Having good communication skills is imperative in many aspects of one’s life, ranging from one’s home, to school, to talking to friends, to the workplace. It is essentially a survival skill. If tactless people are often shunted from and people who can’t speak coherently are given little attention, who’s to deny that one is often inevitably judged based on one’s communication skills. Unfortunately, even in learning environments like schools, some teachers show biasness against students who cannot express themselves well, do not speak out (due to a quiet or shy personality), who stammer, etc.
Among family members and even friends, people whom we are supposed to be most comfortable with, poor communication skills may cause a complete breakdown in communication. This can be seen in the many family spats that we have experienced, read about or heard about. My family is definitely not excluded.
Needless to say, effective communication skills at the workplace is essential. It is not rare to hear of people talking about “politics” in their workplace. Tact has to be employed as one speaks not only to his superior but to his own colleagues. Unlike family members or friends who are generally more forgiving, this is often less so in the workplace. In addition, effective communication skills are needed for writing resumes, giving presentations, writing reports, and many other tasks.
While effective communication skills coupled with confidence may come naturally for some, I guess for many of us, it has to be trained, practiced and corrected. And that’s why ES2007S IS useful 🙂
ES2007S Professional Communication 
guoren Said:
on January 23, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Hey Jia Lin,
I understand what you mean by judging people by their communication skills, well, I think sometimes I have this bad habit too. Like if the person giving the presentation does speak well, we usually give little attention and think that what he says is not important. I think it is inevitable especially if the person presenting is someone that we don’t know, if he’s boring we’ll just switch off. Well, if I’m thinking this way, I think most probably others will think the same way too, and it’s scary to think this way as I’m also not a good speaker myself! Hopefully, by the end of this course, we’ll be a good speaker and make people listen to us and ask for more! Haha, all the best!
guoren
Clarence Said:
on January 24, 2010 at 2:09 am
Hi Jia Lin,
I totally agree that effective communication plays a major role in first impressions! Many people judge others by the way they speak, and to be honest, how confident people are of themselves can sometimes be read from the way they handle conversations with others!
However, I believe that schools are moving away from ignoring the more soft spoken students to actually encouraging every student to speak up in class. Teachers are currently being educated to involve every student in their lessons whether or not the students raise their hands. Granted that this may not have taken place in every single school, but I’m sure that the government is trying it’s best to implement the policy.
I think that it is vital that people have the ability to speak their minds as Singapore is a dynamic society that values independent and creative ideas and many creative ideas would be lost if the people who had these ideas were too shy or not confident enough to speak and put their ideas across to other people!
And yes, I agree with the fact that communication skills are still very important between people like friends and family! Because they mean the most to you, right? (:
I hope we make the most out of this class and learn how to handle all our relationships well in the future (in terms of communication) regardless of whether they’re our family, friends or business associates!
Best,
Clarence
Ms. Lim Said:
on January 24, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Dear Jia Lin,
A very interesting start to your post! Thank you for the good effort, and also for the very concise post (255 words, wow!).
Thanks for sharing with us what you think about communication, and how one really requires good communication skills in order to survive today, even in school context (you pique my curiosity though –> ‘teacher biasness’ – any stories that you have heard that you would like to share?). Indeed, effective communication skills are integral in our everyday lives, helping us to perform our many roles.
I’ll be looking forward to a great semester with you.
Ms. Lim
Just a note: it will be good if you reflect your name as the author of your posts. I cannot find your identify anywhere in your blog =)
Weixi Said:
on January 24, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Hi Jia Lin,
I agree that having good communication skills is like gaining another set of survival skills in today’s society. Biasness and prejudice is often shown against those who can’t present well or those quiet ones. However, I feel that this can’t be helped as by being unable to speak up effectively or remaining quiet, ideas will not be passed on effectively to the listener, thus it is very difficult for others to understand you better.
I believe that everyone, at some point of time, will experience some situation whereby communication breakdown occurs. I am definitely not excluded from it. I feel that in this situation, the way to solve the miscommunication is to repeat your point using different ways, so as to allow the listener to understand your real intended ideas. Perhaps in this way, one might be able to identify the different type of communication methods to be applied in various situations and on different groups of people. That being in say, however, in real life, such method is often not practiced as people are unwilling to explain again or due to the lack of opportunity to do so. Consequently, miscommunication arises, thus supporting the fact that why having good communication skills is so crucial in today’s world.
I believe that ES2007S can allow us to improve our communication skills through the various activities such as peer teaching to express our ideas effectively to the listener. Such opportunities will also train us to be more confident when speaking in front of a crowd. Hopefully, miscommunication instances can be avoided. =)
Benedict Said:
on January 24, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Hey Jia Lin,
I’m glad you brought up the point about people who are handicapped in their ability to communicate, very often through no fault of their own. I remember reading an article once about persons with down syndrome. It quoted studies which discovered that even though their faculties of reason and understanding are not as developed as most of us, they give and receive love beautifully through the simplest of actions. I think it’s nice once in a while to ponder how communication can sometimes be without words or even actions but just by presence =)
Cheers
Benedict
Wei Li Said:
on January 27, 2010 at 10:15 pm
Dear Jia Lin
I thought about the point you mentioned that effective communication is a survival skill, and I thought it is especially true in this modern context.
A capable man can have a brilliant idea but if he lacks good communication skills, he is most likely unable to market and influence people to materialize his idea.
Survival of the fittest concept still holds in this modern era. For the people living in the Flintstones era, the ability to hunt is their survival skills, now effective communication is one of the important skills for our survival.
Wei Li