No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
———— John Donne
In general, communication means exchange of information between people. Five senses and body are the main transmitters and receivers of information. For a lot of people, communication is easy because they can at least present what they think in a way that can be understood. But for me, communication with people is a disaster.
When I was young, communication with people was really a tough job because I'm quite introverted. I was too shy to say anything in public. From time to time I would picture that I made mistakes during my speech and everybody laughed at me, which was unbearable for a boy armed with strong inferiority. At that time, I would write a script before my speech and tried to recite every word to present a "confident" and "fluent" speech because I felt that when I talked, I was not able to think. It is really non-efficient and it blocks my way to progress in communication.
Even now, my diction is poor and my speech is short of logic when I speak. Listener may not know what I'm talking about even after I have explained it in native language. This is really excruciating because I want to express my ideas clearly and correctly. I'm not inclined to be a "silent type" and I'm really in urgent need of some skills to be a clear speaker to articulate my ideas in a manner that is easily understood.This is why I took the course.
Effective communication skills can be very helpful when I encounter different situations in Singapore. When I go out for shopping, I may use gestures to show something I can't name. When I meet with an indigenous Singaporean, I will try to talk to him in different languages to make my thoughts understood. Since I don't know English well, communication in English is a challenge for me. Effective communication skills can help me ease the transition into English speaking world.
All in all, effective communication skills are the ones I would most like to master here.
Edited Wednesday, Aug 29, 2012
