Having to write a blog post every 2 weeks was a little bit challenging for me, especially that I am not used to write English texts that are not related to my studies (Engineering).
All in all, the ES2007S class has been very beneficial for me, given that I usually use three other languages in my daily life to communicate. But I am aware that the English language is an essential element for good and effective communication with people from different nationalities, and this course allowed me to practice it in different ways (peer teaching, proposal..).
This class was very helpful to me regarding the writing of application letter and cv, especially that I was actually applying for an internship at that time. I learnt that I have to be concise in my writing without being incomplete or unclear.
The proposal at the end of the semester was also a chance to improve my writing skills since each member of my team had to write a section of the proposal by him/herself. I was really surprised when they assigned me to check the grammatical correctness of our proposal and this encouraged me to be as good as expected.
I am really happy about my choice of taking this module since it did not just help me improve basic skills such as writing and speaking in Englisch but it was also some kind of a brigde to communicate with other wonderful people, which were the group 3.
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Monday, 31 October 2011
Reflection on oral presentation
Today, my research group and I have presented our proposal, which is about promoting community service in NUS.
In order to prepare for the presentation, we met a few times before to agree about the general outline and to assign each one of us a topic to talk about. I undertook the task of opening the presentation, presenting the outline and talking about the background of the proposal.
We rehearsed several times to be more confident and comfortable about presenting in front of people and so that each speaker knows what the other speakers are going to say.
I was quite nervous because I was presenting first, and I know that the first impression is really important. But being well prepared helped me overcome my stress and anxiety.
I think that the introduction was quite good and funny (Mr. Blackstone as the provost of NUS). After that, I gave an overview of the presentation and refered to each group member and what will he/she talk about.
During the presentation, I tried to keep eye contact with individuals and to maintain a good voice projection.
I got a bit confused explaining the bar chart, because it was a bit complex (many bars, two colors). I also did not get the chance to answer many questions at the end.
I hope that my presentation was good and that the audience understood the message that I wanted to deliver through the slides. I will be happy to hear your feedbacks, so please feel free to leave a comment :)
In order to prepare for the presentation, we met a few times before to agree about the general outline and to assign each one of us a topic to talk about. I undertook the task of opening the presentation, presenting the outline and talking about the background of the proposal.
We rehearsed several times to be more confident and comfortable about presenting in front of people and so that each speaker knows what the other speakers are going to say.
I was quite nervous because I was presenting first, and I know that the first impression is really important. But being well prepared helped me overcome my stress and anxiety.
I think that the introduction was quite good and funny (Mr. Blackstone as the provost of NUS). After that, I gave an overview of the presentation and refered to each group member and what will he/she talk about.
During the presentation, I tried to keep eye contact with individuals and to maintain a good voice projection.
I got a bit confused explaining the bar chart, because it was a bit complex (many bars, two colors). I also did not get the chance to answer many questions at the end.
I hope that my presentation was good and that the audience understood the message that I wanted to deliver through the slides. I will be happy to hear your feedbacks, so please feel free to leave a comment :)
Friday, 30 September 2011
Intercultural Communication
About 4 million people of Turkish origin live in Germany. Most of them came in the sixties because of the high population growth and the mass unemployment in Turkey.
Even if they form the largest ethnic group after Germans, Turks are considered as the 'most foreign' group in Germany. Communication between German and second and third generation immigrants from Turkey is no longer characterized by language difficulties but there remain some intercultural missunderstandings.
Thyssen Krupp Steel is a German company where 16% of the employees have Turkish origins. The company used to have a big problem: The workers from the different backgrounds did not get along. There were often confliction between them. In the breakroom, the Germans were sitting in one corner of the room, reading the Spiegel or the Süddeutschezeitung, while the Turks were sitting in the opposite corner reading the Turkish journal.
Most of the conflicts between the German and the Turkish employees were based on cultural differences, e.g., the Turks felt often offended at the straightforwardness and honesty of their German colleagues and the Germans did not like the implied statements usually used by the Turks.
The situation got worst after the events of 9 11. Even the few Turks who used to have some German friends at work felt that they were avoiding them and felt the gap between them becoming bigger and bigger.
That's when the company decided to take action and tried to resolve the problem by introducing the idea of 'culture mediators'. Those persons help workers in the company from differents backgrounds to get along. They are sort of bridge-builder: they try to find solutions for conflicts between employees from different origins by organizing seminars and workshops. The purposes of the seminars is to show respect the other cultures and avoid cultural misunderstanding. The way to reach these goals is to encourage the effective intercultural communication and the emphaty with people from different backgrounds without any kind of cultural prejudice.
Even if they form the largest ethnic group after Germans, Turks are considered as the 'most foreign' group in Germany. Communication between German and second and third generation immigrants from Turkey is no longer characterized by language difficulties but there remain some intercultural missunderstandings.
Thyssen Krupp Steel is a German company where 16% of the employees have Turkish origins. The company used to have a big problem: The workers from the different backgrounds did not get along. There were often confliction between them. In the breakroom, the Germans were sitting in one corner of the room, reading the Spiegel or the Süddeutschezeitung, while the Turks were sitting in the opposite corner reading the Turkish journal.
Most of the conflicts between the German and the Turkish employees were based on cultural differences, e.g., the Turks felt often offended at the straightforwardness and honesty of their German colleagues and the Germans did not like the implied statements usually used by the Turks.
The situation got worst after the events of 9 11. Even the few Turks who used to have some German friends at work felt that they were avoiding them and felt the gap between them becoming bigger and bigger.
That's when the company decided to take action and tried to resolve the problem by introducing the idea of 'culture mediators'. Those persons help workers in the company from differents backgrounds to get along. They are sort of bridge-builder: they try to find solutions for conflicts between employees from different origins by organizing seminars and workshops. The purposes of the seminars is to show respect the other cultures and avoid cultural misunderstanding. The way to reach these goals is to encourage the effective intercultural communication and the emphaty with people from different backgrounds without any kind of cultural prejudice.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Application Letter
Nesrine Damak
22 College Avenue East Singapore 138595
nesrinedamak@mytum.de, (+65)91438227
August 22, 2011
Director, Human Resource
Robert Bosch (SEA) Pte Ltd
11 Bishan Street 21
Singapore 573943
Re: Application for an internship – Assistant Project Engineer at Security Systems
Dear Sir or Madam,
As a student of Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and as an exchange student at the National University of Singapore for the fall term 2011, I am applying for an internship in Bosch from 1th December 2011 until the end of March 2012.
After successfully receiving my A-level in Tunisia, I had the opportunity to study in Germany with the support of a government scholarship. This new situation made me very enthusiastic to know more about foreign languages and cultures and instilled in me the desire to continue to do so in the future.
After spending two years at the university acquiring basic engineering knowledge, I chose to study signal processing and multimedia more intensively. I recently finished my Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology with the grade “Very good” and I am currently pursuing my Master degree in the same major.
I have been tutoring first and second term students in circuit theory for four semesters. This allowed me to further develop my social and communication skills. Now I feel myself able to face any new situation where I have to pass on my ideas and interact with other people in my field of work.
My experience in working as part of a team has also been enhanced, especially during a student project at TUM, aiming at designing an electrical vehicle.
I am confident that the experience working for your company is a perfect starting point for an ambitious engineering career, and would be the best way to highlight the link between my academic studies and industrial work experience. The worldwide reputation of Bosch and the recommendation of previous fellow students encourage me to apply for an internship as an Assistant Project Engineer at Security Systems.
Thank you for considering my application, to which I enclose supporting documents.
I will be delighted to provide further information upon request and would be available for a telephone or a face-to-face interview at any time.
Yours faithfully,
Nesrine Damak
Edited: 13/09/2011
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Interpersonal Conflict
Interpersonal relationships are usually associated with conflicts , especially when we have to interact with the same person in several occasions. Conflict occurs when two or more individuals do not share the same view or have different goals and interests.
The person with whom we are in conflict can be a loved one and a friend or it may be a stranger like the salesman or the neighbour.
In the case of a close person, the conflicts can weaken the relationship and sometimes end it. Even if the conflict can be unimportant and minor, it can damage our relationships if it is not resolved or well handled. An example for this situation would be the divorce of a couple after a long-term relationship because the man is a workaholic and the woman does not have the energy to save the marriage by talking fully about what is on her mind.
Conflicts can also occur with your boss at work or during a project. They can put your work in jeopardy.
I experienced this kind of disagreement as I was writing my bachelor thesis at the university. My supervisor was too demanding and exigent: He pushed me over the limit by assigning me complex topics and letting me completely rely on myself. I was the first student he supervised, so I assumed that his carelessness was probably due to a lack of experience. The most rational way for resolving this conflict was to talk to my supervisor and let him know about my opinion. He told me then that the reason why he let me rely on my own was that my marks were good, so he thought I would be able to cope with the research difficulties without his help. I proved him wrong and proposed to him some alternative solutions like to shorten the content of the topic and not to go into too much details. At the end, we agreed on specific topics that would be doable in the defined period of time. As for me, I spent some extra hours in order to satisfy some of his demands.
Finally, I got a very good mark and everyone was happy and satisfied.
We can see that the first step in a conflicted situation is to realize the existence of the conflict. Once you admit this, you can reduce the conflict by effectively communicating with the other person and by trying to find compromises that satisfy you both.
What do you think about my reaction? Would you do the same or would you stagnate in the situation in which you are out of your depth?
09.09.2011
Conflicts can also occur with your boss at work or during a project. They can put your work in jeopardy.
I experienced this kind of disagreement as I was writing my bachelor thesis at the university. My supervisor was too demanding and exigent: He pushed me over the limit by assigning me complex topics and letting me completely rely on myself. I was the first student he supervised, so I assumed that his carelessness was probably due to a lack of experience. The most rational way for resolving this conflict was to talk to my supervisor and let him know about my opinion. He told me then that the reason why he let me rely on my own was that my marks were good, so he thought I would be able to cope with the research difficulties without his help. I proved him wrong and proposed to him some alternative solutions like to shorten the content of the topic and not to go into too much details. At the end, we agreed on specific topics that would be doable in the defined period of time. As for me, I spent some extra hours in order to satisfy some of his demands.
Finally, I got a very good mark and everyone was happy and satisfied.
We can see that the first step in a conflicted situation is to realize the existence of the conflict. Once you admit this, you can reduce the conflict by effectively communicating with the other person and by trying to find compromises that satisfy you both.
What do you think about my reaction? Would you do the same or would you stagnate in the situation in which you are out of your depth?
09.09.2011
Saturday, 20 August 2011
Why effective communication skills are important for me?
Hello everyone!
In the following, I will explain the importance of effective communication in my life.
As an electrical engineering student, I have to consider first my future career plans.
Many people think that the main features of a successful engineer are to be ingenious and able to work all day in front of the computer and invent new things..
This is no longer true in our modern world, where soft-skills are more and more important nowadays.
In deed, most of the companies set value on the communication skills of the candidates in the interview.
The candidates must be able to convey information about themselves in a clear and unambigious way.
This is due to the fact that engineers have to be involved face-to-face with clients so that they promote their product or they have to communicate with their chefs or colleagues in written format (e.g. via emails) and in spoken format. Transmitting the thoughts and ideas effectively and receiving feedback is also one of the most important parts in an engineer´s work, and this makes the job more interesting.
Communication is also important in my daily life. To be able to communicate means to be open.
It is also useful to keep me updated on such issues as politics, fashion, sports..
Through communication, I can build relationships that may turn into friendships.
In addition to that, the root of a large number of problems is a poor communication: If a friend is angry at me, because he heard from someone else that I said bad things about him, the only way to confront this kind of problem is to have a regular communication with the friend, in order to convey your real opinion about him and avoid misunderstandings.
To summarize, the communication is an integral part of our lives. It is a learned skill that can be used at any age.
In the following, I will explain the importance of effective communication in my life.
As an electrical engineering student, I have to consider first my future career plans.
Many people think that the main features of a successful engineer are to be ingenious and able to work all day in front of the computer and invent new things..
This is no longer true in our modern world, where soft-skills are more and more important nowadays.
In deed, most of the companies set value on the communication skills of the candidates in the interview.
The candidates must be able to convey information about themselves in a clear and unambigious way.
This is due to the fact that engineers have to be involved face-to-face with clients so that they promote their product or they have to communicate with their chefs or colleagues in written format (e.g. via emails) and in spoken format. Transmitting the thoughts and ideas effectively and receiving feedback is also one of the most important parts in an engineer´s work, and this makes the job more interesting.
Communication is also important in my daily life. To be able to communicate means to be open.
It is also useful to keep me updated on such issues as politics, fashion, sports..
Through communication, I can build relationships that may turn into friendships.
In addition to that, the root of a large number of problems is a poor communication: If a friend is angry at me, because he heard from someone else that I said bad things about him, the only way to confront this kind of problem is to have a regular communication with the friend, in order to convey your real opinion about him and avoid misunderstandings.
To summarize, the communication is an integral part of our lives. It is a learned skill that can be used at any age.
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
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