From what I understand, communication is not only the process of
expressing oneself to another, but also the interpretation of the message which
the other person is trying to convey. If that is the case, I believe I am not a
very good communicator.
Perhaps my greatest strength in communicating is listening to and
analyzing what others have to say. This is especially important to me since
misinterpreting messages have a tendency to lead towards a lot of awkwardness
and frustration for both parties. However, this comes with a downside as I am
only able to focus my attention upon a handful of people at a time. As a result,
communicating with a large group of people seems like a chore that tires me out
quickly.
Normally when it comes to friendly conversations or even work-related
discussions with people I am familiar with, I adopt a very casual tone as I
prefer to engage in a laid-back and carefree exchange. I do not believe in taking
myself too seriously as it paints a personality similar to that of a beehive.
Personally, I find presentations being the most difficult task in
communication as stage fright often take over despite my best efforts in
preparation. Being enthusiastic towards the subject does help, but not by much
especially when it comes to go time. At times I may lose my train of thought midspeech
and everything crumbles down like a bad game of UNO Stacko.
To combat this problem, my only solution is to memorize each
spoken line word for word to make up for my lack of ability to improvise. Therefore,
I have always deemed presentations to be very artificial and manufactured as it
is literally a one-sided conversation.
At the completion of this course, I hope to overcome my fear of public
speaking as well as improve my overall command over the English language in
different conversation settings.
[Update]
Read and commented:
Cheng Wei
Rui Shuang
Leon
[Update]
Read and commented:
Cheng Wei
Rui Shuang
Leon
