Effective Communication
As a child, I found effective communication; the ability to put one's ideas through to another person to be simplest solution to most of life's problems. Growing up and experiencing life only served to strengthen this belief.
In all honesty, I never considered myself lacking in this department. Being fluent in both the English language and Mandarin gave me the confidence I needed to interact with various groups of people (lecturers, classmates, friends, family, etc) easily. I always thought myself to be a relatively sociable person. In my opinion, communication skills were instinctual rather than learnt. Presentations and interviews did not prove to be problems as well, as they mostly involved being engaging and spontaneous, both of which I was confident of doing well.
Attending this particular class enlightened me on the fact that there is so much more to effective communication than just speaking. It never occurred to me that the choice of words as well as the various body postures and gestures played such an important role in a conversation. Lessons taught me that proper articulation, the ability to listen carefully to ideas before speaking as well as the proper body language was the key to preventing miscommunication.
Knowing what a dog eat dog world it is out there in the working environment, it is vital that we master the art of effective communication both informally and formally. In formal cases (as when speaking to a colleague or superior), tone, conduct as well as the choice of words could make a significant difference to your position on the business hierarchy. Effective communication summed up, is the answer to forging strong bonds with people regardless of whether they exist in your business circle or your social one.
I am thankful for this class as it promises to equip us with the skills that we need for life after university. Although most of us may supposedly be good speakers, this will help to complete our range of communication abilities, making this one of the more relevant and useful classes. (:
posted by Clarence at
8:01 AM
4 Comments:
I enjoyed reading your first post, Clarence.
You have shared thoughtful remarks on the necessity of equipping oneself with good communication skills, and discussed illustrative examples of how mastering the ability to communicate effectively helps forge strong bonds with people. Good job there.
You mentioned that "communication skills were instinctual rather than learnt". Would you like to further elaborate on this? Can it be learned? I'm interested to hear more on this.
Thank you also for sharing with us a little more about yourself, as well as what you hope to achieve from the module. Looking forward to working with you this semester!
Hey Clarence,
Woah, I think I’ve got an awesome group partner, being a confident and good speaker, I think I’ve got a lot to learn from you! Well, I’m not exactly a good speaker, being quiet and shy, not really dare to share my opinion freely with others. I’ve always envy people who can speak very well, for example, sometimes my friends will tell me some very interesting and funny story, and I’ll laugh like mad. But when I try to tell others about it, it sound so boring! It is either forgot most of the details or I’m just less expressive than the others or I’m just a bad story teller. Hopefully I can pick up some useful communication skills from the class and you, haha, all the best!
guoren
Hey Clarence,
When I read your post, I was thinking what a lucky person you are. Not everyone can easily interact with different groups at ease, and certainly not everyone is confident when it comes to presentations and especially interviews ( I say this with experience ;p). You can go far in life with the skills you have since I think that good communication skills are vital to succeed. But communications skills should not be taken for granted since there are always new things to learn, and there is always room for improvement. I wish you all the best for your future endeavors.
Madhu
Hey,
I felt the same way too!! I always thought communication is just about two parties talking. I never knew there's so much more to just talking. I never really felt how important body language during a conversation. I guess from now on, we will definitely take special attention to our body language when talking to others.
Yea, the working world is definitely not one that’s merciful and it definitely helps to know what to say, when to say, where to say, how to say to whoever you needs to communicate with. Wells, hope we can all learn more about the different ways of communication.
xoxo,
Student A
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