#1 Effective Communication

The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them. - Stephen King

I have never liked attention. I have never like that people were staring at me, observing my every word and action. Nonetheless, I've always gained that attention some way or another. 

When I was a child, I would spend many hours in front of the television, watching cartoons all day long. Many hours of television later, I developed an accent. People often asked me if I was American or British. I did not feel that I was any different from them, but people made fun of me because of that accent, and I did not have many friends then. Things changed when I went to secondary school, and my form teacher was involved in the annual Speech Day. I was chosen to be a student emcee (mainly because of the accent).

The task was simple: read the script. I was afraid. I have never spoken in front of an audience before. Through numerous practice sessions, I started to develop some confidence. I was still afraid and was trembling on the actual day itself. I spent the next three years as a student emcee and I learned to love it. I loved to be able to speak clearly, and the pressure of speaking well. Since then, I have had many opportunities not only speak to an audience, but to interact and engage with people as well. I decided to plunge into the field of Communications and New Media as I loved technology too.

As a Communications and New Media student, there is a need to learn how to communicate effectively, not only one-to-one, but one-to-many as well. There is a need to know how to communicate an idea to the masses, and also to be able to deliver messages clearly and effectively to peers and lecturers. Communicating effectively with group mates will definitely help to get things moving. Group discussion sessions would be more productive when more time is spent discussing an idea, rather than trying to explain what an idea is about. I have seen some group mates had some great ideas rejected because they were unable to vocalize their thoughts well.

That being said, I still have much work to do in becoming an effective communicator. Effective communication to me is not about language proficiency, nor is it about knowing the technical aspects of communications. It is the ability to effectively relay an idea or message to another person, despite the circumstances. Granted, the technical aspects help us to understand how it works, but actually doing it is another thing. I hope to be an effective communicator in the future, and not to be misunderstood as such:

You might be wondering what happened to that accent. Well, it faded away after I started to pick up 'Singlish' or colloquial English in secondary school. In fact, because of this, people recently have asked if I was Indonesian or Filipino.

The world is made up of many people, and each person is different. To be an effective communicator is learning how to adapt to each person, given the situation and circumstances. 

To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others. - Tony Robbins