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
Hey ! I found your blog to be quite impressive as you clearly have explained why you want to improve on your communication skills and that you have added a personal touch to it as well.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I feel that once you improve your self confidence you will become a far better communicator.
Hi Sai,
DeleteThank you for your encouragement! I have been much better than I used to be but still I got a long way to go.
I appreciate your confidence and initiatives when you express your ideas. Your ability to articulate impress me a lot. I want to be more motivated and organize my language better through practice and reading. Though I got a lot of stuff to work out (ironically it is stuff that I thought would be easy to work out but finally trapped me), I won't give up training myself.
Hi Ding Ding,
ReplyDeleteI must say that your post had a lot of impact and I do not think you are a poor writer at all. You express your thoughts very clearly, in simple words. Though you were a bit negative in this post due to personal reasons, I like the fact that you are confident about this course. I would like to point to a line that caught my attention.
"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." --> I believe that every person has his/her own flaws and nobody is an exception to this rule. If we get offended by people mocking us, we do ourselves more harm than good. Thus, by gaining more self-confidence you can be a very good communicator and as you said, this class offers the best opportunity to gain confidence and improve our communication skills.
As your blog mate, I believe that I have a lot to learn from you and will give my inputs to you as well. All the best :)
PS: Sorry for the delay in commenting.
Hi Chandra,
DeleteIt's kind of you to comment on my post in detailed analysis. I want to point to this line"every person has his/her own flaws and nobody is an exception to this rule. If we get offended by people mocking us, we do ourselves more harm than good" that I'm now aware of the importance in neglecting others' mocking or looking down on me, but it is still easier said than done. Sometimes I am too proud to ignore some persons' offensive actions or speech toward me, which makes me feel terrible. I hope when I make mistakes, people can be more tolerant and patient giving me a chance to perform, even it is poorly done.
Ding Ding,
ReplyDeleteI like this post because you focus directly on your experience and needs while also sharing some clear insecurities. It takes a lot of strength to share the sort of information you have given in this post. Like Chandra, I feel that maybe you are being overly negative, but of course the question of having a lack of confidence must be something you've thought about deeply.
This post is also strong because it is concise, generally clear and quite concrete in the analysis of your perceived weaknesses. There are a few issues of language correctness that you might want to consider, but overall this is very good:
1) When I was young, communication with people is really a tough job... >>
When I was young, communication with people WAS really a tough job... (Keep your verb tenses consistent)
2) I'm not inclined to be a silencer... >> I'm not inclined to be a "silent type"
3) to make him understood. >>>
to make him understand me.... or.... to make my thoughts understood
I really appreciate your effort, Ding Ding!
Hi Ding Ding!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was reading your post, I felt that I am reading someone’s description about myself. Most of the problems you described in your post seem to be applicable to me as well. I am always afraid to speak up as I am worried of saying the wrong things in class. Therefore I am also not in a very good position to give any advice to you. However, I believe that things are not as bad as you had described and that you are just being too pessimistic. I actually managed to read through your post without much difficulty, which shows that your writing skill is not that bad. Hence, let’s look forward to improving our communication skills through this course!
Hi yea wen,
DeleteEverybody goes through hard times as it is the destiny designed by god to strength his ability. As you said, pessimism and inferiority can cause communication barricade(It is totally a description of my early age) which should be broken by his/her efforts to get connected with people.
After two years in my home university I realize profoundly that connecting with people is far more important than staying in my bedroom or study-room closing my windows to other,watching books and being nerdy. Character can be improved, wills can be approached as long as one badly wants to improve him/herself. Hence, quote your lines, "let’s look forward to improving our communication skills through this course:)"