The Big O ..for Oral Presentation!

I am disappointed with my poor slide management during my oral presentation today. I feel that insufficient emphasis on the slides was given on the recommendation that our group had proposed.

Also, I feel that there was not enough cohesive 'connection' between my group members during the actual presentation. Perhaps this was because we were pretty nervous then.

At the start of my presentation, I tried to remain calm by maintaining good eye contact with the audiences. Since the audiences were my classmates, I received encouraging gestures such as smile (Thanks Jane!) and nod from the audiences which assured me that 'I am doing fine and I should not panic'. Thus, I could remember and convey my points pretty smoothly.

I feel that there is still a lot of room for improvement in my presentation skill. Thank you for listening and commenting on our presentation. I really appreciate it!

Mirror mirror on the wall..

Reviewing on my first blog post, my understanding of the value of effective communication skills has not changed at all. Effective communication skills still top my list of becoming the next successful 'superwoman'.

I feel that I still have a lot to work on to improve my professional communication skills. Firstly, I think I need to expand my 'professional' vocabulary base so that I could use the right word to create certain emphasis in the messages I want to convey. It is very important to be understood and accepted.

I think one of the communication skills that I have developed most in this module is my organizational skill. Since most of the class assignments were group-based rather than individual, I learnt the importance of being a good leader and a good follower. As different ideas often spring up during group discussions, it is crucial to give every member a chance to express their ideas and to keep an open mind.

Having classmates from different countries such as India, Malaysia, China and Singapore, and a bubbly tutor from Ohio, America, I had great exposure to the different cultural values and norms in the different countries. For example, I learnt to avoid some colloquial terms which were rather insensitive to the minority groups in the different countries.

Another important skill that I have picked up during the course of this module is presentation skill which I will further elaborate in the next blog post.

All in all, I have enjoyed my learning experience in ES2007S! Warm hugs to all of you!

My Biodata

My family moved in to Singapore at the age of 12. My dad chose Singapore due to its close proximity to Indonesia and its highly recognized education system. As I was not exposed to English language at a young age, I had to attend a language school for six months in Singapore to adapt and learn the proper use of English language.

In 2000, I entered a local government secondary school in Toa Payoh District. In secondary school, I was frequently involved in sport events such as intra-school basketball competitions, annual cross country run and sports day apart from my CCA. I found my passion for sports since I joined the Outdoor Activity Club as my CCA. It was through this CCA that I became more self-reliant, resourceful and adaptable. Through the frequent outdoor camping trips where we often had to share our basic necessities such as food and shelter, I learnt valuable organizational skills and leadership skills which were not taught in class.

In Junior College, I was an active member of the college tennis team. Despite having no prior experience in tennis, I was warmly welcomed by the team. I enjoy the challenge of picking up new skills especially in sport activities. Until now, I have experienced the thrill of various sport activities such as rock-climbing, scuba diving, hiking, fencing, tennis and biathlon.

Academically, I have always had a great passion for numbers and I like to do critical thinking. Therefore, I chose to specialize in Statistics. This semester is my graduating semester. I am looking forward to venture into the working world. Although the economy is not doing very well at the moment, I choose to stay positive and I feel that now is a right time for me to learn and hopefully make a significant contribution to the economy in the future.

There is no 'I' in a TEAM

As meritocracy is highly valued in today's world, seniority takes a back seat in most organisations. It no longer matters how long you have been with the company, but how far your capability can take you.

A young American born Chinese manager, in his early 30s, has been recently transferred from the U.S to head the Business Development Unit in Singapore. The team comprised of three local fresh graduates, one American, and one slightly above 40 Indian.

This Indian colleague has been holding a senior post in the company (ABDEF Pte Ltd) in Mumbai, India for ten years before being transferred to Singapore whereas the young American born Chinese manager has only been recruited a couple of years ago. Being a responsible, efficient and motivated worker, the young manager rose quickly to top management level.

This Indian colleague was initially supposed to lead this team in Singapore however due to his lack of motivation and his rather poor leadership and people-to-people skill; he was 'downgraded' to assistant manager. Since the day the young manager took his post, this Indian colleague has always been giving various sorts of problem to this young manager from a small issue of clearing the leave to constant delays in submission of projects. Furthermore, this Indian colleague often withdraws himself from his team during lunch breaks and gatherings. Thus, it is very difficult for the manager to use the 'soft-approach' way to rectify this Indian colleague's work ethic issues.

What should be the best approach to rectify this problem?

Understanding Intercultural Behaviour

Unlike Singapore, Indonesia is a country with Malay majority, much larger population, yet the government does not put much effort in bridging the differences between the majority and minority groups. Thus, in many intercultural conflict, the minority Chinese group has always been the prey.

Being a Muslim country, government schools in Indonesia mostly consist of Malays and very few Indonesian Chinese students because it is compulsory for all students in government schools to learn Muslim. Thus, Indonesian Chinese parents most likely put their children in either Christian or Buddhist private schools. Therefore, there is limited interaction between the different cultural groups in Indonesia.

Here is the story about this Indonesian Chinese boy, aged 14, who was put through government school in Fatmawati, Southern Jakarta (Sekolah Dasar Negri XI) .

It had never been easy for him to get along with others his race, moreover the Indonesian Malays in his new school. He was rejected in most private schools in Jakarta because of his frequent involvements in gang fights.

On his first day of school, none of his classmates talked to him, not even a single welcoming message. He could not care less. He was a complete loner. The only way to get passed the boredom was to listen in class. Unknowingly, he became more hardworking in his new school and he excelled in most of his subjects.

There were many incidents when the big bully in school tried to annoy and irritate him but he kept his cool. He had been the target of the top geek in his class, a skinny, four-eyed, curly-haired Malay boy. Many people called this boy Mat. He was an easy target because he had no back-up and he did not have a single friend. Mat was a popular guy in school because besides being a teacher pet, he frequently provided cheats for his classmates. On top of it, he was the son of the district mayor.

Mat ganged up with the big bully in school to get him kicked out of the school. "I could not stand the pale colour of his skin" , he retorted. To ensure Mat's plan worked out smoothly, Mat added a few more hundred thousands rupiahs to the initial agreed sum.

They waited for him outside the gate of their school after the bell rang. They pretended to be friendly. "Something is amiss" , he told himself. They led him to one of their favourite hangouts. The bakso noodle stall (warung) outside the school. They were hiding softball bats, wooden sticks under the seats. Big bully ordered everyone to scram. When the warung was empty, the fight started. Luckily, he always carried this folded knife with him. He had always been a good fighter, he managed to escape unscathed.

However, the news of this fight had reached the principal's office. He was called into the office and blamed for causing the fight. Again he was expelled without being given a chance to defend himself. The principal knew clearly Mat was behind all this chaos, however, he did not even mention his name, not even once. He did not want the school to lose strong financial back-up from the Mat's father, who was a district mayor. Corruptions happened everywhere in Indonesia because poverty was never addressed to its roots.

As a citizen of Indonesia, I could completely understand why the walls between the Malays and Chinese in Indonesia could not be destroyed. Having lived in Singapore for ten years, I have made quite a number of good Malay friends. But this were impossible if I were still living in Jakarta. Even my parents did not allow me to have any local Indonesians friends in Jakarta. Through Singapore's education system, I learnt to interact, respect and be more tolerant of each other races.

I strongly feel that schools are the right places for children of different racial backgrounds to interact and learn about one another. In schools, teachers play important roles as role models to instil this intercultural respect in the heart of the students.

As the world is becoming more integrated, we have to understand and respect others' differences if we want to be part of it! Due to competitive advantage, some things can be found in one part of the world while some are only found in certain parts of the world, therefore tradings occur. With tradings, we have to communicate and interact with people from other parts of the world, with different sets of culture and norms. This is where non-verbal communication plays an even more importsant role. I honestly believe universal values such as courtesy, familial ties, religions are embraced world wide. Thus,we should not neglect one just because he/she is not part of the majority group. In fact, if the whole world is homogenous, how uninteresting it would be!

Critique

Thesis of this article is "More local television content draws viewers." It was clearly stated in this article. Methods used to investigate the topic include primary source-interview and supporting statistical data. Interviews were carried out with person of authority (i.e Suria's senior vice president and vice president of Central Network Programming). Thus, interviews were insightful and it was highly relevant to the topic of interest. Supporting evidence of the thesis was shown statistically in the increase in average ratings for two out of five local channels. It also briefly mentioned areas which may draw more attention from viewers.
However, I feel that the data provided is under-representation of the Singapore population as the writer only covered two groups of population namely Malays and Indians. Furthermore, the statistical data lacks substantiation and there was no citation of its source.
In my opinion, every paragraph lacks a deep and thoughtful analysis. The topic sentence in each paragraph is a regurgitation of the interview. There was no example to further substantiate the argument.

Those who might benefit from reading this article are local production companies for Malay and Indian productions. However, this article may not be sufficient to due to its limited analysis.

Suffocated at home.

As Singapore is facing the rapidly increasing graying population, intergenerational co-residence has become common in most homes. This is seen as a form of filial piety especially in Chinese homes. However, is all that well?

Every evenings on my way home, I would always be greeted by a friendly, warm smile of a white-haired grandmother of one, who seemed to be enjoying the company of her three-year old grandson. They were once my neighbours. They lived in a four-room condominium in Bishan, with no domestic helper. Her daughter would come home from work, expecting her son to be well-fed, every corners of the house to be clean and dinner to be ready on the table for the family once she got home.

She chose to stay with her daughter's family, leaving her husband alone in their three-room flat at Queenstown. Besides taking care of her daughter's home, she had no other responsibility. Her daughter was her sole support, financially and emotionally. However, things may not always turn out as expected even if you have been gaining wisdom and experience throughout your life.

Being her sole provider, she felt that she had "control" over her mom, she often yelled at her mom if her son was crying from hunger in the middle of the night, or if her mom had accidentally misplaced her favourite dress. Her mum was not respected, she was in fact treated worse than a domestic helper. She seldom had a decent, quiet dinner.

Yet she kept mum about all that happened, as she felt that it was wrong to wash dirty linen in public. No one knew about her plight until recently when she took the plunge from the highest storey on our condominium. That was when we last saw her daughter's family.

Now I realise how the phrase "Driving someone to her grave" came about. So much for Asian values.

Imagine if you were the husband having to bear with all the disrespect to an elderly person, how would you resolve the conflict?