Blogpost #1: Strengths and Challengers in Communication (Revised)

Communication takes place in our daily life. To be an effective communicator, we must understand that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a key to communicate with others. For this blog post, I will be describing my strength and challenges in communication, as well as two objectives that I hope to achieve by the end of this course.

Firstly, my strength will be that I observe one’s non-verbal cues. During a conversation, I am aware of the speaker’s facial expression and whether they are displaying signs of boredom or excitement. Another non-verbal cue I would be aware of is their tone of speech, as the tone of the speaker can give away their level of interest in the current topic. Such example would be a conversation with my polytechnic friends where I was sharing about my university experience. However, I could tell the expression of this friend who has not entered university. The expression that he was showing no sign of interest in the current topic as I noticed him looking elsewhere and constantly having to repeat myself.

Next, I will be describing the two challenges that I face while communicating. The first challenge I have is the habit of staying in my comfort zone. I find myself preferring to talk about topics that I am more interested in which can limit my conversation with others. This has led to others having difficulty starting a conversation with me as they do not have common interests as me. The next challenge I have is it has been a while since I last presented in front of a crowd after graduating from polytechnic. Since then, I have grown more timid and this led to a deterioration in my presentation skills. This is a challenge because the lack of confidence affects my ability to bring across to my audience. An example would be during the composition module in trimester one where I had to present to the class. I was unable to present confidently and fluently despite being well prepared beforehand.

Lastly, The two objectives that I would like to achieve by the end of this module are stepping out of my comfort zone and improving myself on being confident and bringing my point across. One, I would like to be able to step out of my comfort zone. In order to accomplish this, I will be interacting more with my classmates who may have different perspectives and interests from me. Discussing their interests rather than my own. Two, I would like to be able to get my point across to my audience more efficiently and confidently. This would improve my presentation skills, which will be useful not only as a student but also when I enter the workforce where presentation skills are a necessity. To achieve this goal, I will be taking up the role of presenting more often.