The presentation

Honestly speaking, this presentation is the first one I have done here that talking for about 7 mimutes without looking at the notes.

Our group has met 3 times totally to prepare this presentation which shows that we do take it seriously.So I really want to do it perfect for my part in order to make our group's total performance good, which I think I didn't make it.

First of all, I stopped at some places which makes the whole speech not fluently.

Secondly,when I watch the video I took for reflecting, I feel that my gesture and eye contact are not very nature and confident.

Thirdly, I think for some words I didn't pronounce in the right way and my voice that day was quite strange. Maybe partly because I was quite nervous that day.

I think that's what I find out so far, I will add more if I find out more later.

You are welcome to give me the tips that I should work on, thank you very much.

Final Reflection of My Stay in Singapore

When I first created this blog, I excitedly wrote down the first post unrelated to the module. It is beginning of my adventure in Singapore. Now it's the end. I would like to take the chance to reflect all my semester in Singapore, not just in ES2007S module.

This paragraph is for ES2007S module. Actually the workload for this module is more than what I thought in the beginning, which have pushed me to learn more. Now I want to say: Brad, thank you for your strict, vividly and interesting teaching method, thank you for your every comment in my every post, thank you for your detailed comment in my resume, cover letter and our group's report. At the same time, thank you for everyone to go through this semester with me, even though I didn't get the chance to get to know more about everyone, but I can really feel everyone is very kind, nice and also hardworking. Finally, I want to thank my group members: Poosai and Jeanatte. Thank you for being my group member in helping me learn the professional communication through doing the research, writing the report and addressing the presentation.

This whole semester, the first priceless treasure for me is the academic pursuits and leadership development.

I have learned the diligence and high-efficiency from those outstanding classmates who I study with; I have learned the knowledge and methodology from the excellent and profound professors’ teaching and inculcation; I have learned the innovation and persistence from the projects that I have involved in, I have learned the confidence and profession from the presentations I have prepared and addressed.

Even though I am from the engineering faculty, I still engage in experiencing and nurturing the entrepreneurship spirit which is highly regarded by NUS. I have attended many business talks and training programs that help me extract the logical thinking and organizational method to develop and excavate my potential leadership ability.

This whole semester, the second priceless treasure for me is the community services and the volunteer projects I have engaged in. I belong to the Red Cross community.

Project Rice is the first activity organized by Red Cross that I have taken part in. It is a nationwide rice collection community service project, in which, the volunteers will be going around the housing estates in Singapore to collect rice donations. The collected rice will then be packed in accordance to 5kg packs and be distributed to the various beneficiaries around the shores of our tiny island.

The second one is “The Red Cross Home for the Disabled”. It is a nursing home run under the care of the Singapore Red Cross Society. Yearly, volunteers from the organisation will participate in the Chinese New Year celebration, sharing the joy and love of the New Year to the residents of the home.

The third one is the “Blood Donation Drive”. Did you know that there are only around 1% of active donors in Singapore? So with each academic year, blood donation drives are organized in support to the good cause to appeal for more donors.

The fourth one is the “Learning How to Serve The Society Workshop”. It aims to help us strengthen our awareness of the importance of serving the society and our confidence in building and developing the leadership ability by designing some games for us to achieve its object by heart.

This whole semester, the third priceless treasure for me is the friends I have made here.

I can say I am really lucky to make so many friends from different countries, different backgrounds and different cultures. We study together, we travel together, we go out together...... They play hard, but they study harder. I enhance my English ability because of them, I expand my global horizon because of them, my thought become more global-oriented because of them, I become more mentally mature because of them. So many things that I just can not list literally.

This whole semester, the fourth priceless treasure for me is the travelling experience I have gone through.

From Malaysia’s trip with 7 friends from 4 different countries to Thailand trip with 3 friends from 2 different countries, to Cambodia’s trip with just my best female friend from Spain, to Philippines’ trip with 4 friends from 3 different countries, the experience that I have gained is something that I can not learn from the books. We plan the whole trip ourselves, from deciding the route, to booking the tickets, to carrying the backpack to find the budget hostels, to taking the 10-hour bus sometimes, to sharing our perspectives and thoughts for some current affairs , to discussing about the interesting cultural difference, to dealing with some occasional difficulties and emergencies, to taking care with each other when someone is in trouble……I learn the independency and well-preparation when arranging the trip, I learn the calmness and patience when handling those sudden problems, I learn attendance and carefulness when watching out for each other. During those travelling time, I also met many people who have amazing and special backgrounds and stories, which gives me the motivation and courage to face every potential upcoming challenges and setbacks.

In conclusion, I learn one thing: Nothing is impossible if you want to give it a try!

Post #5:North Korea's Rocket Launch

On April 5,2009,North Korea launched a rocket which it announced was carrying a satellite, despite international appealled not to go ahead with the launch.This news was almost on every newspaper's front page.

US, South Korea, Japan had made it very clear that if North Korea really launched the rocket, they would punish it jointly.Their navy vessels even deployed off the North Korean coast and equipped with sophisticated radar and anti-missile weaponry.So why does North Korea so firmly insist in launching the rocket regardless the risk of being attacked internationally? After reading through some news websites, I get the universal agreed answer.

North Korea's attempt to put an object into the orbit is its way to communicate with other countries that it has developed the independent capability of launching its own satellite,the capability of the ballistic missile, it's trying to tell the whole world that North Korea,which other coutries think about as an impoverished country, hidden behind one of the last Cold War frontiers, has become strong enough to become a member of a very exclusive club, has become strong enough to get the respect and fear from other coutries.

It's a diplomatic game,it's a kind of costly political nonverbal communication which has actually been used by many countries.Even though the launch was said to be a failure,but it really spoke out what it wanted to say.The North Korean media even praised Kim Jong-il’s leadership, saying that a communications satellite was circling the Earth, broadcasting patriotic songs.

However, while the North Korea government spent such a huge amount of money in preparing this political launch, there were thousands of its people struggling with hunger and poverty.What if its government spent those money in helping improve its people's living standard, helping educate its people instead? Will it do better to make North Korea stronger than the political communication?

The Biodata

My name is Zhang Xuan.I’m a final year student from Xiamen University, China. Bachelor of Engineering (Automation), graduating in June 2010. I also minored in economics. I have been selected as the only exchange student to National University of Singapore (NUS). In NUS, I majored in engineering programme (Industrial & Systems Engineering). Overall, I have performed well in all the subjects and ranked as top 5 in the department of automation. Those modules I have taken in the past three years help me acquire the critical way of thinking.

Apart from those academic achievements, I have been a President Assistant of the student union in Xiamen University, which equipped with organisational skills and leadership. Before the President Assistant position, I used to be in the department of the student union which is in charge of getting sponsor from the companies and communities to balance the financial expense of organizing the events. From the precious experience, I have learned a lot of negotiational skills. During the exchange period, I made many western friends, which proves that I can communicate in English very well. The third language I know is French. I like traveling and have traveled to many countries, such as Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia. So I am willing to work overseas if L’oreal need me there. All I have described above have fully supported the points that I have a global perspective, ability to well organize the time, capability to handle stress and I am able to work well in a team and communicate with different levels and different cultural backgrounds of people.

Intercultural Behavior

It has been one and a half month since i came here as an exchange student.For the past time,i have gone through several times' "culture shock" and deeply experienced the interest and embarrassment because of the "Intercultural Behavior".

The following is one of the scenarios caused by the Intercultural Behaviors.

(Introduction of the main Characters in the scenario:

Ricky:an exchange student from America.
Neus:an exchange student from Spain,who is my best girl friend here.)

Ricky and Neus lived in the same block in PGP,because of Neus,Ricky and I became friends.The week before last week,he threw a "mexican food party" and invited Neus and I to join it.I was quite excited about it and was willing to go to that party.I thought he would just invite several close friends to that party and we could cook together and chat.Because in my past life in China,just when our friendship goes to certain level will we invite each other for that kind of party.

Actually,i have thought about the Intercultural thing,i thought that there might be some hidden traditions like the guests should bring something to that party,such as chips,cookies and drinks.So even though Ricky didn't ask us to do that,we still decided to bring some chips and drinks.

When we went to that party.I was really shocked by how the party turned out to be.

There were almost 20 people in the kitchen,most of them I hadnt met before.So it was not a party for close friends,because many of them was introducing themselves to each other,apparently they were strangers to each other.

When i was trying to help Ricky prepare the food,he was so busy preparing for it that he barely talked to me and taught me how to do.So it was not a party for friends to cook together and chat.
As the party went on,more and more people came,when they got there,they just started getting something to eat then began introducing themselves to each other.But for me,at first i didn't even know if it was proper to eat if not all the people had arrived.

I will skip the details of that party and directly jump to the end of my involving in that party.After about 2 hours,it seemed that all the guests had tasted the food,Ricky began to charge money for that party.Oh,then i knew that was the reason Ricky didn't ask us to bring anything.Actually i quite regretted about bringing the chips and drinks...In my opinion,if someone throws a party,he will definitely not charge money for that party,since asking for money from your friends is kind of awkward.

Hopefully,i had brought enough money with me that night,otherwise that night would be more awkward for me.

So if you want to enjoy yourself better while involving into other intercultural activities,you'd better try to know the hidden rules for those activities.

Business Correspondence Critique

Business letter's etiquette is fundamentally concerned with building relationships founded upon courtesy and politeness between business personnel. Etiquette, and especially business etiquette, is a means of maximising your potential by presenting yourself positively.

The following is a Business Letter of Apology for Bad Service.

Dear Mr. Bates,

Thank you for contacting Mail.com Member Services.

We sincerely apologize for the frustration and inconvenience that you may be experiencing due to our ongoing migration process. Technicians are currently working around the clock to develop a resolution for this issue. E-mail delivery will be back to normal as soon as possible. We will continue working until this issue is totally resolved.

Also, we are performing an upgrade on your mail system to a better infrastructure called outblaze. With this new infrastructure your folders, old mails, and address books will remain intact. You will be gaining new features such as filter to folder, autoreply, and vacation responses. We are confident that you will enjoy your Mail.com account even more with this new infrastructure. You not only will have added features, you will also experience a more reliable service with faster delivery of messages.

Sincerely,

Stephen Daffin
Mail.com

The following is my analysis of this Business Letter by adopting the 7Cs.

1.Courtesy
In the first paragraph,it is good to begin the apology with "Thank you",it will make the tone of this apology letter more polite.
When he appologizes,he adds "sincerely",which will make the reader more feel the sincerity of the apolog.

2.Correctness
Through the whole letter,i think the writer have already done a very good job in eliminating errors in punctuation,word usage,spelling,grammar etc.

3.Conciseness
"We sincerely apologize for the frustration and inconvenience that you may be experiencing due to our ongoing migration process."In just one sentence,the writer articulate the reason of sending this letter by appropriately using the nouns,verbs and conjunction.

4.Clarity
When i read this letter,i feel quite clear about the main idea of the letter,it is to apologize to the reader and also to compensate for the reader.So i think it is quite explicit.

5.Coherence and Cohesion
This letter is divided into three paragraphs.
The first one is the beginning of showing politeness.
The second is to apologize to the reader and also explaine the reason of causing the trouble for the reader.
The third is to make up for the reader by upgrading his/her email account.
So i think this letter is properly coherent.

6.Concreteness
When it refers to upgrade the reader's email account,it lists the exact new features of the the upgraded account.When the writer lays out the specific information about something,it is always easier to make the reader feel that's true.

7.Completeness
I think if the writer can add one more paragraph saying that"If you encounter any problems in the future,please feel free to contact us.We will be grateful for receiving more advice to help us perfect our email system and also provide a more convenient and intact email system for you ",the whole letter will be more complete.
At the end,the writer remembers to write down "Sincerely",which makes the whole letter ends completely and politely.

Interesting but terrible situation at work

The following situation happens to a friend of mine lately

Huahua is a new member of Nestle company here in Singapore.Because she's new there,it's reasonable that she wants to build the friendship with her colleagues since she will be there for at least the next 2 years.So she tries to start with some small talks.

One day,during lunch time,she happened to hear the age of mandy(one of her female colleagues) from a conversation,in order to cut in that conversation and gain mandy's favor,she said:"oh,i think i am almost at the same age as your child."Then after a short silence,mandy replied:"sorry,i don't have child."Huahua was so embarrassed that she immediately came up with an excuse which made her situation even worse:"oh,it's quite a fashion that many couples don't want to have children."After a longer silence,mandy replied:"sorry,i don't get married".Now,you can imagine how embarrassed huahua was,how terrible her situation was,how humiliated mandy felt and how potentially awful her working life in that company will be.

It's possible that we will fall into this kind of awkward conversation one day.If it's you,how will you fix it?