Blog Post 7: Final Reflection

ES2007S class is coming to the end…..
I am also now writing my last blog post……

How Time Flies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway………

I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to Mrs Fiona Richardson and everyone in the class, especially my project teammates Ronny Lee and Aishath Nishana. I understood that ES2007S has provided me good communication skills by writing blog posts, participating in class discussions, doing the survey research group project and doing job search.

By writing blog posts , learning 7 Cs principle and reading others’ blog posts, I have gained a lot of knowledge relating with writing communication skills. I believe that this knowledge can help me improve my writing skill. Participating in class discussion developed me a greater understanding on how to interact well with people and therefore enhanced my social networking skills.

By doing survey research group project, it brought to me the opportunity to interact with people and I got a chance to learn my teammates’ different views and ideas. I have also learnt how to conduct business meetings with my teammates. Being in a team allowed me to develop a better understanding of my strengths and weakness.

In the job search communication session, I have learnt how to write resume, job application letter and what job interviewers look for in a job interviewee. Basically, this session prepares me well for my future job interviews and job search.

All these communication skills will definitely benefit our future life and I believe that we still can sharpen our communication skills based on the basic principles that we learnt from ES2007S.

Blog Post 6: Biodata

My name is Zaw Htet Aung. I am a final year student majoring in Electrical Engineering. I chose to pursue this engineering course as I believed that “Engineers are concerned with creating new things. They apply their knowledge to design and develop usable devices, structures and processes – Engineers aim to do”.

As an engineering student, I am interested in learning and creating new things. I always welcome challenges and obstacles as I suppose them as stepping stones towards the greater success and valuable experiences. Moreover, I believed that self-confidence makes me more reasonable person and being in a team also allows me to develop a better understanding of my strengths and weakness.

I have about one year working experience as an Assistant Engineer at STATSchipPAC Pte. Ltd after I graduated from Temasek Polytechnics. I worked in the Assembly Department, ICs Manufacturing. My work involved technical support, troubleshooting, machine maintenance and testing for ICs.

According to the proverb “No man is an island”, I enjoy meeting people and making friends. It brings to me the opportunity to interact with more people and I can learn their different ideas, cultures and backgrounds.

Blog Post 5: Communication

It is not difficult to realize that good communication is essential for everyone to finish our daily routine woks. Good communication can bring good understanding to us. Last week, we read about NTU student's suicidal case in the newspapers. When we examine this suicidal case, it can be seen that suicidal case is related to FYP project stress, scholarship problem and communication problem. Hence, it can be seen that communication plays an important role in our school environment. Students should have good communication and understanding with lecturers, project supervisors and other students for obtaining good achievements.

I would like to describe one dilemma (communication problem) that my friend faced.

My friend's name is Htun. He is a final year electrical student and he started his final year project (FYP) last August. Here, I would like to discuss about FYP project. FYP project is an individual project that weighs 12MC. We need to finish our FYP within one year (two semesters). Each student is assigned with a project supervisor.

My friend, Htun is doing AC to DC converter project. Although he is in final year, he still needs to learn other subjects. So, last semester (August), he took five modules and FYP. According to FYP's rules and regulations, students have to keep in contact with their respective project supervisors and maintain good communication with them. Although Htun's supervisor would like to meet him twice a month, he only met his supervisor four or five times last semester. He spent a lot of time on studying other modules rather than doing his FYP. So, his supervisor was not content and satisfactory for his project progress and not having regular meeting.

During school holidays (last December), he tried very hard to finish his FYP. But, he only finished 30% of project and his supervisor forced him to speed up his progress on the project. In this semester (January), he took three modules and so he could give more time for his FYP. Even though he tried very hard to do his project well, he could not get good output results because he faced with many problems in his circuit designs (converter).

In his meeting with supervisor last month, Htun was told that he was not hardworking and so project did not progress well. In addition, his supervisor commented that he only would like to see output results rather than project progress because the time is too tight and the project needed to be submitted by the end of March. Htun was very stressful for his FYP and he was afraid of meeting with his supervisor. He felt very sad because his supervisor did not recognize his contribution to the project although he spent most of the time in his FYP lab to get output results.

Last week, Htun told me that he was very afraid of failing his FYP. When I analyzed his project progress, I saw that he finished almost 75% of his project. All circuits were working except from small errors. Because of these small errors, he could not achieve final output results. I told him that it is possible for him to finish 85% to 90% of his project by this month (March). I have also suggested to him that regular meeting with supervisor is essential for establishing good communication and understanding.

Analyzing above problem

The main problem is that Htun did not have good communication and understanding with his supervisor since the beginning of project due to lack of regular meeting. Although he has finished 75% of his project, his supervisor did not recognize his contribution. Because of not having regular meeting and good communication, Htun’s supervisor perceived him as not a hardworking student and so project is not successful.

Basically, FYP is a very difficult project to finish 100% completely within one year (two semesters). Although we cannot finish 100% completely, we, students need to show our full contributions and commitments to the project by keeping in contact with our respective project supervisors regularly. By doing this, it can also lead to good communication and understanding between students and supervisors. Moreover, supervisors can also know easily their students' project progress and can give some suggestions and advices to their students. Although FYP project is not finished 100% completely, students can even obtain good grade if supervisors realize their students' contributions from regular meeting.

Therefore, good communication plays an important role in our individual's achievements.

Do you think that Htun can get good grade from his FYP if he even finishes 85% or 90% of project before end of March?

Post 4: Evaluating Intercultural Behavior


I would like to describe intercultural conflict situation.

Last year, I went back to Myanmar. I went to one Myanmar restaurant with my parents for dinner. At that time, an Italian couple came to this Myanmar restaurant to get taste of Myanmar cuisine. The waiter brought them to the table and gave them menu list. Then, the waiter spoke to them in English. In Myanmar, our main language is Myanmar language. English language is rarely used among Myanmar people. Therefore, Italian couple did not know what the waiter was saying. Actually, the waiter asked them “what do you want to eat and order”. Finally, the waiter used hand gestures to get better understanding for Italian couple.

When Italian couple saw waiter’s hand gestures, their faces turned red and they became angry. They told something to waiter in Italian language. Then, they stood up and walked away immediately. The poor waiter was stunned by their reactions and tried to figure out what he did wrong by scratching head.

Other customers including my family were shocked about this event. In Myanmar culture, using the hand gesture as seen in the picture above was common practice and means a sign of eating. We felt that the waiter did nothing wrong. However, after I did research from internet, I found out that this hand gesture meant “what the f***” in Italy. This explains why the Italian couple was offended.

Here is a video link that explains the Italian hand gestures.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVCuyrPk7P4

All in all, we always need to be careful when using hand gestures or any other body languages while communicating or interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds. Different countries have different cultural norms and values and the same gesture could have different meanings. Therefore, we need to learn and research about different cultures to avoid intercultural conflicts and promote a good and effective communication.

Post 3: Business Correspondence Critique

I would like to share my idea on this business letter.

June 18, 2007

George Johnson
Dean of Computer Science,
School of Computer Science Building (108)
Australian National University
ACT 0200, Australia

Dear Mr. Johnson,

I am writing you this letter of recommendation in support of Mr. Thomas. It is his desire to attend the School of Computer Science and advance his knowledge within your Computer Science program. Thomas has a proven track record both with his grades as well as his attendance. As a professor here at University of Newcastle, I notice only a few outstanding students each year, and Thomas is one of those students who stands above the rest. Thomas exhibits a great aptitude and unique perspective in pursuing his interests, and I am proud to recommend him for your program.

Thomas is one of my top students, with grades that place him within the top two percent. Thomas excels on all course material as well as project work. His last project describing a secure Internet using relay nodes to filter spam and server attacks, is a great example of his unique thinking. From the time we met, six years ago, I knew that Thomas was a unique student, with great aptitude, ability and potential.

Thomas‛s academic records certainly qualify him for your program, and his thesis work will provide a unique perspective to your organization. Please accept my letter of recommendation, and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Wiston Lee

Wiston Lee
Dean of Information Technology
University of Newcastle

Basically, this letter is a recommendation letter. I think that the letter has satisfied with the 7Cs in writing. In the first and second paragraphs, professor is explaining about his student’s ability and desire for attending Computer Science program. The explanation and information is complete and concrete. In the first paragraph, it can be seen concreted sentence like “I notice only a few outstanding students each year, and Thomas is one of those students who stands above the rest.” From this sentence, we can know clearly that Thomas is an outstanding student. Moreover, the phrase such as “ great aptitude and unique perspective” is concise and elaborate more about student’s performance and ability. In the second paragraph, professor described about Thomas’s last project. Basically, this project relates to his further study, Computer Science program. Because of this, Mr Johnson can also understand that Thomas is studying and doing the project relating with Computer Science program. This will also be a great chance for Thomas to qualify for Computer Science program.

The language and words used in this letter are also correct and clear. I think that there is no language error in this letter. There is also excellent choice of words in this letter of recommendation. The words such as “exhibit, unique and excel” are also appropriate words when describing a person’s skill and performance. All words are coherent, cohesive and give positive meaning. All in all, not only language and words but also information and explanation are organized very well. We can see that professor is explaining his student’s achievement and project systematically. These information and explanation can make Thomas help in qualifying for Computer Science program.

In the third paragraph, it can be seen concreted sentence like “Thomas‛s academic records certainly qualify him for your program, and his thesis work will provide a unique perspective to your organization”. This sentence gives good positive meaning to the reader and encourages the reader, Mr Johnson to allow Thomas for qualifying the program. Moreover, the tone such as “Please accept my letter of recommendation” sounds courteous and friendly.

All in all, this letter is a good recommendation letter and I hope that we can learn word phrasing, sentence structure and organization of information.

Post 2: Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

We, university students, have to do a lot of projects in every semester. Some projects are individual projects and some are group projects. By doing group projects, we can gain a lot of experience through the sharing of ideas and knowledge among team members. We can also help each other when we encounter problems along the way. Through this, stronger friendship can be built among team members. However, conflicts can arise when people’s ideas and concepts are different.

Last year, I did a “smart home design” project with another two members, Myo and Aye. This project is both hardware and software project. During the first two weeks, we discussed about how to design an innovative smart home system. To build our smart home system, many functions such as fire alarm, lighting, thief-alarm, door keypad, rain detector, plant and elder care system were installed. For every system, we had to design our own circuits and had to write our own programs. We separated our individual tasks to speed up our project progress.

After five or six weeks, we saw that Myo had better troubleshooting skill and programming skill. Thus, both of us often consulted Myo about our individual circuit and programming problems. Myo also helped us and solved our problems. After eight weeks, we all tried to combine our individual circuit and programming parts.

Beginning of Conflict

From that time, conflicts started between Myo and both of us because of differences in thoughts and ideas. When we combined one circuit and another circuit, we had to use a lot of wires. Myo wanted to use telephone cable instead of using normal wires to reduce wire complexity. However, both of us did not agree to use telephone cable because it was very difficult to take out the telephone cable shielded cover with cutters although that idea can reduce wire complexity. But, Myo did not accept our argument. We did not want to argue too much with Myo although we did not want to use telephone cable. When we tried to take out telephone cable shielded cover with cutter, we saw that it took more time than normal wire. Finally, Myo accepted normal wires for circuit connections. Before he accepted our suggestion, both of us were annoyed very much because we spent a lot of time in cutting and taking out telephone cable.

When we built our smart home, Myo wanted to use wood as it will be stronger. I suggested them to use plastic instead of using wood because we also needed to mount our circuits inside the smart home. To mount circuits, we needed to drill holes. If wood was used, we needed to use drilling machine in the mechanical lab for making holes. If plastic were used, it would be easier to make holes because of just using knife. Moreover, circuit mounting positions were also not fixed. If we used plastic, it would be easy to make holes whenever changing mounting positions. I did argument with Myo for using plastic. During that period, I felt disappointed him although he is better than us.

I told Aye that Myo was a superstitious and over self-confidence person. Even though Myo is better in troubleshooting and programming than us, he did not accept our suggestions during project discussions when he considered that his idea and concept was right. To say the truth, it was very difficult to communicate and discuss with Myo. During the argument time, we felt very annoyed and disappointed each other. It also wasted a lot of time.

All in all, friendship can be strained if we cannot communicate well each other while doing group projects. Basically, when we do group project, everyone can contribute different ideas and thoughts to the project. We need to respect ideas and concepts of other people whether we agree or not with them. Among different ideas and concepts, we can then try to extract best one for the project. By doing this, we can promote stronger friendship among team members and make the project more successful.

How will you do if one of your group members behaves like Myo?

Post 1: Effective Communication Skills

I am a final year Electrical Engineering student. For a student, the ability to communicate effectively is essential since we have to do a lot of projects, presentations and assignments that would require us to participate and work as a team. During such discussion or presentation, it is very important for us to convey our thoughts and ideas across effectively so as to facilitate discussion process. If not, the thoughts and ideas we actually send do not necessarily reflect what we think, and can cause a communication breakdown. Job search communication skill is also important for final year student. To impress our potential employers, apart from preparing ourselves well for the job interview, we need to learn the art and science of constructing good resumes and job application letters.

In today’s team-oriented workplace, the ability to communicate effectively also plays an important role as many employers are looking for employees with good interpersonal communication skill as well as good written and oral communication skill. For example, a company presents or advertises their products. To be an effective marketing presentation, messages should be conveyed persuasively and precisely. If not, it will affect company’s profit and sales. So, it needs people who have good communication skill and oral presentation skill.

In our everyday life, we have to communicate each other. Miscommunication can lead to confusion, misunderstanding and even fight and lawsuit. Therefore, having effective communication skill is important for everyone and it is also an essential key to success.