Final Reflections

As always, good things must come to an end, and I feel that ES2007S was truly one of the ‘good things’ that I was privileged to be a part of this semester. I think the impact this course has made on my life is making the writing of this last blog post more difficult than the rest, simply because there is way too much to say. However, having passed through this course myself, I now know that ex-students really weren’t exaggerating when they commented that ES2007S was one of the most useful courses available in the NUS curriculum.

This course has been a vastly different experience for me in terms of what I managed to learn, as well as the interaction patterns within the class. Compared to my psychology modules, there is no doubt that ES2007S has content that is so much more applicable to real life and the working world that all of us will inevitably join in the near future. I feel that this course has contributed to my academic and personal growth tremendously! In addition, there is actual opportunity to make real friends in this class, rather than just remain as project mates. I think this was the real differentiating factor for me, and something that has enhanced this experience greatly. It’s not that I don’t make friends in my psychology modules. But there tends to be something missing from most relationships that makes it more difficult to progress beyond small talk. However this ES2007S class was very comfortable. To use an analogy, it made me feel like I was back in junior college where I knew all 25 of my classmates personally, rather than the impersonal lectures that are the norm in NUS. And of course, the teacher made a difference (Thanks Brad!). I’m sure everyone will agree with me that Brad’s teaching style made lessons interesting, and I actually looked forward to coming to class.

I opened my first blog post with an excerpt from a movie and it seems only fitting that I should close my last official ES2007S related blog post with one as well. This one is from Memoirs of a Geisha, and it came to my mind today when we talked in class about using non verbals to our advantage.  I couldn't find the exact clip on YouTube, but if you watch the trailer below, you'll know the scene i'm talking about :) 

In this excerpt, Mameha (Michelle Yeoh) trains Sayuri (Zhang Ziyi) to use only her eyes to stop a guy in his tracks. The scene eventually plays out like this: both women left Mameha’s apartment, and Sayuri began to walk, with her head lowered and her eyes concentrated on the road. When a young man on a bicycle rode by, she briefly lifted her eyes to look at him directly in the eyes, before quickly lowering them again. And this subtle flirtatious glance completely distracted the young man such that he lost control of his bicycle and went flying. Sayuri didn’t say a word throughout the whole event and I feel this aptly displays the power that non verbals hold.

In conclusion, I had a lot of fun doing this module and I would definitely recommend other people to take it, although I guess it won’t be the same with Brad gone  to teach EAP.  I wish everyone good luck in their future endeavours, especially those who are already graduating! And for those who still have another year left, hopefully we’ll see each other around NUS J! Bye Sofie and Mikaela, I realise I didn’t get a chance to work with either of you on a closer basis, but I hope you enjoyed your exchange here! And thanks Brad, for everything that you taught us!

TAKE CARE EVERYONE and GOOD LUCK FOR FINALS! J

Evaluating the Oral Presentation

The past month has seen Phyllis, Baowen and I rocket through the ups and downs of our research project. During this time, we really grew into our roles as founders and innovators of SingaBrella, and it went from being just any other school project, to something that we didn’t mind investing our time and effort into. In some way, this idea had become our ‘baby’! Last Friday, all our efforts in cultivating what we hoped would be a stellar research project culminated in the 20 minute oral presentation which all of you were audience to.

My preparation for this presentation included watching a clip entitled Best Elevator Pitch on Youtube, which I have also embedded into this post for you guys to take a look at. Although the speaker was giving only a 2 minute presentation, I was extremely impressed by the way he was able to use catch phrases and numbers to seize the attention of his audience, as well as the smoothness of his delivery despite the pace of his speech. This served as the inspiration for the script that I eventually prepared for the presentation. By practicing extensively (my dog has been privy to multiple renditions of my scriptJ) I was able to achieve a state in which I reduced my use of fillers, of which I received comments about during the mock presentation.  

Looking back on the presentation, I felt that everything went well, and that even the minor glitches, such as the faulty clicker, failed to seriously throw us off balance. In fact, I was really proud of Phyllis despite her mental white out, in that she was able to control her emotions well enough to finish her portion of the presentation where others might have already given up. I felt that the core strength of our presentation was the conviction that all 3 of us had in our idea and our ability to express this confidence in not only our words, but also in our non verbal interactions. This was key in helping us to market our idea as a pressing need, rather than an option that could be done without. In addition, it brought our delivery to a whole different level of effectiveness. Another aspect of our presentation which I felt was commendable was that our slides, save for the SWOT analysis, weren’t overly wordy. In fact, the bulk of our slides comprised of photographs or diagrams. Perhaps we were able to handle this minimalist approach to our presentation slides primarily because we practiced extensively beforehand, as well as the fact that the month we spent developing this idea allowed us to internalise the content well enough to reduce dependency on our slides.

All in all, I think this oral presentation was a great learning experience, and it was a great way to put to use everything that I learnt in this course so far. Thanks to everyone who gave comments, and THANK YOU Phyllis and Baowen! It was a pleasure doing this project with you guys; I really had a lot of fun! J