My mom, her handphone and ME =)

Hi people,

It is a real coincidence that this week’s topic is on interpersonal conflict as just the day before, I had a small unnecessary argument with my mom! So once again I shall talk about my life story AGAIN..

*All—BORING!!

Even so please read and comment ok?

Anyway, I just bought my mom a new phone from M1 a month back and yesterday she was going to make a trip up north to JB to visit my grandmother. The problem was she did not know what number to dial as she was previously a subscriber of Singtel and their IDD number was 018, whereas M1’s IDD is 021.

So the day before, she came to me while I was reading ES2007S notes *winks to Ms Lim* and asked me how to make the calls to Malaysia if she was at the custom.

So here comes the misunderstanding which leads to my small conflict.

What she actually meant was:

How to call a JB registered cell-phone number when she is still at the Singapore’s custom?

However my interpretation was:

How to call a JB registered cell-phone number when she is at the Malaysia’s custom?

My answer to her question was “just dial the cell-phone number lar, so easy also dunno!” (This is because she has auto roaming so she will be on Malaysia’s network by the time she at the Malaysia customs)

She then replied with an agitated tone “Since when do you dial the number directly?! When I was with Singtel I dial 0186! And why are you so rude? If you don’t know the answer don’t act like you know! What I want to know is how to call your aunty’s house when I’m at the custom? ”

Then I got agitated. Does she want fixline or cellphone? In anycase you’ll still dial directly because she will be on the Malaysia’s network by then. Then the argument started.

Throughout the whole process of teaching her how to call that *&^% JB cell number, which by the way last 45 minutes, her question kept changing and she never stop yelling at me. I was always in a state of confusion and frustration. Questions that kept coming to my head was

“What the hell does she not understand?”

“What does she want to know?”

Thank goodness for me, my mom is easily pleased with the help of my father. Once I made the phone call, she smiled and knocked my head with her knuckles.

How would you have handled the situation? Could I have done something different to avoid this conflict? Lastly I believe both my mom and I are in the wrong but who is “more” wrong or do you beg to differ?

Feel free to tell me what you’ll think about this stupid unnecessary conflict. See you’ll in class =)

Post #1: why ES2007S

Communication is the one thing that I firmly believe holds the key to success. Unfortunately language has never been my forte through my years of study. It is frustrating to see how others can present the same ideas so much better than I do when doing presentations. It make me wonder why others can pen down the same ideas much more clearly with less words, convey the same message with less effort and I can’t. There was a certain point in my life that I felt that it was because my vocabulary was limited and I lack the words to represent my ideas that made me less comprehensible by others. It was only until a started to read articles and transcripts made by famous people, in fact, leaders like ex CEO of Microsoft (china), Steve Jobs etc that I begin to think- They are not using bombastic words as well! Yet they are able to present ideas to audience in a simple yet understandable fashion. It was then that I realize that there are more to communication than just talking.

Well, I did try to brush up on my communication skills after which, however I still feel that there are a lot of times that better communication can be made between me and the other party. There are still times when there was sudden awkward silences, times when questions was not answered, times when I feel that the other party simply just doesn’t understand what in the world am I trying to tell him/her. This is why I feel that ES2007S in a module that can help me have a better understanding of what really is going on behind the ART of communication.

Looking through the various topics, things that will be covered are extremely useful, especially in the working environment today where there is almost no individual work involve. I’m from engineering faculty and I know very well that when I go out there I will have to work with engineers, marketing, everyone from everywhere, not just Electrical engineers. I feel that this where all this skills which we are about to learn will come in handy. Skills like oral presentation, questioning techniques, listening techniques, all this will come in handy. Not to mention how to perform during interviews and also how to get that interview by writing a convincing cover and resume. These are all important aspects that I will be facing very soon.

I hope that by the end of this module, the class will be more confident in their communication POWER and in the future we can all walk to our superiors saying“ Hey, presentation? No prob I’ll do it.” =)

TEST TEST

Hi all this is just a testing post for the blog hehe. Enjoyed my first lesson today hope to get a chance to work with all of you'll. Let's have a great SEM together ya!! See you'll around!!