In the first
lesson, the class was tasked to fill up a form with information about other
people’s experiences, hobbies and habits. It was an effective icebreaker and
sparked a lively atmosphere in the classroom, setting the tone for the rest of
the module. More importantly, I believe the exercise was an idealized
demonstration of the purpose of effective communication.
Everyone held different nuggets of information and it became an open market where information was quickly exchanged to see who had what I wanted, what I had that he needed and how we could have a mutually beneficial trade.. I say ‘idealized’ because in reality we do not get the luxury of bartering in a conducive classroom environment, we cannot assume the other parties come in peace and we do not always hold onto the same questions. However, that did not detract from my key takeaway one of the main points of communication is the response you get from others. However, I also have a sneaking suspicion that if I merely sat down in the middle of the classroom and merely eavesdropped on all the conversations around me, I would quickly garner all the information needed, which also explains why I believe listening to, empathizing with and understanding others are the most crucial skills of communication.
No man is an island. Civilization progressed because our forefathers shared their expertise and their experiences as they too rode on the experiences of others before them. Even in the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and United States of America took pains to create the infamous “red phone” to allow direct communication between the leaders of the two nuclear powers. Communication is therefore important because one’s survival and wellbeing is contingent on the mutually beneficial sharing of information and resources.
ADDED ON 9 SEPT: I decided to take this course as a follow-up from my previous ES module, Evaluating Academic Arguments. My limited work experience in F&B outlets and in office environments have taught me, if nothing else, that I am sorely lacking in professional argumentative and communication skills. "Office politics" would be the layman term. My casual communication skills still need some polishing too, but I don't expect that to be the focus of this module. Can communication even be divided into "casual" and "professional"? Thanks for creating such a lively comment page, please continue sharing your thoughts.
Everyone held different nuggets of information and it became an open market where information was quickly exchanged to see who had what I wanted, what I had that he needed and how we could have a mutually beneficial trade.. I say ‘idealized’ because in reality we do not get the luxury of bartering in a conducive classroom environment, we cannot assume the other parties come in peace and we do not always hold onto the same questions. However, that did not detract from my key takeaway one of the main points of communication is the response you get from others. However, I also have a sneaking suspicion that if I merely sat down in the middle of the classroom and merely eavesdropped on all the conversations around me, I would quickly garner all the information needed, which also explains why I believe listening to, empathizing with and understanding others are the most crucial skills of communication.
No man is an island. Civilization progressed because our forefathers shared their expertise and their experiences as they too rode on the experiences of others before them. Even in the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union and United States of America took pains to create the infamous “red phone” to allow direct communication between the leaders of the two nuclear powers. Communication is therefore important because one’s survival and wellbeing is contingent on the mutually beneficial sharing of information and resources.
ADDED ON 9 SEPT: I decided to take this course as a follow-up from my previous ES module, Evaluating Academic Arguments. My limited work experience in F&B outlets and in office environments have taught me, if nothing else, that I am sorely lacking in professional argumentative and communication skills. "Office politics" would be the layman term. My casual communication skills still need some polishing too, but I don't expect that to be the focus of this module. Can communication even be divided into "casual" and "professional"? Thanks for creating such a lively comment page, please continue sharing your thoughts.
This is an excellent post, Han. You articulate your ideas clearly and concisely, and you offer general insights ("Communication is therefore important because one’s survival and well-being is contingent on the mutually beneficial sharing of information and resources.") as well as concrete imagery ("red phone").
ReplyDeleteMaybe what I appreciate most in this post is the way you discuss effective comm skills through the prism of that initial icebreaker.
Well done!
Here are a few issue to consider:
1) ...to see who had what I wanted, what I had that he needed and how we can have a mutually beneficial trade. >>> ...to see who had what I wanted, what I had that he needed and how we COULD have a mutually beneficial trade.
2) ....the whole point of communication is the response you get from others. >>> ...one of the main points of communication is the response you get from others. (more accurate?)
All in all though this is a very fine post. I look forward to reading more of your writing!
A high quality piece of work indeed, but it will fit the topic better if you can include a little personal aspect to it since the topic is about how effective communication is important to you. In addition, I like the way in which you associate our first lesson to trade, which is really appropriate. When we communicate with another person, we are constantly exchanging information with each other, just like how people exchange goods during trading.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, I feel that changing ‘whole point of communication is the response you get from others’ to ‘one of the main points of communication is the response you get from others’ will be more suitable since people do not just communicate to get a response.
Nevertheless, it is still an engaging post with interesting ideas.
Han,
ReplyDeleteYea Wen brings up some relevant points. I might have been overly impressed by your post because of your fine expression and interesting metaphor (the trade). Yes, in fact as she says, the impact would have been stronger if you ended the discussion of your first two paragraphs with more of a personalized connection to your needs/skills. You do mention "listening" and "empathizing," but these could have been supported by one or two more statements of explanation.
Hey Han!
ReplyDeleteI'm really impressed by your words! I like how you managed to use the first activity to spark off the whole topic. Your use of imagery and metaphor was effective in getting the readers engaged. I, for one, started to mentally re-visit our first lesson because I have never seen it as an exchange before you mentioned it. Interesting concept!
As Yeawen has mentioned previously, while sharing with us about the Cold War, I'm sure most of us are also equally interested in finding out how communication holds for you personally. You might wish to try adding in some personal touch to engage the readers even more!
Also, you might wish to note the usage of absolutes, though they are minimal in this post. They do emphasise your points, but it might not be as persuasive or convincing enough.
All in all, this is a pretty rigorous piece of work, 'mind-blown'!
Hi Han,
ReplyDeleteI would agree that effective communication techniques would definitely help in breaking the ice among strangers and to assimilate everyone in a comfortable environment. I beg to differ that communication is solely the response we get from others because it is also dependent on how we relate to others. It is interesting to note how eavesdropping would indeed hasten the process of achieving our goal of completing the form but I guess learning how to communicate professionally really means we have to invest time and interest in the conversations we were engaged in. I am also intrigued by the example of the Cold War you used to emphasise the sharing of information and resources – it’s really interesting!
Dear Han,
ReplyDeleteYour blog post has shown that you are quite a formidable writer. I particularly enjoy your market analogy in describing the process of communication and consider communication as the barter of information of an idea. However, it should be pointed out that majority of human conversation does not in fact have the objective to exchange information but serves the purpose of social bonding (ie. gossiping).
It is true that classroom will never be sufficient to reflect the real world of communication since it is “idealized”. There are great differences between the kind of language, the type of nonverbal behavior and perhaps the amount of personal information that we are willing to divulge to complete stranger. In the classroom, the topic of the conversation is also restrained and towards stranger in the classroom setting we need to put our best manner forward. Thus, your post does open a very intriguing pedagogical problem that any communication skill class needs to address.
I also assume that this is your first post which covers the theme of the importance of communication, but I do not notice the personal component in this blog post. It would be great to learn your personal experience which drives you to take this course.
Hi Bro,
ReplyDeleteDidn't know you are such a good writer! You started off with a reflection of the first lecture and eventually stating what you have observed and learnt from the lesson. You know your strength and weakness and i believe you would certainly become an effective communicator. I think i have got a lot more to learn from you and the rest of the class. Let's do our best for the upcoming peer teaching in weeks to come! Cheers!:)
Hi Han,
ReplyDeleteI have read your post more than five times before I post. It is surprising that how well you express you interesting thoughts in such a clear structure.Your reflection on what is effective communication impress me by its fascinating metaphor and assumption. Your article covers a wide range of facts that enrich and abound the content as well as context.
Nonetheless, I think it will be more impressive if you add your reflection on why effective communication means a lot to you in person. It will be ice on the cake and bring in more flesh to produce a perfect article.
You really did a great job. I hope to learn much about you in the following weeks and study from you.
Cheers and wish you good luck:-)
Thank you everyone for the lively comments! I corrected the grammatical errors and added in my personal reasons for joining the course. The edit is a little abrupt though, the flow of the post is now rather disjointed towards the end! Not really sure how I can remedy this, any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteSome have found my views on the purpose of communication a little extreme. Tentatively, I still hold onto the utilitarian view that the whole point of communication is the influence it exerts on other people, but I will stay open-minded, maybe time will tell!
I'm happy that my post made for a smooth read, but Dingding, I grew very worried seeing your comment! Am I using overly convoluted sentence structures and uncommon, ambiguous terms? I think that just because one can, doesn't mean that one should. Do feel free to point our parts you think need repeated reading, the post definitely doesn't make for good reading if it cannot be easily understood. Thank you!