This module has added more dimensions to my initial perception of appealing communication.
Active listening used to be my main concern. However, active listening doesn’t simply refer to lending a listening ear. There are more factors. One of which is social-cultural barrier. Being in this module, especially this class, is the best I could have hoped for. The mixture of classmates of different nationalities and backgrounds has aided the progress of my conversation skills. Through the interactions with my peers during lessons as well as outside of class, I was able to appreciate the meaning of intercultural communication.
There is more than one type of communication. I’ve split them into 2 main categories for ease of understanding: formal and informal. Informal refers to our daily interactions with our family, friends or even acquaintances. It’s like wearing different masks when faced with different people. This falls under awareness of the target audience. I’m sure everyone is doing that subconsciously, just that this term isn’t coined officially. On the other hand, how one presents oneself during an interview, a meeting or a presentation is then the formal part of communication. Here, the masks I put on diverge much more from my personality. Circumstances of such formal interactions dictates this need, we don’t have a choice. The lesson I’ve picked up from this module is that for any formal interaction (even for informal ones), everyone needs confidence regardless of the role one plays. It would be best if one is already assured of one’s worth. If not, we can rely on false bravado. Practise in the mirror daily if you have to, confidence has to ooze out from you.
There are much more which I have learnt, but the above are the more interesting messages that I want to share. Au revoir, ES 2007S! Bye to the fun and laughter we shared. Bye to the friends I’ve made (Miss Kim, I meant you too!). Bye...
3 comments:
I like your analogy of us wearing a mask. I think this is probably something that all of us does and it is really important for us to don the right mask among the right group of people and occassion. Personally I feel that everyone has multiple identities and its not easy for one to just be ourselves and while one may seem very false doing so, I feel that it is actually essential for us to do so.
One of the main reasons I feel every individual would don a different mask among different group of friends would be it would help to protray a specific characteristic of oneself. So I guess it would be something like every individual would want to protray themselves differently to different group of friends. For exmaple, one may choose to protray himself as a hardworking student when with the lecturer or tutor, however when among friends he may want to protray himself as otherwise. This could be especially so if his group of friends tend to be more laid back. Then if he protrays himself as being very hardworking it could be difficult for him to be blend and communicate effectively with his friends. However, if he protrays himself otherwise, it could help to facilitate communications as there would some form of common ground among them. Again, I think it is a good analogy.
I guess I will be missing our lessons also but let us not let it end here and keep in contact!! All the best for the coming exams!!
I beg to differ about the 'mask' issue... if you are wearing a mask when you are talking to people, that wouldn't be genuine at all.
It doesn't mean I don't understand what you are trying to say. But wearing a mask really seem 'off' from what I can see...
perhaps it is more of "applying tactful communication to bring forth a more productive conversation."
Is this what you are trying to say?
Hi Sheen Yee,
Thanks for the insightful and well-thought out reflection. I guess what you're trying to say is that context, audience and purpose(remember CAP?) determine how and what we communicate and therefore the level of formality/informality increases/decreases accordingly.
I'm not too sure however, if I agree with you that we need confidence in all contexts, formal or informal because in an informal situation such as a conversation with a family member, I don't think we need to exude confidence; we basically need to be very clear in our communication to avoid misunderstanding or sending the wrong message.
It has been a real pleasure having you in my class. Thanks for making my teaching this course a memorable one.
All the best!
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