late to learn"! I hope that through this 13weeks of intensive journey with everyone, I would able to pick up the necessary skills to overcome my fear of public speaking, get rid of all the bad presentation habits and be confident speaker!(:

Really looking forward to working with Ms Lim and everyone in class together as a team!:D The first week has passed and I must say I truly enjoyed myself in class and glad that I took up this challenge that I set for myself (: