Why is effective and professional communication important to me? I think it’s mainly because of what I’m doing and what I’m about to do. What I’m doing: missionary and making new friends. What I’m about to do: become a teacher and hopefully interest my future students in whatever I will be imparting to them. Right now that I’m in university, I think it’s finally time to take that big step and GROW UP! No one is probably going to tolerate a crazy naive little girl ranting on about her life. If I don't start speaking well and professionally, hardly anyone will start taking me seriously; especially when I’m involved in missionaries where I visit overseas campuses like in New Zealand. The people that I’m conversing over there were mainly professors and university graduates and that when I realized the importance of speaking smartly and fluently to get your point across in a short amount of time. Plus, religion is not an easily accepted and understood topic, so it IS important to really communicate well with a well-balanced dose of emotions and gestures without sounding too unsure of what one is saying! Sometimes, when faced with a difficult problem, continuing on that conversation professionally would be tough too!
And this doesn't just end here! Oh my! The profession I chose for my future is going to prove the need for me to learn to speak professionally even more! Students. Colleagues. Principals. Head of Departments. My life is immersed in so many various social circles and its imperative to behave as accordingly in wherever I’m placed. This is definitely the hard part. I really feel intimidated when pushed into a sometimes high-flyer and completely unknown environment! I want to build up my confidence when conversing with important people. I want to effectively transfer knowledge to my students in a fun and accurate manner. I want to hang out with friends without worrying that anything I say might hurt their feelings. If even this proves difficult sometimes, what about fulfilling my aspirations?
Despite the importance of knowing how to communicate professionally, firstly understanding how effective communication works is vital too. Just last week, I had a communication breakdown which visibly demonstrated how much I’m lacking in communicating clearly, not even to mention professionally. My church was involved in a house cleaning community service program just last Saturday. Two of us were unable to arrive at the designated time so we were separated from the main group and travelled together. We took instructions from a friend who said, "Take Bus 123 and alight 2 stops later I think.... (pause for one minute)... WAIT! No no take Bus 123 and alight when you see BLK 105, probably about 3 or 4 stops later!"
Eh..... Ok... and lo and behold, when I surveyed the directory for Bus 123, there was no Blk 105! It only said Blk 109 4 stops later! When we tried calling back there was no response so we assumed that we had to walk to Blk 105 from the bus stop. So we set off and when we reached the area, we found no one. We called another friend and he said, "There are 2 Blk 105 in bukit purmei! I think you're at the wrong one!". Crap.....was what came into my mind. Great, we should have asked clearly just how this Blk 105 looked like in the first place and look out for other landmarks along the way! Even when supplied with information, it should be validated first before swallowing it whole. I guess I have to work on the part where the receiver of the message has to be well-informed too or else the decoding of the message would be inaccurate!
Believe it or not, I have always been painfully shy. Maybe I’ve always been afraid of communicating in fear of the blunders I will make along the way just like the one above. Nonetheless, not facing the problem is just going to create an even bigger one in the future. Keeping in mind all the things I still dream of doing in the future, I better start opening up: time to get rid of little miss shy. =)
Nevertheless, no matter how much I wish for professional communication to be second nature for me, I do want it to be infused with my own flavor and personality, hence not only demonstrating my charm and poise to others, but also helping myself feel comfortable with it=).
