"No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the comtinent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea." - John Donne
Indeed, no man is an island. I personally equate the earth as a snow globe, where everything interacts and interconnects with everything else, one way or another; through dust, air, water, electricity and what not. Thereby it is unavoidable that communication is required so that life gets by.
It can be communicating with your family at home, with friends at school, with friends who are overseas, with your lecturers or even with strangers. Effective communication skills are always required on your part both as a listener or a speaker. As a speaker, you face the problem of finding the appropriate or exact vacoabularies to send the original idea and message to your listener. And while the verbal communication part is going on, you have to watch your nonverbal cues so that these two do not contradict each other. On the other hand, when you become the listener, you face the problem of understanding and interpreting the speaker's message accurately. For in too many a case, the process of interpreting can be clouded and distended by the physical environment of which the communication took place, or by one's own emotions and feelings about the subject (and also towards the speaker), or simply by a language barrier.
In the recent semester break, I have personally encountered a major communication skills test in play. Here goes: As an aspiring veterinary medicine student, I took up an internship position in a veterinary hospital in Germany. For those who may not already know, the national language in Germany is german, and Germans are not exactly known to be the best english speakers around. The problem comes when I am not exactly the best german speaker either. So 10 hours a day, I had to struggle with the language barrier because as much as both parties try, we might not always have the original intended message sent across. There was this one time when a dog was brought into the emergency ward after meeting with a car accident. Its breath was very thready and I attempted to pump air into its lungs. At the same time, a doctor wanted to listen to the dog's heartbeat using a stethoscope so she said, "You do not have to do that.". I interpreted that sentence as "You do not need to do that. It is not necessary. However, you can still do it if you want." So I decided to go for the latter just to make sure it continued breathing. However, a moment later, the doctor shouted, "I SAID YOU DONT HAVE TO DO THAT!". "I was taken aback and stood there for a moment, with my hands still mechanically pumping the air. The other doctor then told me that she actually wanted me to stop doing it that instant.
This may appear to be a rather small communication breakdown, but nevertheless it is still one. It reminded me of how precious and important effective communication skills are. Also, I am a third year life sciences student. This also mean that there are more laboratory sessions, more group report discussions. Anyone who have made it as far as third year in university will know that in a group work, everything will go wrong unless very much care is taken into making sure that communication is done properly. As I look into the future, I know that with my field of studies, it will never be a one-man-act. For research is all about collaboration with people specialising in different fields, seeking cooperation with all departments whom you will need (such as the technical team, the cleaners, the laboratory workers, the students, the secretary) and not to mention, playing a team game to hasten project paces to cut costs.
Therefore, I feel that it is an extra advantage that I can learn something which everyone already know but mostly are not really good at.
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5 comments:
Hi Yuyin! I'm Jia Yi, the girl who was in the same discussion group with you on our very first lesson.=)
I certainly agree with the several setbacks we may face when there is a language barrier in communication. Very often, this results in misunderstandings and also a "wall" between the two parties. I believe that communication brings people closer and it is a great pity if a friendship or a pleasant working relationship was to be overcome by the inability to communicate.
I am also doing research in my course, and all along I have thought that research involves doing experiments and literature searches alone (and at most along with my mentor). However, later did I come to realise that it involves people from all levels in this area and even scientists around the world. From individual experiments, presentation of reports and to attending symposiums by speakers from other countries, we have to find a way to overcome the barriers. Let us not to be daunted by the challenges ahead!
You give a good example of how communication can break down when one party speaks English as a second language and has possibly had little experience of speaking it. Of course in the scientific research laboratory, this is an ongoing problem as the community becomes increasingly international. What to do? Intensive English courses for the less proficient?
Teacher -Fiona
A very good example and intersting expreriences.
Communication breakdowns may lead to disastrous outcomes in a big project which needs precise coordination. That is why we want to take this course. It is always difficult to understand what the other person really means, even both of you may come from the same background. Personalities and some habits may be misleading when it comes to communication.
People all know that we can communicate with each other. But we are not sure how effective we are. There are still a lot to learn. Soft skills are as important as our knowledge. Hope we can have fun and make friends in this module. Interesting entry and well done. =)
Yo Yuyin!
I find your post very illuminating, especially in the first section where you talked about the non-specific need to possess effective communication skills. As you said, this is simply because no man is an island, and a person engages in both verbal and non-verbal exchanges with a huge variety of people throughout his or her life. Good job!
Hello Yu Yin,
Being a fellow Life Science student, I agree that laboratory work involves alot of communication. And the breakdown of effective communications can have dire effects as the experiment may take a very long time to repeat and in clinical settings, the samples may not be attainable again.
From the recount of your encounter, you have effectively illustrated the importance of effective communications and the misunderstanding and cross cultural friction it can cause when one does not understand the context in which the phrase was said.
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