Three boys, A, B and C have been best of friends since secondary school. Even during their army days, they continued to keep in touch. Later on, they went to the same university, where B applied for a hostel room. Often, they would head to B’s hostel room after lessons to do their homework together, which was usually followed by supper, where they would chat over prata and teh tarik till late at night.
Once, during another friend’s party, A got to know a girl, D whom he was very interested in. Over a period of 6 months, A managed to ask D out a few times. However, A still had not worked up the courage to confess his feelings for her.
All this while, A has been confiding his relationship woes to B and C. While his dates with D have been fine, he felt that it was not yet time for them to proceed beyond friends.
One day, A received a call from B, informing him that B and D have just got into a relationship.
If you were A, how would you feel and what would you do?
If you were C, the mutual friend of A and B, what would you do when you hear the news?
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Why develop communication skills
What’s the big fuss about having effective communications skills? I talk, and you should get the point right?
“Huh? I thought the outing was cancelled? Oh so we’re meeting at 4pm ah? Wah opps, 3.30pm already…er… ok see you all there, I’ll be late though.”
“What?! The deadline is today?!!”
Sounds familiar? In fact, many of my personal experiences tell me that miscommunication is one of the most frequent reasons why we, or rather I, mess up certain things in life. According to The Science of Effective Communication in the Workplace, we must be able to ‘organise and express (our) ideas in writing and speaking’.
In a nutshell, there are many facets to communication. At the basic level, there is a message, an audience to address, and a chosen channel for communication.
Notice the informal way of writing in this blog? I assumed that blog is an informal channel for communication, just like YouTube where people post all kinds of funny and interesting videos such as happy bashing at a friend’s birthday. So, being informal is fine.
On the other hand, it seems possible for formality to exist in an informal channel too. President Obama uses YouTube for his weekly address! Given that the viewer count on his videos is in the millions, he is certainly getting his message across. Since I’m being graded for this blog, perhaps I should adopt a more formal approach?
So which approach would be more appropriate? Well, that’s why I’m taking this course.
“Huh? I thought the outing was cancelled? Oh so we’re meeting at 4pm ah? Wah opps, 3.30pm already…er… ok see you all there, I’ll be late though.”
“What?! The deadline is today?!!”
Sounds familiar? In fact, many of my personal experiences tell me that miscommunication is one of the most frequent reasons why we, or rather I, mess up certain things in life. According to The Science of Effective Communication in the Workplace, we must be able to ‘organise and express (our) ideas in writing and speaking’.
In a nutshell, there are many facets to communication. At the basic level, there is a message, an audience to address, and a chosen channel for communication.
Notice the informal way of writing in this blog? I assumed that blog is an informal channel for communication, just like YouTube where people post all kinds of funny and interesting videos such as happy bashing at a friend’s birthday. So, being informal is fine.
On the other hand, it seems possible for formality to exist in an informal channel too. President Obama uses YouTube for his weekly address! Given that the viewer count on his videos is in the millions, he is certainly getting his message across. Since I’m being graded for this blog, perhaps I should adopt a more formal approach?
So which approach would be more appropriate? Well, that’s why I’m taking this course.
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