Blog 2: Interpersonal Conflict

Janice and James got to know each other through an orientation camp before entering NUS. After being friends for a year, they took the next step into their relationship and became a couple. During that time, Janice got to know through the rock climbing club in NUS. Sharing the same passion, they became good friends.

During year 2, Anabelle, Janice and James with a few other mutual friends coincidentally took 2 similar modules. Taking the same modules meant having lectures and tutorial classes together and thus after some time, they became a clique and often hung out together for movies and meals. Anabelle and James shared many common interests like music, reading and ice skating. Thus, they often had many topics to chat about and became good friends. Unknown to Anabelle at that time, Janice was unhappy about James apparent friendliness and frequent chats with her. In addition, Janice suffers from an inferiority complex about her looks and academic abilities. Being an introvert, Janice kept her unhappiness to herself and did not voice it out to Anabelle for fear of loosing her friendship or to James as she did not want to appear to be patty. Soon it became apparent that something was troubling Janice as she remained quiet during group outings and spoke less to Anabelle even when they were rock climbing. When Anabelle asked her if anything was the matter, she would flash a smile and said that it was just study stress and divert the topic away. Due to the lack of communication, nobody knew the struggle that Janice was facing and soon the relationship between James and Janice deteriorated when Janice started to have sudden outbursts of anger over small issues between them. Having known Janice for 2 years, James senses that she is unhappy about his friendship with Anabelle. He wants to keep Anabelle as a good friend however Janice is someone that he keeps close to his heart.

How should James communicate this to Janice?

Blog 1: Importance of Effective Communications

Explain why developing effective communication is important for you?

Personally, effective communication forms the basis and essence of everyday life. This is especially so in NUS which aspires to embrace a global community with students from all walks of life (be it race, culture, religion or nationality). After 2 years here, i believe that effective communication is one of the platforms that pivots one to greater social and academic heights. From lectures and laboratory work to team sports and hall activities, i have noticed that most of my peers that have risen to leadership positions have mastered the crux of effective communication enabling them to gain favor with their juniors, peers and superiors.

Being in the Science faculty, laboratory work and group reports has formed a part of my academic requirements. Due to the technical jargon that we have to use to communicate everyday, it is imperative that we are clear, concise and accurate in putting forth our experimental results or the troubles that we face in the experimental process. The occasional lack of this has caused me to face many misunderstandings when data communicated was not interpreted as i had meant. However, the work process was expedited when there was a clear communication channel between my group members which resulted in a happier work environment. Effective communication is especially important in the lecture settings. I have noticed that lecturers who are effective communicators are able to engage the students into the topic he is lecturing on. I think that this is very important as students would be mentally and psychologically active in understanding the topic which would greatly aid them in their exam preparations. In contrast, lecturers who are unable to engage the students often fail to communicate the essence of the topic across, leading to a loss in interest of the students in the topic and students may have to spend more time reading up to gain understanding of the subject.

My attachment as a cancer research assistant at John Hopkins Clinic has enabled me to interact with cancer stricken patients. This opportunity has enabled me to witness the importance of nonverbal communications as patients often do not understand the medical terms doctors use and thus rely on the doctors facial expressions and gestures to infer their disease condition. I have noticed too that doctor's often use touch to reassure or comfort patients and this correlates with that stated in the textbook 'The Science of Effective Communication in the Workplace', which refers to touch as being therapeutic and communicating involvement and warmth (pg 23, chapter 1). These doctors have learnt to establish effective communications with the patients and from this I infer that it is not just the ability to establish communication but also to develop the correct channel of communication depending on the audience you are interacting with. With these patients, it would be useless if the doctor was clear and precise in the medical terms he used as they have no understanding of it. Instead, the use of nonverbal ques was necessary to communicate effectively with these patients.

Thus, developing effective communication is important in strengthening social and work relationships in this rapidly globalizing economy. By developing effective and diversified methods of communications i believe that it will enable me to be adaptable and effective in my work environment as well as stand me in good stead with my peers and superiors.