Developing effective communication skills is important to graduates as it equips them with necessary skills of being a good leader. The communication process often starts with formulating the message in a common language while taking into account the relationship with the opposite party. Following that, we will then decide the channel to communicate with the opposite party. There are many channels of communications, such as: face-to-face, email, fax, hard copy, telephone and even SMS and MSN which is commonly used by youngsters nowadays to communicate. If something is done wrongly in the process, unpleasant feelings may develop between both parties. Therefore, I see the very need as a technical engineer to pick up such skills to avoid unwanted conflicts- whether as a student, friend, subordinate (and hopefully a superior in the near future).
Many people I know face barriers to active listening. These can be: physiological, environmental, emotional, mental or socio-cultural barriers. In this post, I'd like to touch on mental and socio-cultural barriers.
I have been staying in the school hostel for the past three years, and in my stay, I have seen many mental and socio-cultural barriers between people that actually make some people shun away from others. We all know that hostel residents comprise of both local and foreign students. Some of the local students tend to have a 'one-up attitude' to these foreign students, and tend to judge them poorly just because of their nationality. I have personally interacted with these foreign students and they make the effort to say hi to me when they see me around. This is a rather big contrast against some of the locals living on the same floor. I am glad that I do not have such a mental barrier to overcome, so that I will have less problems interacting with my fellow foreign colleagues in my future workplace.
The next thing I would like to discuss is the value differences that exist among people in hall. It is a fact that different people have different values due to their upbringing, culture, as well as religion. People of the same background and who have similar beliefs tend to clique together because of the comfort of familiarity. Communication is important as it helps people with differences understand each other better. As it is impossible to read another's mind, it is hence important to communicate and voice out opinions, as well as respect each other's differences.
It would not be an exaggeration for me to say that communication is vital to the survival of mankind. It helps us to bring forward our feelings and messages to others. If not done properly, it will lead to MIScommunication. The Youtube video you see below is an example of BAD communication, and how it can occur in ordinary circumstances. (Background information: The Hong Kong man was talking loudly on the phone and a younger passenger tapped him on the shoulder to ask him to lower his volume, and a conflict ensued.)
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Science of Effective Communication
Posted by Darren at 4:09 PM
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7 comments:
It seems that you have seen and learnt quite a bit during your stay in the hostel over the past three years. I do agree that social and cultural differences are one of the few reasons why communication fails among people. Every culture has their unique way of communicating. For instance, Asians prefer handshake whereas the Westerns would not mind a small peck on their cheeks. The difference in this simple greeting may already deter an effective communication between the two groups. Therefore, in my opinion, it may be easier to establish effective communication within your own group, but a lot more effort may be required to commune with other nationalities with a different culture from us. However, I believe if one is willing to make the effort to learn and accept the diversity in culture, we will have no problem working with people around us.
Hi Darren,
With regards to the stereotypes which we Singaporeans tend to have on these foreign students, is indeed a good illustration of how effective communication can be impeded by our mindsets. It is not hard to spot a difference as to how a Singaporean would treat a foreigner and his fellow compatriot. I would say such actions shown by Singaporeans are justifiable. It makes perfect sense that we human get defensive against others who are generally considered much “superior” than us. But this “immune response” does not give us any excuse to treat them as aliens.
At times, as a true blue (or rather a true pink) Singaporean, I do feel a tinge of jealousy because of their ability to excel academically and threatened by their existence. Through interacting with them who have first been acquaintances to close friends, I have realized that they have a constant driving force that some Singaporeans (including myself) do not have. This driving force which attributes to their success is their eagerness to achieve their goals and dreams. And it is this very reason that motivates me.
Like what Oxy has mentioned in her comment, to communicate effectively with people of varied culture, it is essential that we first learn how to accept them. So let us change these negative feelings towards these foreigners to a source of motivation that drives us to succeed and at the same time removing the mental barrier to better communicate.
Hi Darren,
I agree that a common language of communication is significant in ensuring that a messages gets across to the other party accurately. I, myself have one very good experience to illustrate this . Sometime last year, my friend went to the IT fair in hopes of getting a laptop for her university education. Since she had no prior knowledge of computer hardware terms, it is obvious that a salesman should utilize layman terms in his laptop introduction. However, the salesman actually assumed that my friend knew what he was trying to communicate to her by throwing her terms such as FSB, Ram, Cache and many more which she don't even understand. What failed this dealing was the ineffective communication of information from the sender to receiver. As such, he lost the deal of a potential customer. This taught me a lesson: Do not assume people knows what you are talking about especially when using professional terms because the other party might not have any prior knowledge in these fields.
Hi fellow eusoffian and engineer and communicator,
Your post is so relevant, especially since we live in a communal environment with so many other students of different nationality(Eusoff hall). It is true that if we have a mental barrier against the foreign students be it Chinese, Vietnamese or Malaysians, it will be harder for us to be friends with them. No matter how "normal" they try to be, we will still not be able to communicate well because of our barriers. Your part about us being "one-up" is interesting though, since we all know how good they are when it comes to result. Maybe we're "one-up" only when it comes to looking good, and even so it's according to our local fashion.(I have had some encounters with local students who look like they were going to the supermarket, 24-7, any time of the day.)
However, think about this. If our neighbors were not Chinese or some weird language(foreign) speaker, but from a European or English-speaking country, would we be more disposed to accept them? It is easy to reason that this is due to the language, but I personally think that it is more about our culture. We are getting more and more exposed to the American culture and we feel like we know them better than other countries. As a result, we actually do not have so much of a mental barrier when communicating with them!
Therefore, the next time you are doing lab work with a foreigner, do make the effort to communicate with him. Thank you Darren for making such a fantastic point!
Hi Darren, it is indeed unfathomable why people would have pre-conceived notions about other people whom we have never met before. Stereotypical judgements do hamper effective communication and I felt that you have brought up an important point in this instance. It is not just about how we talk, how much we listen and what our body language shows but also the state of mind we possess when we enter a conversation that affects the overall productivity of our communication with one another, as you have indicated in your posting.
Maybe this would be an interesting angle for your next post, perhaps?
Regards,
Timothy Huang
u****911
Hello Darren,
Jason Mraz is so hot and he has a good voice! I love him!
Well, that aside, I agree with you that some Singaporeans do have prejudice against the foreign students. Frankly, when one is so clouded by the prejudices they developed within, they tend not to be able to communicate well with those they discriminate. I strongly believe that to communicate effectively with others is to never judge others when we do not know the person.
Sometimes, we cannot be all that superficial by judging others based on looks, the way they speak, how they dress, etc, before communicating with them.No stereotyping is definitely the way to bring communication to a higher level.
Often, superficial people tend to lose out more, as they shut their doors of opportunities.
Hi Darren,
Those three years of living in the hostel will definitely serve you well. Intercultural acceptance and communication is very crucial to us when we graduate since globalisation will bring forth an influx of foreign talent to our country due to our open labour policies. And with that influx, many will reside amongst our residential estates opening up more fronts for interaction as well as conflicts. Take for example the recent issue about turning a vacated school building into a foreign worker dormitory in Serangoon Gardens. This issue have registered a large amount of debate and disapproval as the presence of these foreign workers have lead to claims that they might have many undesirable social impacts on the residents of the estate. Well, most of the claims have valid justification to a cause of worry, this is perhaps so due to different culture and lifestyle. There exist biasness and stereotypes because of the fact that the differences in culture and perceptions have not been effectively communicated between the locals and the foreign talents.
It is therefore very important for us to be equipped with effective communication skills as globalisation means that intercultural and international work partnership will exist abundantly. Failing to understand and communicate with them will have disastrous impact on our working life.
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