ES2007S Professional Communication

I’m sad to declare that the module is coming to an end.

Truthfully, I’ve to always mentally prepare myself  when I go for class because I’ll be thinking, “What scary and nerve-wrecking) thing will Ms Lim be asking us to do today?”…”Am I going to have to go in front of the class to speak again today?”… I think this thoughts started since we had our first lesson. I vividly remember the feelings I had during the activity- something about if there was some pandemic on an island and we had to quickly leave it, and there was something like only one means to take us out, then who’s the most deserving to go? Okay…as you can see, my memory’s not entirely good! But anyway, that was to me, a really uncomfortable lesson =S During my whole life in NUS, I rarely had to go up in front of the class to present. The most I had to present was to a few examiners but then again, there was usually less than 5. Speaking in front of the class, to me, was something very secondary school and JC. Not that we should be good enough by now, or that it’s a childish thing, but simply because in NUS, in Engine  at least, lessons are usually conducted lecture-tutorial style. And so, I have not done such type of “public speaking” in what seemed like eons. Back to the first day of Prof Comm class… I wasn’t prepared to do so much “public speaking” and so when we were asked to make our first “speech”, I literally went “gosh” in my head. And as expected, I didn’t perform that well. I think another deterring factor was that I essentially did not know anyone in the class, so it was even more nerve-wrecking.

Wells, looking back at that experience, I think our class has definitely come a long way! I see many of us improving tremendously given how much opportunities we had to practise our “public speaking”. For me, I definitely had a very enriching experience. I cannot remember if I mentioned previously, but this module is definitely one of the most useful modules I’ve taken throughout my NUS education, even better than some of my Engine modules! =p

I personally can’t pick the component that I benefited most from because I think everything we’ve learnt, from the beginning of the module to the end, was beneficial in many ways and definitely applicable to life in general.

And of course, we have Ms Lim to thank for making this module such an enjoyable one! She was surely inspiring and never failed to entertain us and make each lesson interesting. So thank you, Ms Lim!

It’s such a great relief to know that I’ve finally gotten over the oral presentation! Having two presentations (the other for an interview…I can imagine some of you already thinking “Interview?! Presentation?! But yes..unfortunately…not?) in one day is definitely some thing I didn’t and will not look forward to anytime soon!But yes, I’m so glad today’s over.

I must say that today’s presentation went better than expected! This is especially so given the very little time we had on our busy schedules to prepare for it. And what could go wrong did go wrong- the wireless mouse that we intended to use had a weak battery so it didn’t work beyond a certain radius from the USB port. Therefore, we could not coordinate the slides as well as we would have wanted it to be. We also forgot to print out a copy of the slides so that the person who was controlling the powerpoint knew what to expect with each click. So lesson learnt: Never, ever, rely on technology! Always prepare a backup (that does not involve technology, of course (: )I guess that was the greatest difficulty we had- technical wise.

Personally, I was surprised at how I felt much calmer than I had expected to be the moment the presentation started. My legs did not start shaking uncontrollably like how it does sometimes even though my mind can be perfectly calm. However, that being said, I am sure there were still areas for improvement. Though I tried to make a conscious effort to speak slower, I’m not sure how much of it translated out that way. I guess people in the audience will be better judges of that (:

I guess another thing I always struggled with and struggled with again is learning to put thoughts together quickly in my mind so that it’ll be translated into coherent speech. As much as I can prepare a speech, write points down on a cue card and rehearse it, I still face the difficulty of forming coherent sentences with those points on the presentation slides and cue cards. And hence the “erm..yes..”, “errr”,  “yups”, etc. I hope this is something that can come with practice. And this is the one reason why, as sadistic as it may sound, I look forward to more opportunities to give presentations and talk in front of an audience. I guess the hard way is often also the best way to learn (: