Li Shan
Every start has an end, and each end represents a new beginning.
I can still clearly remember how it started. It all began with the girl who is late for class and got mixed up with her class venue, trying to find the correct classroom and decided to follow another girl who seemed to be heading for the same class. Not only was she filled with the panic, but also the anxiety of meeting new people as well as what to expect for class. And the story begins thereafter when she finally stepped into the class with a friendly teacher ushering her to a seat for ice-breaker games.
And after 3 months of learning the various professional communication skills as well as working with her fellow classmates, things have come to an end. Simply put, what are the gains?
To me, it is not just learning about what is taught in lessons but also in practice about bridging interactions with people. Definitely, it is through the lessons that I know the proper way to write a proper business letter, cover letter, resume, etc. Although I will not say I know exactly how to present myself in a splendid way, at least I would know the criteria to look out for when I am writing any one of the above. It is also through class that I had gained a lot of insights and motivations from the real-life experiences shared on interviews and prospects of life (Thanks to Brad and classmates). Nonetheless, it is also through the course that I had learnt about my classmates’ creative ideas and that I would constantly try to improve myself and learn how to jump out of the box and comfort zone that I tend to reside in. To sum it up all, it has been overall an inspiring yet motivating lesson learnt.
However, what is learnt and forged in the lessons should not be placed with a full stop as the class ends. I believe this is just the beginning of a constant learning and upgrading process and putting what is learnt into practical applications. And before I close this post, I would like to say the following to the classmates.
“Hey, let’s keep in contact with each other and organize an outing!”
And finally, adios!
Li Shan
Another presentation down for this project semester, and it is really a relief for me to take one more burden from my mind. Presentations are almost like my nemesis but nonetheless I shall aim to give a small critique on the performance of my most recent one.
As some of you would have remembered, I had presented on the solution (old notes collection drive) to reduce printing paper usage where I had made use of visual aids other than my own voice. Thus, I will aim to break down my performance in two aspects, on the slides and my performance.
Overall, I was rather satisfied with my slides for they were direct and straightforward with few bullet points. In my opinion, I thought they were put up the way that formal presentations do. However, I felt that I was too over-reliant on my verbal skills when I could have depicted my collection method in the form of a flow diagram. In that way, the whole idea would be clearer. Likewise, I am also worried that the timeline will be too small for others to view.
Moving on to the next part, I will cover on my weakest link --- presentation skills.
Before I proceed, I would like to make the confession that I was not exactly too prepared for the presentation and hence I will rate my performance as mediocre. Firstly I felt that I had a shaky start in the introduction and I had appeared a little intimated. I believed I had appeared far from confident as a result. In the later part, I had this tendency to move inwards while making my representation and even my group mates noticed. I had made several references to my script and the consequence is the little pauses in between my speech. This had overall resulted in a lack of fluency. But thankfully, I was pretty familiar with the content to be able to carry through the main bulk of the content without having to pause too much to think.
I felt that if I had a few more practices, I could have appeared more confident and take into consideration little actions that could help eased my nervousness. I hope that overall my presentation was carried out in a formal way and that my idea was driven across to the crowd. And I would really like to thank you, all my classmates, to bear with me through my speech during the presentation itself.
Last but not least, a big 'Thank you' for my wonderful group mates, Hong, Riyan and Leo for being understanding and forgiving. I certainly had a good time working with all of you. =)
=)
