Hello everyone!
During the first week of the course we have covered the possible barriers of communication, the general flow of how communication will be carried out (see diagram below) and the essential qualities required to be an active listener. We also discussed about the various non verbal communications and their interpretation.
During the first week of the course we have covered the possible barriers of communication, the general flow of how communication will be carried out (see diagram below) and the essential qualities required to be an active listener. We also discussed about the various non verbal communications and their interpretation.
Source: http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/CommunicationIntro.htm
For the rest of the weeks, we will be covering the important skills needed to build up interpersonal and intercultural communication, the 7Cs in writing, as well as writing effective business letters. We will then proceed to learn the essentials of job hunt, covering a range of topics from writing resumes to handling job interviews. Finally, we will make use of Wikis for our collaborative project work.
After the short preview on the course in the above paragraph I cannot help but to think about the amount of life skills that I will (hopefully) learn and acquire by the end of these 12 weeks.
Personally, being able to communicate effectively is one of the most important life skills that one should acquire at any point in life. By being able to relate and convey the message as intended, it will help to reduce most of the unnecessary misunderstandings due to miscommunication. From my personal experience, such miscommunication though most of the times can be resolved fairly quickly, it may however at times create irreversible damage to the parties involved. I will elaborate on this point in my next blog entry.
As a musician, effective communication also comes into play in conveying the intended message with regards to the playing of music. In an orchestra, we often have to standardise the various styles of music playing, for instance the bowing for strings instruments, the phrasing of the sentence of the melody, the intonation and the dynamics of the music. Hence, it becomes very important that such information can be conveyed clearly to all the other fellow musicians so that everyone of us will be playing the same thing, without too much variations in terms of style between individuals.
Having mentioned the importance of effective communication, I am full of anticipation about how the next 12 weeks will unfold. I certainly look forward to the weekly 4 hours of learning through a hybrid of serious and fun activities and also hope that I will gain more insight about effective communication through this course.
Thank you, Da Yang, for this informative post. I appreciate you recapping some of the discussions we had in class this week.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, we will be covering a number of topics this semester, but really, what life-skills you take away depend to a large extent on your own input. I've seen your enthusiasm, and that makes for a great start. I certainly hope you won't be disappointed.
In this post, while I like the way you organized your ideas, cleverly weaving the concept of communication and orchestra performance to demonstrate the importance of effective communication; what I would really like to see is you bringing the discussion down to a more personal level - why are effective communication skills important for you?
You may also need to review some languge problems in your post. Below you will find a few obvious examples:
1) "We also discussed about the various..."
2) "...I cannot help but to think about ..."
3) "...such miscommunication though most of the times can be resolved fairly quickly, it may..."
Thanks for the effort - I look forward to reading your next post!
Thank you so much for your comment! =)
ReplyDeletePerhaps what I could have done was to provide more personal examples on effective communications within an orchestra. That could have made my content more personal.
Yes, my language has gotten more and more sloppy after my JC days and I guess it is good time to look into it again.
Hey Da Yang,
ReplyDeleteAs a musician myself, I know what you mean in your example of your orchestra experience. It is so true that there is a vital need for effective communication in a band or orchestra, otherwise the harmony of the music will be affected. That was a good and interesting perspective on your part, awesome stuff!
Hey Da Yang,
ReplyDeleteI guess conflicts resulting to miscommuication which creates irreversible damage is a really sad thing that nobody wants to see happen.However I am glad that in your case it can be usually resolved.
I really like our insightful perspective of communication being useful in music.As a string instrument player as well as having performed the role of the student conductor in my JC and secondary school,I can to catch the bird's eye view of the whole orchestra.In this case,I often have to communicate effectively with my conducting,e.g hand signs to ensure that the whole orchestra understands what is required of the musical piece.I guess this just highlights the importance of NVC.:)
Hello Jun Xiong and Melvis!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that both of you can understand the point that I am coming from. Indeed there's just so many dimensions we have to consider when we want to convey our message across, and I think effective communication is certainly not something that we can learn within a day or two.
I think that communication skills is something that we will still be learning even after the 12 weeks in the course, using our lifetime worth of experience as our teacher.
Hey Dayang,
ReplyDeleteI think you did a good job in relating music with communication. It is a good analogy. Also, about the miscommunication of ideas, I do feel that there are different consequences to it, and of course, we would hope that we can avoid the situations that create irreversible damage. It is good to know, though, that you are able to resolve your case fairly quickly most of the times. Indeed, effective communication is certainly not something we can learn within a day or two, and I am sure this course will provide more insights to effective communication, so let's look forward to it!
Hey my peer teaching patenter,
ReplyDeleteI like your clear and organized structure. Reading the first few paras, I nearly thought this was Ms Lim's blog. : ) From our interactions so far, I really believe you can resolve any misunderstandings very fast. You are a cheerful and thoughtful person =D
I like your analogy: music and communication. Hardly can I imagine any group project can be done if there is no effective communication.We are bound to pursuit this goal since we all are socially interconnected.
Being so enthusiastic about this module, hopefully you could become a master in communication, make a lot of friends and have a lot of fun also.
And lastly jia you for tomorrow's session!