Intercultural Communication

I went to a boarding school in Indonesia 2 years ago. I had just finished my national service at that point of time and I wanted to experience the life of my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters living in Kedinding, Surabaya. As Singaporeans, we always boast about how lucky we are, being able to live in the comfort of our HDB homes, with comfortable beds and luxuries. I wanted to see how different it was there. So when i was given the opportunity to enroll myself in the boarding school for a month, I jumped at the opportunity. I flew myself there and immersed myself in the Indonesian culture in this particular islamic boarding school(as shown in the picture).

One of the first things i observed about the people of surabaya is that they are generally warm people. Everywhere i went, people would greet me even though they did not know me. While walking, I would be stopped a few times in a day by locals who simply wanted to talk to me. I felt an instant attraction to the place. This made me more comfortable speaking, smiling, joking and laughing with random people even though i have only just met them.

However, it was not without its challenges. There were 30 students sharing my room and we all slept on carpet ground everyday. The students there perceived that since i was from Singapore, i would not be able blend into their 'hardships'. What they did not know was that we experienced much worst sleeping conditions during field camp in National Service! Thus, the other students could see that i adjusted relatively well to their sleeping conditions. However the sleep timings took a while getting adjusted to. They would sleep at 11pm and wake up at 4am for morning prayers. They would then take a short nap in the afternoon to make up for the lost amount of sleep.

One particular characteristic i noticed about the locals was that they seem happier! They were more laid-back and relaxed. This was how they lived their life. There was little or no stress in their life.They were not in a constant rush for time(unlike Singaporeans!), and this made their time seem longer. When i was there, i was able to appreciate the scenery, the people, the culture and the environment.

However, the experience was not all peachy. I knew that I was only going to be there for 4 weeks, so i wanted to go to places and buy souvenirs for my family before i went back to Singapore. Therefore i needed a guide. When i related this to other students, they implied that they would accompany me but there was no tentative appointment that was made. This made me slightly frustrated. However, i was aware of their 'relaxed' culture and did not press them to bring me around. True enough, a few days before I left for Singapore, some students did bring me around! This made me realize that their concept of adhering to promises and ours are no different(both keep to their promises). The only difference is how long it took for the promise to be fulfilled!

Draft 2: Application letter for the role of Research Assistant

Job Advertisement

Research assistant for ‘Synthesis and Integration’ team

-          Passion in research

-          Major in Science or Engineering

-          Familiar with laboratory work and willing to put in maximum effort

-          Able to work in a team and think critically

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Dear Sir/Madam,

I sincerely hope that you will consider me for the position of a research assistant as part of the ‘Synthesis and Integration’ team.

I was extremely excited when your research staff, Wei Ren, approached me to apply for this position. I recently met him when he was conducting an NUS laboratory experiment for bioengineering undergraduates like me. I was very impressed when he shared with me his novel biomaterials project which involved the breaking of a disulfide bond to release a particular brand of drug from a nanoparticle to a cancer site. I would absolutely love the opportunity to be part of this research.

The field of biomaterials is one that I am keen in, and I have almost 6 months worth of experience interning at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) over 2 separate attachments during semester break. (When students were enjoying their trips during school holidays, I was enjoying my research stint!)  In addition, I am still doing research, on a part-time basis at IBN to complete my project which has the possibility of obtaining a research paper!

At the same time, my experiences holding leadership roles as the Acting Company Sergeant Major during National Service and the Project Director of Apex(a year-long voluntary mentoring programme for P6 students), I  gained valuable understanding of the role of a team player in an organization. It has made me appreciate hard work and determination and I apply this principle to my work. This has earned me recognition back in IBN, where I was nominated to receive the prestigious Young Promising Researcher Award (only 7 out of hundreds of interns are nominated!) last year. I pride myself with the ability to think critically and 'out-of-the-box' when faced with many research challenges. I would also consult the expertise of various research experts in a company to seek the best solution.

I think that my skills and experience are most suitable for the job of a research assistant, and I do look forward to do a year-long FYP project under IMRE.

You may call me at 96622007 or email me at a0073031@nus.edu.sg should you have further enquiries. Thank you for your consideration.

Yours Sincerely,

Muhd Abdurrahiem

Resolving Interpersonal Conflicts

As individuals, interpersonal conflicts is an issue that have been affecting us and would continue to affect us till the rest of our lives. Try recalling our younger days. We would argue with our siblings over new toys, disagree with our friends over the best football team and would challenge the teachers to salvage some marks for our exams. If the situation did not turn out favorably, we would then complain to our mother and sulk for the next few days. Interpersonal conflicts are very common in our everyday life. However, as time passes and as we grow older, we are less affected by interpersonal conflicts. This is because, over time and through experience, we have subconsciously gained the ability to resolve interpersonal conflicts amicably.

However, I recently had an interpersonal conflict with a fellow member of a mentoring program. This issue pertained to differing religious practices. As the head of this mentoring program, my committee and I decided to hold congregational prayers for our mentees for their upcoming examinations. This was not an obligatory prayer(like the 5 obligatory prayers that Muslims perform daily), but it was simply encouraged to perform it to ask God to bless our mentees and pray for their success in their PSLE. It was not compulsory for mentors to join but the school wanted the mentees to perform these prayers as it is thought to be part of the mentoring program that we were conducting.

Mentor X did not want to perform these prayers and did not want others to perform these prayers as she did not believe in this practice. Instead of giving feedback when the idea was initially brought up during a particular debrief session, she kept quiet. When she eventually found out that we were conducting these prayers, she still did not offer her views. If she had talked to me, I would have accommodated her views and tried to resolve it amicably. Instead, she influenced her mentees not to perform these prayers. This situation put me in a difficult position as the prayers were compulsory for the mentees.

I understand Mentor X's position. She probably felt uncomfortable voicing out her opinion, since she was the only one who had an issue with it. At the same time, she felt guilty as she viewed it as a responsibility to educate her peers. As such, she went for the next best approach; which was to educate her mentees. However, I felt that she was being rigid in this situation as this matter had been debated by various Islamic scholars in the past, and there was no simple conclusion to it. As the head of the mentoring program, what should I do?

Effective Communication

Effective communication, to me, is the ability to convey your message across to the other party, without any room for misinterpretation and at the same time, you do not send mixed signals. It is the phenomena where your body language, gesticulations, eye contact, facials expressions, tone and pitch of voice send the exact same message as your words. This would then be comprehended by the other party effectively and impactfully in cases where it is necessary for your message to be impactful. However, communication in recent times has encompassed not only face-to-face communication, but also electronic mails, facebook, snail mail, phone calls and much much more.

I recall the times during national service where effective communication was imperative in achieving your objective. A wrongly interpreted message could lead to the failure of the mission and in the real world scenario, the loss of many lives! Therefore, the military uses messages that carry literal meanings and describe them well, most of the time. For example, to fire a General Purpose Machine Gun at the foot of the mountain would carry insufficient detail as there may be both enemy and civilian territories there. To overcome this pitfall, the military would indicate the exact map coordinates and description of the territory by indicating the left or right side of the mountain, and distinct description of enemy territory(the tentage with the red flag, the people with grey uniform, etc etc).

Next, I've always been intrigued by the ability of certain teachers to deliver their teachings in the most effective way possible. A particular teacher whom I have always admired is my elder sister, Noor Sarah, who has a unique innate ability to capture the attention and interests of her students. (Her students even set up a facebook page called 'Miss Sarah Rocks!' to talk about how amazing she is as a teacher!) As I reflect upon her actions, i realize that she subconsciously employs the 7Cs of communication in her teachings. At the same time, her nonverbal actions seamlessly coincide with her words. This is definitely a skill that I would like to acquire in ES2007S.

Two days ago, after Mdm Fazilah's class on nonverbal communication, I happened to be having tea-break with a political science student named Hadi, who is currently part of 'Young PAP'. As we were talking about his experiences growing up, I realized that he was employing certain nonverbal communication tricks that Mdm Fazilah was teaching earlier on in the day. Upon questioning him, I found out that he had learned nonverbal communication 5 years ago! He says that it now comes naturally to him. From this incident, I realized that once a person has gotten the hang of nonverbal communication, it would come naturally in all future communications. As such, I hope to learn effective nonverbal communication from ES2007S!

Oh yes! I just remembered that active listening is a big part of effective communication. Ever since Mdm Fazilah introduced this concept to us, i am now conscious that i do NOT employ active listening in lectures! I will definitely try and change my ways from now on!