Last Wednesday, I attend a discussion
that arranged by international relation office of NUS as part of event attached
to my scholarship (TF Learn) programs. All of Temasek Foundation Leadership
Enrichment and Regional Networking (TF Learn) scholars were invited to share
experiences of voluntary, leadership, and community services they have done in
their home country. Mr Tan from IBM and Mamie Cheong, CEO
of Student in Free Enterprise (SIFE) Singapore also attend the discussion.
At my batch, TF Learn scholars
come from various countries in Asia: China, Hong Kong, Korea, India, Thailand,
Cambodia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia. With various backgrounds, we shook
together; discussing past, present, and future of voluntary work in Singapore and
our home country.
Silu, one of TF Learn scholar
from China did a presentation. She told us her experience as president of SIFE
in her home university at China. I was amazed. I could see this girl had done
various important presentations before. As student form country in which English
is not national language, presenting your work in English is not easy. Furthermore,
doing it in front of important person makes it more difficult. But, this
extraordinary girl made it! She was overawing.
Actually, Silu presentation was
not perfect. Her presentation was not written in English, but Chinese. However, we still could understand the idea,
from her oral presentation and body gesture. She communicated effectively in
delivering her idea in front of student from various countries.
That is just one example of effective
communication. You and I probably will have chance like Silu has: delivering a
presentation in front of key person. We possibly will have thousands of
opportunities that require us to communicate effectively. Indonesia students need
to present their undergraduate thesis in order to graduate. Graduated students will have some
interview session in getting job. Those are just several formal occasion when
people certainly need to use effective communication. Moreover, people need to present
your idea effectively in daily life. I think you will not be pleased if your listener
wrongly gets your idea right? Well, the importance of effective communication is
undoubted then.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOhh impressive!! i have never come across a student using another language to present and yet being able to get her point across!
DeleteMaybe her non-verbal communication skills are fantastic! Thanks for the insight Fiza!!
Actually she was really good at using verbal communication, so that the presentation she showed at that time, just used to visualize her idea. so, we did not read the text, but just see the pictures :)
DeleteHi Fiza
ReplyDeleteI understand that it is not easy for some Indonesians to communicate in English because when I was working as intern for Public Utilities Board (PUB) and became an official at Singapore International Water Week 2011, I attended talks by foreign experts in water treatment and I can sense that it is really not easy for Indonesian officials to converse in this foreign language. I am very impressed by your courage to step out of your comfort zone to embrace a new language, and coming over to NUS for exchange. I’m also glad that you drew inspirations from fellow scholar Silu in terms of presentation, and hopefully you can emulate it in time to come. Hopefully your presence in this class will help enlighten me on some of the cultural differences between our countries, thereby removing any cultural barriers and facilitating effective communications.
Cheers
Chris
hi Liyuan.
DeleteYou're right. Although English is included in Indonesian's education curriculum, many Indonesia can not speak English well since we do not use that in our daily life.
Thank you so much for your support. I will try my best to impress you all guys. a lot of work to do, but i am so exciting. i feel really grateful here since Singaporeans are so friendly and helpful :)
Hi Fiza,
ReplyDeleteI understand that it's not easy communicating in English especially if it isn't your first language. My dad works in Indonesia and I've come across many Indonesians who aren't fluent in English, yet they try and somehow manage to get their ideas across. And judging from the way you converse in class, I think you would do just fine in presenting your thesis. All the best!
Hi Malathi
DeleteThank you so much for your support. i really hope i can do well in presentation :)
Hey Fiza,
ReplyDeleteI like the fact that you noted that the student thought in one language and presented in another. I did the same thing when I was in Germany too and the results were sometimes hilariously disastrous. Your examples of situations which require communication ability are somewhat universal and I think everyone has to, at some point, present in front of a crowd. To be honest, I think nerves tend to muck up the whole thing too. Anyway, cool example and I look forward to more interesting posts...
Hi Fiza!!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome, I think you've made a great point. Communication does transcend language boundaries and the ability to convey a message is made all the more difficult by this language barrier.I like that you mentioned how Silu was gesturing while talking. Body language and gestures are really useful tools when talking to people who speak other languages. I remember doing community work in Batam and having to talk to the kids and their parents. I was able to stretch my limited Bahasa Indonesia by using hand gestures and facial expressions. It was almost like acting in a mime but it was fun.
Leon