Woei Perng is an undergraduate currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in Science (Chemistry) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). As a polytechnic graduate with an Chemical Engineering Diploma from Singapore Polytechnic, he strives hard in achieving satisfactory academic performance amongst an competitive environment, while not forgetting the considerable laboratory experience he obtained in his earlier years of study, complementing his abilities in understanding the vast discipline of chemistry.

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While being a avid sportsman in archery during his free time, he derives great pleasure from helping others to develop further, and his passion in the sport has seen him returning to his alma mata years after graduating to nurture younger generations of enthusiast in the sports club.

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As an individual, he sees it in himself to help others at times of trouble. Through his experience as an officer during national service, he finds it important to always seek an understanding of both sides of the coin, before deciding on the best course of action.

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He finds great solace in the saying, "Hope for the best, Expect the worst, Life is play, We're unrehearsed."

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Well my topic is rather vague for this post, but seeing it as a rather common occurence in my everyday life i find it a rather interesting notion.

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I first begin off with this question, among your peers, or the people you know, how many do not actually stutter, or are able to convey their messages accurately, when speaking to a large group of people? Well to be honest, for me, i'd have to say actually most of my friends are not that good at public speaking, nor are they really able to talk to a large crowd.

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Well giving an example, a lecturer of mine actually encourages students presenting the solutions to rather complicated questions, and out of the numerous who volunteered, only a handful were able to explain how they came about answering the solution. The rest? They haphazardly breezes through pages of mathematical calculations, often mumbling to themselves, and are not able to fully explain themselves when asked questions.

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While of course not everyone have the quality of a teacher or born to be a public speaker, but i feel that singaporeans generally shun or are unable to represent themselves in front of many others.

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I guess another commonly observed trait is that we on the whole often keep opinions or questions to ourselves. Another example would be when students are asked questions, they either would feint ignorance, or simply saying that they don't know the answer.

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For me, i believe that this "traits" is due to a combination of both the cultural aspect of asians, a rather lack of developement in youth education. For chinese at least, we are more reserved in expressing ourselves, as compared to other cultures who are open and chatty. Also, from my experience of my younger years of education, it was a rather "spoon fed" sort of learning, where the teacher would teach, while it is our duty to listen attentively. I suppose a discussion based type of teaching on a regular basis would actually promote students to be more open to dicussing things in the open, not keeping to themselves.

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What do you think? Do you think singaporean youths these days are also lacking the ability to express themselves in public? =]

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Cheers! P.S. hope what i typed wasn't too abstract hehe.

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Sorry for the late post guys! Been busy with mid-term tests =]
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Anyway for this topic I have decided to share a real life occurrence that was in turned shared with me in a similar communication class that I had when I was in Singapore Polytechnic.
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The event was told by my then lecturer, and it happened in the polytechnic’s office of languages. It was a central office for the language department and therefore, various groups of foreign language lecturers of different nationalities were housed there, for example, Thai and Japanese.
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The story goes that there was this new Japanese language lecturer in the office. One day, an American lecturer saw her using the photocopier and decided to go forward to chat and get to know his new colleague. However, while initiating the conversation, he stood at a very close proximity to her, and talked at a rather loud volume, which took the rather small framed Japanese lady by surprise. As such, she took a step back, appearing rather uncomfortable. The American lecturer, not noticing her distress and discomfort, took another step forward while still continuing his conversation with her, and the Japanese lady similarly tried to move away from him (this forward and backwards movement continued for a few steps). And all the while, the whole episode was observed by my lecturer with some amusement.
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Well basically the observed incident presents a contrasting comparison of the difference in cultural norms in the western and eastern cultures. From an Asian point of view, when meeting a new acquaintance, we tend to be much more polite, and maintain a further distance when communicating or interacting. However, as a general trend, westerners tend to be more warm and friendly, as such, social norms of Asians such as maintaining a distance as a form of respect for a new acquaintance is not observed by them, as they see that being open and friendly is a social norm to welcome a new member to the group.
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All in all, the American lecturer was not exactly wrong in his gesture of chatting with the new Japanese lecturer, as he was trying to welcome her to the department, however he should have practised cultural self-awareness. If he knew the social norm of the Japanese, which was to maintain a distance while communicating with acquaintances, the female lecturer would not have been put in a rather awkward and uncomfortable situation. He should have been more aware and noticed that the Japanese lecturer was rather uncomfortable with his close proximity, thus discontinuing his advance. =]

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Hope something awkward like this won't ever happen to any of us =]

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Cheers!