Singapore is to chewing gum, like Canada is to marijuana

When I went overseas for exchange last semester, I lived with 5 other Canadian girls which gave me a whole new perspective of what a Canadian University student can be like.

I was cautioned by NUS' International Office that one may come across Canadians who smoke marijuana, or what the Canadians term 'weed'. Never did I expect myself to land exactly into that situation. The packet of weed was causally placed on the living room table, where some of my housemates will smoke it every 2 to 3 days. It really came as a shock for me at first, but after a while I just got used to the sight of it lying around the house, along with the bong that they would use to smoke it.

I actually talked to them about how shocked I was to see illegal drugs lying around the house, and they were shocked to hear it was even illegal in Singapore! Moreover the penalty for having large amounts of weed around results in a death penalty, which came to an even larger shock to them. More than once I comtemplated whether I should try smoking it, but in the end the difference in culture, which I feel leads to differences in believes, stopped me from doing it. What they felt was the norm in Canada, was a crime in Singapore.

So i came to a conclusion that weed in Canada is like chewing gum in Singapore. It's illegal to eat/take it, but authorities will not actively go around to arrest anyone that's caught with it.

Think before you blog

Conflicts will arise when people interact with each other, simply because everyone is different. To me, interpersonal conflict is a result of a difference in perception towards things in general, whether there is a direct interaction between parties or not. One has to be aware of what they say, especially on the internet where there is no restriction of who might be reading what you posted online.

Blogging was, and still is still a popular hobby for many, and Wendy would blog whenever she had time on her hands. It was a place where she felt that she could express her feelings freely. However she was not aware that what she blogged about could affect her relationship with her friend Nicole.

Reminiscing on her blog, which included a past relationship with Tom, was not Wendy's intention of going in between Nicole and Tom. However a blog does not restrict anyone from reading it (unless it is password-protected, but lets assume it wasn't) and friends of Nicole informed her of what Wendy has posted, suspecting her of having a ulterior motive for writing something like that on her public blog. The situation started to get complicated as Nicole was afraid and otherwise reluctant to confront Wendy regarding her blog post. With the growing misunderstandings between Nicole and Wendy, it became even harder to confront each other and tension was all that is left of their friendship.

Both parties were wrong in some way in this story, which led to a broken friendship between Wendy and Nicole. I'm sure there were better ways to deal with situations like this. Tell me what do you guys think.

Effective communication skills, anyone?

Several times in the past years I have considered taking this module, but was appalled by the amount of projects and assignments needed to be done for this course. given a science student I am. However here I am, taking this course in my final semester in NUS. That goes to show effective communication skills is essential, especially if one, like myself, is going to enter the pool of unemployed adults to compete for a position that gives a good salary.

I assume like most of my fellow course mates, we feel it is necessary to be able to communicate effectively, and that includes the verbal and non-verbal aspects. Communication, being the foundation of human relationships, can easily strengthen or destroy them. Whether it is interactions with colleagues or just quality time with friends and family, no one would want to convey the wrong messages.

Speaking in front of a group of people is hard; even an experienced speaker may stutter at times. Confidence plays a big role in public speaking, and it has to be developed. Through practice, I hope I will be able to present my ideas to a crowd successfully. I know public speaking is not my strong suit and I have been avoiding opportunities of presentations, if I can. However in the working world, presentations are inevitable. Since there are no ways of avoiding it, might as well confront it and I might learn something out of it!

Completely mastering the skills to effective communication is rather impossible, but I'm pretty sure at the end of the course Brad would definitely have drilled the basics into us! Let's just sit back and enjoy the ride :)