Time flies, and now the first
semester of my second year at NUS is going to end soon. Firstly, I would love
to express thanks to Brad, who makes this course possible, and all of my
classmates, who go through this short yet long journey together and always help
each other’s.
Through this course, I have
improved in my communication skills, known how to ace an interview, learnt to
work with different group mates and so on. In this blog, I would love to
illustrate my improvement in my presentation skill, which I consider the most
important as it is a way to convey and sell our ideas.
My presentation skill was very
bad. I still remembered my second day in ES2007S when I stood up in class and
presented what my own group had read. My voice was trembling and my heart was
beating like crazy. I felt excited and scared to speak up in class. I could not
deliver my message and almost all of my classmates could not understand me. To
tell you the truth, I felt so depressed that I almost cried when others said
that I was the one who was hardest to be understood. However, thanks to those
straight comments, I realized that I must overcome this problem and CHANGE
myself.
Thanks to this course that
teaches all necessary skills for communication and all of my classmates who are
all good presenters and inspire me to work harder, now I can present more
confidentially! My presentations in peer teaching and oral presentation were
much better than those before. However, from my thinking, I have to practice
more and become even better as there are still some flaws in my presentation
and other communication skills.
Last but not least, this course
not only teaches professional communication skill, but it also teaches me to
CHANGE. If we only listen to the lecture and never try to change, we will never
change. Remember, you have to fake it, until you become it!
Below is the quote from Paulo
Coelho, the Brazilian writer, which I hope can inspire you all (as it did to
me).
“You must be the person you have never had the courage to be. Gradually, you will discover that you are that person, but until you can see this clearly, you must pretend and invent.”
― Paulo Coelho
What about you? What are your changes after studying this course?
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Hi Ramonnnn,
ReplyDeleteI really love this post of yours! I liked how you weaved in a theme about CHANGE and ended off with a quote about CHANGE. That quote must be one of the most relevant one I've read lately.
After having the chance to work with you in the term project, I can say for sure that you have changed! for the better of course. it's funny how you brought up that incident about how disappointed you felt after the first few times you presented, because I was thinking the same thing! I wanted to tell you that you have improved leaps and bounds from that time I heard you present. It should serve as a reminder how far you have come! =] It was evident during both the mock and the actual presentation that you have improved as a presenter since that first time.
All the best in your future endeavours! Although I am certain you don't need any wishes or luck. You are already such an over-achiever and have accomplished so much with your talent and determination. I have so much to learn from you!!
-Gwen
Hi Gwen,
DeleteThank you Gwen for your encouraging comment. I am happy when you told me that I have improved.
I should say that we both learnt from each other. I still have to learn a lot from you. I really love your presentation style as you are calm yet you can show your enthusiasm. Your speaking is also clear and its pace is good.
Thank you again and I am happy that we are teammates :) It was such a nice experience that I learnt a lot!
Hi Jae,
ReplyDeleteLovely post about your learning experience! in all honestly, I do not feel that you are a poor presenter to begin with. I think this module is not a fair gauge as to whether or not you are a good presenter because you are limited by the language in which the class is conducted, and the culture of your audience. I believe your presentation quality will be so different if you were doing a similar course in thai. The reason why you were impaired was because we found it hard to understand your accent, and also because english is not your first language and you have not yet grasp a good command of it.
In fact, I think you are quite a naturally good presenter. You exude passion, and genuine enthusiasm when you speak and it simply brightens up the room. Language and accent aside, I really enjoyed listening to you present because you are naturally charismatic. Also, it is apparent that you have really improved in your speech and presentation skills compared to 3 months back. Well done and keep working on it! Work especially on overcoming your accent and learning the right pronunciation (eg. Illinois), then move onto strengthening your vocabulary and perfecting your grammar. Perhaps try to converse with your friends in English (yes, even your thai friends), I find conversing to be the best practice! In due time, I have faith that you will be a good testimony to the fact that hard work and diligence indeed do pay off!
And I love the quote you picked! It is a good reminder that the human mind is such a wonderful thing because we CAN BE who we want to be if the mind BELIEVES in it. And we can certainly fake it till we believe it. There is no boundary as to what we can achieve.
Good luck Jae, it is my honor to have made a friend in you! All the best and have loads of fun on SEP!
Min
Language issues:
1. who makes this course possible, and all of my classmates, who go through this short yet long journey together and always help each other’s.
--> who made this course possible, and to all of my classmates, who went through this short yet long journey together and have always helped each other.
2. Through this course, I have improved in my communication skills, known how to ace an interview, learnt to work with different group mates and so on.
--> Through this course, I have improved my communication skills, learnt how to ace an interview, how to work with different group mates and so on…
3. I still remembered my second day in ES2007S
--> I can still remember my second day in ES2007S
4. Thanks to this course that teaches all necessary skills for communication and all of my classmates who are all good presenters and inspire me to work harder, now I can present more confidentially!
--> Thanks to all the essential communication skills taught in this course, and to my classmates who are all good presenters, I was inspired to work harder and can now present with more confidence!
5. However, from my thinking, I have to practice more and become even better
--> However, I feel that I have to practice more and become even better
6. it also teaches me to CHANGE.
--> it also taught me to CHANGE.
Hi min,
DeleteThanks for all useful advice.
Yes, you are right. I should speak more English because in my first year, I spent a lot of time with my Thai friends speaking Thai so my English is not improved much. However, now I have got so many friends both from this course and from my major cohort who I can practice English with and who are fun to talk to. I am now trying to improve my accent by watching US series but I have not found any interesting series lately so I do not know what I should watch. If you have any re commendation, please tell me! Then, I can watch and discuss the series with you as well.
Again, thanks for your language corrections you made for me. It made me realize that I should be more careful about tenses as sometimes I forget to use it correctly because there is no tenses in Thai. :D
I hope I can see you again and have another outing. I still have to learn a lot from you and have to practice speaking English with you, who have cute and clear voice! :))
Hi Jae!
DeleteGlad you asked! Some of my favourite series are (In order of preference):
Crime, law and serious stuff
1. Suits
2. CSI
3. Criminal minds
4. Monk
Comedy, light hearted
1. The Big Bang Theory
2. How I Met Your Mother
3. Friends
I can go on and on but these are my favourites. I highly recommend Suits after the exams, it is really good! I hope these help you to improve on your language and may you not get too addicted! Yes, another outing will be awesome! We should have one in the holidays! Aww, you think I have a cute voice *Blushes*.
Hi Min,
DeleteThanks for the list. After exam, I will go through the comedy list first as I am not in to those serious stuffs. Life is hard enough. lol.
You really have such a cute voice especially when you say hi to others :)
Dear Jae, Thanks for this final reflection.
ReplyDeleteLike Gwen and Min have commented, it's easy to appreciate this post because you open your heart and provide an honest reflection on your experience in the course, your initial apprehension and some of the changes that you have worked toward. I like the way you focus on your presenting skills. I agree with Min, too, and feeling that you have natural charisma. In your presentations that trait carried you far beyond any language issues that might have held you back. I should say, too, that while a person can further develop language skills over time, charisma is very difficult to develop (though not impossible). You're ahead of the "pack", Jae, with your natural talents and the huge smile.
It's been a great pleasure for me to work with you this term. All the best as you continue on your life path!
Thank you Brad,
DeleteIn my opinion, I have changed a lot. Although I have that charisma you mentioned but before taking this course, I lacked confidence to show it. Whenever I presented, I could not express myself well and was not as active as I showed in your course. I think that I was able to increase my confidence is from receiving inspiration from you and all of classmates who did great job. Seeing their great presentation made me want to develop myself.
Thank you again. Although this course has the heavier workload than any other module I have taken in this semester (there is no other courses that require me to go to the meeting every week like this!), it was very enjoyable and worth putting effort.
Hello Jae,
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed reading this post. Since I know you personally I really appreciate you as a person and a friend. Your honest reflection is clearly seen in this post. You are an amazing individual and even when you present your ideas, the charisma you posses moves me.
I am honored to have shared this class with you. I agree we all have scope for improvement. You have improved in your communication skills and become more aware of the people around you. I think the interview sessions we did as part of this module is going to help us excel later.
You post has highlighted the useful lessons we have learnt as part of this module. The fact that you focus the presentation on your OP makes the post quite effective and concise. I really like the way you reflected on your learning and can certainly see a positive CHANGE in you.
P.S. I really like books by Paulo Coelho, thanks for quoting him.
Regards,
Aditi
Hi Aditi,
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading my post and providing feedback.
It is also my honor to take the same course as you and be in the same group again! Please do not compliment me too much. I still have a lot to learn from you like your outstanding presentation skill, which has improved from excellence to nearly perfection, your writing, which I always love and feel amazed by, and so on.
Good to hear that you like Paulo Coelho. I also like him because he is a great writer, although I do not fully understand his books as his books contain some philosophies which are hard to understand. (Normally, I read love comedy novels.)
Lastly, although this course has ended, we can still continue making some CHANGEs and improvements to ourselved. Let's improve together on this graduation journey. :)
Hi Jae,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to learn that the feedback during the second lesson had affected you so deeply. But I'm pleased to tell you that now, you are a much more fluent and confident speaker.
It is great to know that you're really doing quite a lot to improve your language skills. For example, I saw that you got some recommendations from Min on interesting US series. Good effort from your part! Besides watching these series, do continue to use the language to communicate with your peers and perhaps continue writing blog posts as well. Personally, I feel that the best way to excel in a language is to use it because we truly internalize the words and language structures when we use it. I will continue to check out your blog after the module ends and I hope that you will continue blogging =)
Cheers,
Jestina
Hi Jestina,
DeletePlease do not feel sorry. On the contrary, you should feel happy. Thanks to those feedback from the second lesson, I was able to know my weaknesses and fixed them. Supposed that all of you guys pretended that you did understand me, I would not have had noticed how serious my accent problem was (and it still is but I am trying to fix it! ).
Thank you for encouraging me and supporting me on improving English communication. I will continue blogging but sometimes, it is hard to think of what I should write. That's why I was not able to write as many as I planned at the beginning of the semester. (I planned to write every week.) You should keep on blogging as well. Then, we can exchange our unique life experiences!
See you in the next blog post!
Hi Jae! It has been a pleasant to get to know you and to work in the same project group as you. You have developed a lot during this module.
ReplyDeleteI really like your post. It is short and consist. I like the discussion you are having about the change.
But I will point out that your presentation skill was not bad at all in the beginning. I found it hard to understand your accent, that is all. I did not thought that you where a bad bresenter. You still have the presentation skills in your blod. Keep it with you.
I do not really understand your discussion about the CHANGE. Change in what way? Do you mean change in the way of being a better human or change and be a better presenter etc. I think you could have simplify it and express what you meant with the change.
Hi Johanna,
DeleteThank you for this whole semester. Trailblazers rock!
Regarding CHANGE, in the conclusion paragraph, I meant CHANGE in general. This module teaches me not to satisfy with and accept what we have but to advance further and improve our own skills.
In my case, after studying this module, I want to change myself by improving skills . Desiring to improve my presentation skill, I was able to do it in the peer teaching and oral presentation. I was never a good presenter to begin with but I thought that I should use those chances in class to pretend that I was good and presented with higher energy than ever! That is why I believe that if we fake it, we will become it and I want to share my belief by posting Paulo Coelho's quotes.
Let's make improvement in English together. There is still a long way to master English skills! :)
Hi Jae,
ReplyDeleteI must agree that I had some difficulty understanding what you were saying at the start of the course. However after these 13 weeks, I think that you have really improved a lot and now you are able to communicate fluently with anyone in the class. You have definitely become a better communicator through this course.
It is also good to see that you are interested in US drama. I think that it is a really good platform to learn their accent and know morei ther culture. Furthermore you will be going over to the US for SEP right? So it would be really useful to know more about their culture before going to prevent an miscommunication.
It is really nice having you in the class. All the best to you and hope to see you more often in computing!