I used to be a talkative little boy and thus I thought that I could communicate well. I recalled my primary school days when I was arranged by the teacher to sit beside the quiet girls in class to stop me from talking too much in class. However, this not only did not work out and turned all the girls talkative just like me and the teacher had to make me sit right next to her instead.
I grew up not becoming more talkative, rather more introvert and reserved. Some close friends told me at times, I had unknowingly built a wall between others and me. People see me as unfriendly and always entrenched deeply in my own thoughts. Whenever I meet new people, it seems difficult for me to start a conversation and looking for topics to keep it going. I do not face any difficulties in conveying my ideas and thoughts across but I am not good at socializing.
I attended my first interview for scholarship before admitted to NUS. The experience was unpleasant. My mind was blank, my palms were sweaty, I felt butterflies in my stomach, and I was stammering all the time. I could not even answer a simple question to introduce myself properly. Although I had some leadership experiences, I am still lack of the confidence to speak.
In light of all my past bad experiences, I had come to a conclusion that to be able to communicate effectively is a fundamental yet crucial skill in life. It helps me to expand my network of friends, become successful in my career besides to understand myself and others better. Therefore it is important for me to train myself to be an effective communicator and I see my decision to enroll in ES2007S is only a small part of my learning journey.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.jpg)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Jason,
ReplyDeleteI really like the way you used your own life experience as an example to convey your thoughts. I believe there could have been many reasons why you grew up to be very different from your younger self. Maybe because your teacher was complaining that you were too talkative you subconsciously became less talkative (sorry I could not help but say this :P) I actually find it hard to believe that the younger Jason was a talkative person, so I guess its really wrong to think people, especially kids do not change over time :D
Adding on to my above point, I have seen kids who have grown up to be very different because of the influence of their family.
A cousin of mine did not have the habit of sharing her things with anyone, but her parents kept saying positive things about her to others. They also said that she was a good girl who shares her stuff with others etc. Hearing this as she grew up, she subconsciously became a person who shares her things. In this situation, my cousin’s parents were able to communicate her mistakes to her in a suitable manner that made her change for the better. From this we can see that communication is really important.
Your Blog post is cohesive and I believe I managed to understand the message you were trying to communicate. However, there were some mistakes like ‘I attended my first interview for scholarship before admitted to NUS. The experience was unpleasant.’ It could have been phrased better, ‘The first interview I attended for a scholarship was an unpleasant experience’. The phrase ‘before being admitted to NUS’ is not really necessary in my opinion:)
Cheers,
Keerth
Hello Jason!
ReplyDeleteIt's good to know that you've identified a problem - that's the first step towards solving it, is it not? Besides, there are always solutions. If people think you are always 'in your own world', maybe you could try expressing a tad more interest in the people around you and show them that you aren't who they think you are.
In your post, you have confused me with the point you brought up about being able to communicate effectively but having issues with socialization. On the contrary, I think that communications is an essential subset of socialisation. The two always go hand in hand. Socialisation involves meeting new people and communication enables socialisation to function by promoting interaction between people. Communication in a social setting allows common ground and interests to be discovered between strangers. Without effective communication, socializing can become an awkward situtation, which you have illustrated quite clearly in your post. Then again, this is just my two cents' worth.
On a positive note, if you can change from a extrovert to an introvert, there's nothing to stop you from reversing the process, is there? (:
Cheers
Gwen
[Keerth]:
ReplyDeleteNone of my friends will ever imagine my old self if they don't know me since young. Even my primary school teacher said I changed a lot. lolz
There is this lesson from the book "How to Win Friends and Influence People" written by Dale Carnegie - Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to. I suppose this is what that has changed your cousin. In this way, one will change over time unknowingly to even oneself! Isn't that amazing? =)
[Gwen]: You are right to say communication is a subset of socialisation from the following two perspectives:
1. Communication is a tool to socialise;
2. Socialisation contains other elements and communication only forms one part of it.
From another perspective, you can view communication can be used in various occasion and socialisation is one of them, and therefore socialisation can be a subset of communication. ;)
I haven't been thinking about that I can reverse the process until your smart suggestion struck my mind! haha~ Maybe I will be able to do it one day... ^^ Thank you for your encouragement!
Even if society tends to look down on introverts, I don't think there's anything wrong with being reserved. Being one myself, I know what it's like to be drained after a day full of social interaction. We need our me-time, yeah? Some people just feel better with a small group of really close friends, which you sound like you have, so I wouldn't worry about it. Not everyone needs to be at the centre of attention.
ReplyDeleteAs for interviews, I also find myself stuttering at times. What I try to remember is to slow down and take a deep breath. If I can manage to crack a joke or somehow make the interviewer laugh, a lot of the tension dissipates.
I liked your post; it made me think on how drastically people change as they grow up. I wonder how I've changed.
Also, I'm not sure if we'll be classmates anymore. If not, it was nice knowing you; maybe we'll meet again, yeah? :)
ReplyDeleteHave a good one!
We sure will if we wish to... well, science is not too far from engineering and PGP, right? haha... just ask me out for lunch or dinner ;)
ReplyDelete