Assignment 1a: Self-Introduction Email
Subject: Ng Hong Yi – Self Introduction
Dear Professor Blackstone,
Hello. I’m Ng Hong Yi, first year civil engineering student in SIT, with a background in chemical & biomolecular engineering during my time at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, and being Malaysian prior to that, I received my primary and secondary education in Malaysia.
I stepped into engineering without understanding what engineering was. Over the past 7 years, I’ve learned that engineers solve problems, and in those same years, I slowly gained ownership of a room to myself, and that private, physical space became inexplicably significant to my wellbeing. Thus, I chose my path: to create physical spaces as an engineer, whether it be residential, commercial, or anything in between.
My communication strength is my problem-solving approach. Whenever I talk to someone who’s facing problems, or have ideas they want to act on, I analyze the situation and create a plan of action, mapping out the possible decisions to be made. It was incredibly fulfilling, knowing that my US friends enjoyed their time in Singapore because I planned it out for them.
My communication weakness is my disregard for emotions. There was a time where I fully ignored emotions, both mine and others, whenever possible. Various events in my life validated and reinforced that approach, resulting in situations where, due to not having access to certain emotions, I didn’t even understand the damage I caused using my words. Since then, I seek to better consider the role of emotion in communication, in hopes I don’t repeat past mistakes.
My goals in this communications module are to
gain confidence in impromptu speechmaking, and to better understand myself by
understanding others through effective communication. A Malaysian upbringing, a
Singaporean lifestyle, and a globalized view of the world, these three items
form a unique viewpoint few others possess. Thank you for reading this self-introduction.
Best regards,
Ng Hong Yi
(299 words, salutations and closing exclusive)
Hey Hong Yi,
ReplyDeleteIt is a bit of letdown that the word count was 300 words because I find myself truly immerse in your email. A standout point I felt deserve to be highlight is your ability to address each guiding question explicitly with detailed explanation and elaboration especially in communication strength and weakness segment.
I would love to understand the thought process behind your choice of goals (but the limitation of 300 words comes into play).
Overall, I stand by your language use and the way you organise your structure makes the content flow seamlessly. Exceptional work Hong Yi!
Hi Gordon,
Deletethank :D
But yes, as I've told a few people within our communities, impromptu speechmaking is a great weakness of mine. Whenever the option exists, I always gravitate towards writing a speech before giving it, even if that works to the detriment of my communication effectiveness. As evidenced by last Tuesday, I could learn to throw caution to the wind and just speak whatever. Exercise the mind, let trains of thought lead me to my words.
As for understanding myself by understanding others, I've spent most of my teen years being horrible with interpersonal relationships. Most of that boiled down to having a closed-off headspace, causing me to be socially inept and emotionally underdeveloped (see communication weakness). Once I grew to a point where I started understanding what went wrong, how it went wrong, why it went wrong, I spent my early years in Singapore restructuring myself, the lessons learnt a reminder of what once was. National Service helped, and with getting into Ngee Ann Polytechnic, hanging out with a bunch of young'uns was a second chance, and my years studying for a diploma also supplanted my learning to be better at communicating with people. The work from all this also helped me open up to aspects of myself I otherwise would've been oblivious to.
I said this once to a friend in Malaysia: "We are our thoughts first, then our actions second." This quote can mean a lot of things, but in the context of understanding myself by understanding others, how I think of myself can often cloud my judgement, especially during moments of doubt where I doomscroll my brain into wallowing in self-pity, but the actions I take in spite of what I think? That is what actually defines me. The actions I've taken are the things with definite truth, not whatever my brain can think up about myself. So in a sense, the actions I've taken in an effort to understand others, also help me to discover more about myself.
Good day Hong Yi, after reading your post I found myself very engaged in your story and your passion for engineering. It's great to see a personal attachement to studying engineering!
ReplyDeleteI think your communication strength shines through during our daily interactions, and the analytical side to your thinking really shows. All in all, it was a great read!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDear Hong Yi,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the well developed, informative letter. You've addessed the assignment brief, true enough, but also taken us on a bit of a journey, from your Malaysian roots through a room of your own here in Singapore to your problem-solving and itinerary planning all the way to this succinct reflection with a vantage point. It's Hong Yi in a nutshell.
I like it, honestly, as you paint a portrait through which we can see a guy who is acutely aware of his surroundings. We can see an individual who has quite a bit of confidence, but who also carries some scars, maybe, some baggage of an ** emotional sort**, yet who isn't afraid to confront his demons.
For me, there are still things to unpack from this intro, but I'm gonna put that on hold and just allow you to carry this sharing forward during the next couple months. After all, you're not shy at letting us know how you feel and what you think in class, and I respect that.
Your effort is appreciated, Hong Yi. You know that.
Brad