Final Reflection

In the blink of an eye, 13 weeks have passed and our ES2007s journey has come to an end. Honestly speaking, ES2007S is one of the modules that I have enjoyed the most in NUS thus far. This module focuses on fostering interaction and developing interpersonal skills between students. Most of the time, we have to either work in groups to come up with ideas and present them to the class and after that, all the groups will give feedback to each other. I am from the school of computing and faculty of engineering and this module very different from any of the modules offered by these 2 faculties. I am not saying that the modules offered by the SOC or FOE are bad, it is just the difference in the nature of the modules. Their module are more content heavy and they have a more specific teaching guideline whereas in ES2007, lesson plans seems more flexible and we just do not know what to expect for the each lesson. 

Next I must say that this module is very relevant to NUS students. Personally, I had come across some people that graduated from university without even know how to write a proper resume or cover letter. Therefore I think that the resume and cover letter part of the module is very helpful to the NUS students especially those who are applying for jobs or internship positions. Through this module, I also gained an insight on how the actual job interview is being carried out through the two mock job interview sessions conducted during the lesson. We role-played both the interviewer and interviewee to have a better understanding of what the interviewers are looking for and also get to practice answering interview questions. This had helped me to be able to better prepare for upcoming interviews in the near future.

Lastly, this module had given us ample chance to practice and improve on our presentation skills. First, there is the peer teaching where we are split into groups to come up with a short interactive lesson for the class. This not only helped us improve our presentation skills but also our interpersonal skills as we had to facilitate the class through the various interactive activities that we had planned. I felt that this peer teaching is a really good way to let the students practice interpersonal and presentation skills but the planning part is really time-consuming in my opinion. Next we had our final oral presentation where we need to present our ideas to the class and also at the same time, convince them to buy our ideas. This is not an easy task and I think every group really did a great job for their final presentation. 

And finally, I want to thank Brad for being such an excellent tutor and also everyone in the class for making this module so fun and enjoyable. It is a great pleasure to be able to work with all of you. All the best for the coming exams!

"Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again." – William Shakespeare

Reflecting on Oral Presentation

Firstly, I would like to congratulate everyone for doing a great job for the oral presentation. We have cleared the final hurdle for this course! I also want thank all my group mates for putting in so much effort for our proposal, speech and all the rehearsals for our presentation. It has been a wonderful experience working with all of you guys.

Our group's topic for the oral presentation is on evaluating the no-smoking policy in NUS. I think that this is a very challenging and controversial topic to present on. Our group had even thought of changing our topic during the earlier part of the course because we are afraid we are not able to convince the audience during our final presentation. In the end after the whole presentation, more than half the class supported our idea of having smoking area in NUS and this really made us feel a sense of accomplishment in what we have done. We were really happy and we felt that all of our hard work thus far is all worth it after all.  Looking back now, we had definitely made the right choice to stick to this topic.

For the presentation, I chose to adopte a new style of not using bullet points in my slides. We are also not supposed to refer to cue cards during our presentation and this is quite challenging for me as I am used to present using cue cards. Without the cue cards and the bullet points in the slides, I would have to be know my content really well as there is nothing for me to refer to if I forget a point and that was exactly what happened during the actual presentation. I stumbled a few times and I forgot to mention a few points which I am supposed to. This is partly my fault as I think I did not memorise my part well enough and I am still not used to having nothing to refer to. I also realise that I have many pauses in between my presentation and I did not have enough interaction with the audience throughout my presentation. These are mainly the few areas that I can improve on.

Through this oral presentation, I have learned new presentation skills as well as knowing more about my strengths and weakness in presenting. There is definitely still a lot of areas which I can improve on. In my future presentation, I think I will still choose to do away with my cue cards as that would force me to know my content well instead of just referring to cue cards. It has been a good experience taking this communication class and having a chance to improve on my presentation skills.

Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

I often experience different intercultural behaviors when I am travelling to a foreign country. They could be related to the individuals’ cultural values, beliefs, and languages, etc.

There was this incident that happened last year when a few of my friends and I went to Taiwan on a short vacation. After a long tiring day, we were at the train station on our way back to our hotel. It was rather crowded at that time as it was peak hour. We walk towards the side of the train door and waited as how we would usually do when we were Singapore. Then, one lady in the mid-40s tapped on my friend on his shoulder. She looked quite pissed and told us that we had to queue in line to wait for the train. That was when we suddenly realised that there were actually lines properly drawn on the floor to indicate where to queue for the train and the Taiwanese people were all queuing orderly in one straight line before boarding. Also, when they were going up the escalator, they would all keep to the side of the escalator so that there is a clear path for the people who are in a hurry.

This example clearly shows that there were cultural differences between Singaporeans and Taiwanese. In Singapore, people would never queue patiently like that before boarding the MRT. They would simply crowd outside the MRT door and try to rush into the train whenever they have a chance. Although we do a rule to keep to the left when we are on the escalator, we often  do still see people standing on the right side chatting away while blocking all the people behind them. All this differences simply mean that Singaporeans and Taiwanese have different values and beliefs. Therefore when travelling to other countries, it is always good to be observant and try to look out for values or practices that are different from your own country. We need to understand the fact that people in other country will have a different set of culture and values and we should not assume that what we usually do or say in your country are acceptable in another.

Cover Letter

This is the job advertisement for the job that I am applying for.




16th September 2012


Dear Ms Teo,

Application for Position of C++ developer

I am interested in the C++ Developer position advertised in Recruit express. I was attracted to the ad by my strong interest in software engineering. It is currently my last year studying in the National University of Singapore (NUS) as a computer engineer. I have enclosed my resume with a summary of my qualifications and skills for your review.

I believe that my skill in C++ programming is an ideal match for this position. I have done many projects regarding programming during my time in NUS and therefore possess skills like working efficiently as a team. I am also able meet deadlines under stressful environment as I am used to managing several projects concurrently. And through working in these various projects, I have also developed good written and communication skills which are valuable in the real working environment. I have a positive attitude and I am willing to learn. I believe all these skills are really important in this ever-changing IT industry today.

I have also been actively involved in volunteering work. Few years back, I volunteered myself for an Overseas Community Involvement Program to Chiang Mai where we conducted lessons to the children in the remote villages and helped out in rebuilding of their school. I have also been on a work and travel program to Morey's Piers, USA to work as a ride operator there. As a ride operator, I have to interact with guest on a daily basis and that definitely helped to improve my communication skills. I am also able to experience living independently in a foreign country for 3 months.  

I hereby look forward to be able to work as a C++ developer in your company. Thank you sincerely for your time and consideration. If you need further clarification, you can contact me at my mobile number 9298-5278 or email me at weis0ngyap@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours Sincerely

Interpersonal Conflict

Interpersonal conflicts can happen between in any place and between any person. And unfortunately the following conflict was between me and one of my close friend.

This happened was way back when I was in my secondary school. I had this very close friend that I have known since secondary one. Let’s call him A. We were in the same class for the first 2 year of our secondary school. A and I happened to be in the same CCA and we became very close friend. Halfway into year 2, he got addicted to online gaming and he would start coming up with lies like falling sick and begin skipping our CCA trainings.  A few of my CCA friends and I tried to talk to him and his attitude did change a little bit.

Later on, this same group of friends from my CCA decided to sign up for a voluntary event whereby we are facilitators and we are supposed to accompany a group of disabled patients to spend their day out at the Bukit Timah nature reserve. All of us went for the briefing and orientation and we were each paired with 1 or 2 patients that we are supposed to be bringing around on the actual day. We also went for trainings on what to look out for when taking care of this disabled people.

         The actual day came and we all gathered at the meeting place at about 8am in the morning. It was time and A still did not turn up. We tried calling his cell phone but he did not pick up. We got no choice but carry on with the event without him. Later on that day, I got a message from A saying that he was having a fever and was not able to make it for the event. Knowing him so well, I am pretty sure that was a lie and he was most likely playing online game till late night or he was simply too lazy to wake up so early for the event. What do you think I should do knowing that he was most probably lying?

Why is effective communication important for me?

             Why is effective communication important? To me I think that effective communication skills is important because I see it as a life skill and everyone should be able to communicate effective regardless of your field of studies, your occupation, your appointment, etc. Having effective communication skills means that you are able to convey your message to your audience clearly, concisely and efficiently without creating misunderstanding. And since communication is a two way thing, you also need to be able to listen, decode and understand what the other person at the other end is trying to tell you. There are many forms of communications such as speech, non-verbal, email, text, writings and a lot of skills, effort and practice is required to be able to be proficient in these various forms of communication.
             The inability to communicate effectively can be disastrous at times. Not being able communicate your message clearly to your audience can cause misunderstanding and sometimes even lead conflicts. Sometimes simple things such as using the wrong tone or the wrong forms of communication can cause your audience to misinterpret your intention and often, these minor mistakes will lead to much more undesirable complications.
             Being able to communicate effectively will also add value to a person. Effective communication is one of the few skills that employer are looking for when they are conducting an interview for a job position. The ability to communicate effectively will give you the edge or even outperform someone that has better qualification than you when you are at an interview. Lack of communication in a working environment will lead to the lack of information, misunderstanding, decrease in productivity of employees, tension and conflicts between employees which is undesirable. Therefore, being able to communicate effectively is an important skill in life that everyone of us need to have and with effective communication, I believe that most of our misunderstanding and conflicts in our everyday life will be minimised.