Post 4: Meeting 1 Reflection

My sincere apologies for using dark color in the last post, i have total no idea how did it end up in black, argh =[

Anyway the meeting held last Thursday is quite a successful one due to a very competent leader that we had. Despite the fact that the meeting was held early in the morning and it took us quite a bit of time to finally settle down, the meeting went smoothly overall and we managed to follow our agenda. Well, again thanks to Ish, our group leader, who had done a similar project before and was able to clarify our technical doubts.

I think it’s very important to have a competent leader in a team to get things going. Especially when it comes to technical projects, a leader with relevant knowledge can help the whole team save time and avoid any unnecessary detours that the team may take, thus boosting team performance.

Nevertheless, team members should also make active efforts to contribute to the project. In the case of a meeting, team members should at least read the agenda and do relevant research beforehand so as not to ask 'unprofessional' questions, so to speak. I think our team can improve on this part to make our meeting even more efficient. =]

Lastly, I personally feel that the whole videoing idea is really making people feel awkward. We could have been more effective if we did not have to sit in front of a camera with a narrow scope as we would then be more comfortable with each other and feel freer to voice any doubts/concerns. Writing down minutes might be a better idea, though i understand that the whole idea of videoing is to make sure that the meeting was properly conducted o_O (298words)

Reflection 2

Hey all,

Thanks for all the comments, sry for making all those hasty generalizations =[

Hehe i was just making observations and hope that you guys dont take my words as judgement/accusations, i tried to avoid any terms that might relate to hasty generalization, like

all, must, will .. n i also tried to use" i think, well",to make it sound more like a personal post =p

Hope you guys dun take in personally, i meant nothing bad =[ like elitism is good, because it promotes meritocracy;elan is good, coz ppl look more bouncy; obedience is good, coz then its easier to get things going, really subjective but hope my msg did not get distorted in the post O_o.

Anyway thx again for the comments, appreciate it, and i will be more difference-aware next time.

Post 3: Illegal Resident

As RAs, one of the routines that we conduct every semester is the room verification, during which we will be going to each room to verify the biodata with the resident in that room. This act is to collate the information of all PGPR residents in case of emergency.

One serious infringement of house rule that we often encounter is that of 'illegal residents', i.e. 2 people living in the same room although only one of them is the registered resident in that room. (p.s. most of the rooms in PGPR are single-rooms) Such behavior is strictly prohibited as PGPR wants to promote a more conducive for residents to study and to rest.

One week before we conducted room verification, I received a call from one of my cluster leaders telling me that there were two girls living in the same room on her level. I managed to call the legal resident of that room, she sounded very defensive, insisting on that she had nothing to do with the girl whom she currently lived with. However, after I explained that I was just calling to offer help, she calmed down a bit and told me that her friend had already found another place to stay and would be leaving in 2 days.

One week later, when we conducted the room verification we found out that the illegal resident was still in the room. She spoke Chinese with our Resident Advisor (who was also a lecturer from NUS) loudly in an annoyed tone despite the fact that our Resident Advisor did not understand Chinese well. They had problem communicating and the conversation evolved into a quarrel afterwards.

After 10 minutes, the Resident Advisor came to me (as I was doing checking other rooms when they were quarreling) and passed me the biodata of that illegal resident. She demanded me to take immediate action.

What shall I do with the illegal and the legal resident of that room? o_O

Post 2: Intercultural & Interpersonal Communication

When I conducted group fitness classes in PGP last Saturday, I found the way how my students arranged themselves pretty predictable: Westerners stood in the first row, closest to me, and would demand me to repeat my moves if they did not manage to catch up; Singaporeans stood at a not-so-conspicuous yet very convenient position for him/her, and mostly only stayed for the sessions they preferred; Indians stood at flanks, and would move back and forth depending on their interest in the particular dance type that I was teaching; Vietnamese stayed at the back, from the beginning to the end; Chinese, well, they M.I.A.ed.

During the short break, I managed to talk to a few and make a few interesting observations: Westerners approached me to help them improve on their dance, which I expected as I believed they were taught to be more open-minded and more eager to present his/herself; neither was I surprised when I only received moderate and mild feedbacks from Vietnamese. I suppose obedience is somewhat in the vein of the nation; also since I was expecting Indians to be hyper as a result of the elan that a rapidly industrializing country usually possessed, I was prepared for some light banter with them that would make all of us happy, in a loud manner; many Singaporeans left halfway so I didn’t manage to talk to them. Sad case despite understandable, multi-tuskers engendered in pragmatism and elitism tend to be busier; and lastly, Chinese, well my fellow countrymen all somehow managed to find some last-minute urgent work to cater to. Guess people were all getting busier nowadays =[

Behavior is a complex mechanism that primarily derives from personal experience, of which cultural background plays a vital part. As such, in order to understand behavior and facilitate inter-cultural communication, one must first be able to empathize, namely to admit, understand and to appreciate the differences, preferably via active listening and role reversal. As it did in my case, different students needs to be treated differently to promote communication and to maximize efficiency: a 30-minutes rotation of position needs to be proposed to encourage those passive people to stand in the front; a clearer schedule should be posted up to save the time of busy people and better cater to the mass public; a follow-up web-link should be provided for those argent learners or fitness enthusiast, and a reminder ‘NO LAST MINUTE BAILING’ should be put up as MOTD for the fickle o_O