Final Reflection on Learning

Time really flies; 12 weeks in the Professional Communication module has just come to an end in a flash. Looking back, it has been an enjoyable 12 weeks with lots to be learnt. I remember my initial decision to take this module was because it required no final exam. Now, I feel fortunate that I chose this module over others as this module really helped me develop skills in professional communication where I couldn't have imagined before.

One thing I realised was that I wished I could have taken this module earlier though. The module sums up and consolidates a lot of useful skills that could have been used earlier in years 1, 2 or 3. I've realised that many of the points made in the lectures were things I already know but sometimes took for granted during simple presentations or report writing. This class served as a concise reminder for some of the skills that I've already picked up in my earlier years of university.

The biggest take-away from this module is the lesson on branding oneself. I think this lesson serves as a very big reminder to myself as I've been constantly keeping check of my own brand, especially during my active days in my CCA. As a leader, I was mindful of the brand image I wanted to portray.

Overall, I highly recommend this module to everyone in school. If you are looking for an elective but have no idea which to take, I strongly encourage you to take ES2007S because it will definitely be useful to you in the future.

Reflection on Team-based Project Proposal

My experiences in NUS regarding group work have mostly been limited to students from my course in Engineering Science. As such, I have had very little opportunities to work with people from different faculties and majors. In this module, I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with 2 smart minds from Science.

In terms of character, these 2 individuals have very jovial and easy-going personalities, which were personality traits that I myself possessed too. Perhaps that is why we got along so well as a group. Our discussions were littered with jokes and laughter as we talked about various parts of our project, from brainstorming ideas to discussing solutions for our proposal. I would say I had quite an enjoyable time during those discussions.

However, there were times when I felt that the similarities in personalities created a stumbling block towards our group project. As we were all comical people, the discussions sometimes went on unproductively for a substantial amount of time. Much time was spent on mindless chatter that could have otherwise been more fruitful in producing real work towards the project proposal.

While this may be acceptable in the context of a school project, it might not be practical or even acceptable in a work environment. After all, results are very important to the work place and low productivity is highly undesirable. Then again, having light-hearted discussions and fruitful discussions do not have to be at the end of a spectrum. One just has to take note of not allowing the discussion to stray too much and seek to maintain a meaningful discussion.

Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

I started learning the Japanese language when I was in NS as I wanted to extend this interest of mine further in the hope of being able to understand the intricacies of the culture that I adored. As I became better at the language, it opened many windows which allowed me to peer into the different cultural aspects of the Japanese way of life. I've also met and made many Japanese friends after starting to learn the language, and thanks to that, I've gained a deeper understanding of Japanese values and culture.

Personally, I enjoy exploring the differences in the way Japanese behave towards other Japanese and towards foreigners. I once had a conversion with a PhD student whom I met in Osaka about the formalities of speech in the Japanese language. Similar to the Korean language, there is a strict system of honorific titles used to address people whom one meets. The use of which honorific is usually determined by seniority in terms of age or position and can be gender-biased. Depending on the seniority of the person that one is talking to, the level of politeness of the words used can also vary from honorific to formal to casual speech. While not going into the details of the entire honorific system in the language, I shall highlight a certain aspect of it here.

When Japanese meet other Japanese for the first time, they will usually address each other on a last name basis with the most commonplace honorific suffix -san, which is equivalent to Mister or Miss in English. They will also use the polite form of the language towards the other party. This is considered basic courtesy in Japanese culture and serves as a framework for Japanese to distinguish between close family or friends and working partners or acquaintances. Only in cases of close family or friends, or when they discover that they are at the same age/position, will they start to drop the honorific suffix when addressing the other party and use casual forms in their speech. When a person is clearly at a more senior position than the other, for example a teacher talking to a student, the senior is expected to use casual speech while the junior is expected to use polite speech to exemplify the difference in seniority. While it is considered rude if the junior uses casual speech, it is surprising to find that it is also considered abnormal if the senior uses polite speech.

While the emphasis on hierarchical relationships is very obvious between Japanese people, they seem to be more relaxed and less rigid when conversing with people from different cultures, especially if the foreigner is still at an elementary level of the Japanese language. Through my conversation with the PhD student, I have realised that the less you know more about their culture, the more tolerant they are towards your "inappropriate" use of the language. For example, it is generally acceptable for a foreigner to commit the mistake of using casual speech towards a senior. I believe this shows their understanding towards foreigners and is a salient compromise that the Japanese give to show their intercultural understanding.

Even as an advanced speaker of Japanese, I sometimes too commit the mistake of using casual speech when I talk to people who are senior to me. I am grateful that there are some Japanese who do not mind my "wrong" use of casual speech towards them. The PhD student is one such example; he is completely okay with foreigners using casual speech when talking to him. I feel that such people have really good intercultural understanding and would work really well in teams with people from different cultural backgrounds.

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

The thing about travelling with friends is that it almost always brings out a different side or aspect of whoever you're travelling with. You'll never really get to know a friend until you go travelling with him or her, because you will need to spend time and share your personal space with him or her, and that forces people to show their true nature. It highlights and reveals their priorities and preferences, and to some extent, their principles and values.

During my student exchange programme (SEP) in Osaka, a friend and I had planned to go on a 3 week trip round Japan before we officially start the school term at Osaka University. I had known this friend of mine for close to 3 years as we're both from the same course in engineering, and as our course is small, we basically know one another quite well within the cohort. This friend is also in the same student society as I am, Japanese Studies Society, as we both have interests in Japanese culture. However, our interests lie in different aspects of Japanese culture; he is interested in Japanese anime, manga and games, while I am interested in Japanese music.

So there's actually a bit of a background story to this story. I was on an incredibly tight budget for the trip, while he had a budget that was more than adequate. Though we had planned the trip to be a very cost-saving one (we tried to stay at the cheapest places), we both knew that it would still come up to a substantial amount. Nevertheless, I still sought to spend as little as possible on the trip.

So there came a morning when we were supposed to embark on a train journey back towards Osaka. The weather was extremely bad as it was raining heavily and the winds were strong. Upon leaving the guesthouse, we needed to get ourselves to the train station which was considerably far away (25 minutes by walk). My friend, who had anime goods in his hand, wanted to take a cab to the station. I immediately refused because taxi fares are exorbitant in Japan. That's when the conflict started. In the end, we parted ways as he took a cab to the station, and I walked to the station with an umbrella in my hand.

You see, we could not see eye to eye about spending the money for taking a cab. My priority for the entire trip was to save as much as money as possible while his priority was making sure that his goods were not wet because of the weather. At that point of time, I really could not understand why he would treasure his goods so much; I mean, I am not an anime fanatic myself so I didn't understand why people would spend so much on anime goods and merchandise. What irritated me further was that he had no intention of paying for my share of the cab fare if I were to take it with him. He had completely ignored the fact that I had little money to spend and my priorities. Eventually, we could not come to an agreement and we went on our own towards the station.

My impression of this friend had changed then. This conflict was just about a small matter of taking a cab but it taught me a lot about this friend of mine and his priorities. Even though we're still good friends, I know now that he's very protective of his interests. Now, I think twice about asking favours from him, especially those involving money.

Hello World!