Saturday, 8 November 2008
Final Reflection
After reviewing my first post, I realized that my understanding on the values of effective communication skills remains similar. Though knowing the importance of effective communication is one thing, being able to apply it to my everyday life is another. Learning the skills that we were taught in class is indeed very useful. However, it would have been pointless if we do not have the confidence to apply these constructive skills to our everyday life.
As I am more of an introvert person, I took up this module with the intention of improving my communicating ability. In the beginning, I was afraid to make mistakes on what I said so I spent most of the time listening and watching how the others communicate. As time passes, especially during the project, I found myself having enough confidence to voice my opinions naturally. It is also through the project discussion that I learned to organize my thoughts so as to provide my ideas in the most understandable ways. The confidence that I gained in myself through this module is most definitely the best end result I can wish for. I believe that with confidence you would have won half of the race even before it starts, where it also applies to communication.
Blogging, which is something that I would not have done otherwise, has quite surprisingly helped me a lot in my language both in terms of writing and understanding others. It allows me to express myself freely without needing to be wary of the reactions of my readers. Thank you Brad for the brilliant idea of incorporating a blog into the module. I will definitely be blogging in the future but in another blog though.
Now, I see communication as a mosaic with many parts, each of which contributes to the overall picture. Like many mosaics, the field of communication has evolved over time. I believe that this evolution would continue to adapt to the needs of people on how we communicate in the future. Therefore, there is a need for us to constantly update ourselves with the right communication skill. This is what life is all about, constant learning.
Lastly, I would like to end with a quote by Edmund Hillary, “it is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”
By Woen Susanto
10:29 pm