From the
day that we are born communication has been part and parcel of our daily life.
It’s the way where we try to communicate our feeling, emotions and thoughts
through sounds, actions and words. Being born in a multi-racial country, we are
being exposed to different languages such as English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil.
In
Singapore, majority of the people who have gone through the local education
would have took two different languages; one being English where the second
language is depended on their parentage. Schools in other counties like Japan,
Korea and China do offer their students to learn second language, but due to
their country main used language isn’t what they learn in school causing them
not able to practice effectively. Having said that, I am a person who loves to
travel overseas being able to know more language giving me the edge to
communicate and click with people around the world to learn more about their
culture.
Able to communicate in different languages make you a really useful travelling partner! A way to improve your body language is to be more aware of yourself physically when communicating. Think about how your listener will feel as you talk to him/her. For the last challenge you stated, my only advice is to think before you talk. I am sure you can improve your communication skills this way.
ReplyDeleteHi Ernest,
ReplyDeleteI am surprised to found out that you can speak more than 2 language. What kind of other languages can you speak other than English and Mandarin?
For your challenges, maybe you should try to complement your actions with your speech, for example when you say small fish, your actions should convey the same meaning as your speech.
For your last weakness, you should try to find a role model who is good in communcating and see how he/she communicate and take note of his/her choice of words and remember them so that you can use it next time when you want to talk about something similar.
Thank you, Ernest, for this initial post. I appreciate the way you have framed your discussion of a strength and a weakness in your communication style. You start with an intro in which you discuss the Singapore cultural context. You then connect that to schooling, language education and eventually yourself. One criticism I have is the problem of accuracy as you make an assertion about schooling elsewhere in Asia. (please see below) I also wonder about your statement that you "click with people around the world". Could you explain that in more concrete detail?
ReplyDeleteI also have a question about this statement: "Every strength will always have a weakness..." What does that mean? If a person is an excellent manager because they get along well with their employees, what does it mean to say that this strength will "have a weakness"?
Here are a few more comments:
1) It’s the way where we try to communicate our feeling, emotions and thoughts through sounds, actions and words.
>>>
It’s the way THAT we try to communicate our feeling, emotions and thoughts through sounds, actions and words.
2) In Singapore, majority of the people who have gone through the local education would have took two different languages; one being English where the second language is depended on their parentage. >>>
In Singapore, THE majority of students who have gone through the local education SYSTEM would have TAKEN two different languages, one being English AND the second language DEPENDING on their parentage.
3) ...but due to their country main used language isn’t what they learn in school causing them not able to practice effectively. >>> (odd sentence structure)
...but their country's main language isn’t what they learn in school, causing them not able to practice effectively.
Huh? Do you mean to say that in Japan the students don't learn Japanese and in Korea they don't learn Korean? Well, of course they do. They also study English, though their coursework is mainly in their native tongue.
4) Every strength will always have a weakness, despite me able to speak different languages there are still challenges that I face. >>> (run on sentence: see https://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/2/1/33/)
5) One of the challenges I face is that sometimes my body language gives others a different meaning than what I would like to tell them. >>> Yes, and what did you learn that this is called when we discussed this?
6) in other counties >>> (spelling)
The beauty of the blog is that you can edit your work. I look forward to reading your revision.