Outsourced Episode 3

This is the observations made for all 5 sub topics in People Skill. Explanation is given in the video for each sub topics.

Outsourced Episode 2

This is the observations made for all 5 sub topics in People Skill. Explanation is given in the video for each sub topics.

Outsourced Episode 1

This is the observations made for all 5 sub topics in People Skill. Explanation is given in the video for each sub topics.

People Skill

This is the video about People Skill, in the making of observation there were 4 groups of people were observed at different time.

Mind Map of People Skill

Today I learned about the five main topic in People Skill which are: Human Element, Listening, Feedback, Para-language and Assertion. These 5 sub-topics are the ones that make up the people skill theoretically. Human element, from my point of view is how you deal and communicate with people for example in getting deal or the efforts you make for the conversation or deal to happen and to be successful. Listening, this is quite interesting, previously I thought listening only require your attention and focus on what others are saying but in order to be a good listener we need to be able to listen between the lines as well, we need to see their expression as well as eye contact ans the way people respond to it. Feedback is also the same thing, some people might not want to hear what you want to say or in other word they do not bother to know your feedback hence you need to plan before of what to say and be motivational in a way that people want to listen to your response. Para-language is in my point of view, a double meaning, where people do not really want to express their opinion but just to follow other people's decision especially when he/she knows everyone agrees to reach an agreement and only a minority disagree hence it is useless to express and this can be tell by their body language, tone or even pitch. Whereas assertion is claiming your authority, trying t show that you have the power and authority to make it happen and this require confident, manner and politeness.

3rd Week - Making a Conversation blogged on 23 Jan. 2013

The class was fun as usual. I got to know a lot of new things and tips as well of how to start a conversation. We practiced a lot of exercises today and Mr.C said there are no right or wrong answers in the class as long as it has its logic in it. Also I learned that a single word has a various meaning depending on one's perspective (how they interpret its meaning) At the end of the day, we were given a task; a shocking task I could say cause we were grouped in pair and were told to make dialogue and record it. It was quite hard for me to do a dialogue on such a short notice though. I just hope mine do not turn out to sound so childish or else it's gonna be very embarrassing. 

2nd Week - Opening a Conversation Part 2 blogged on 16 Jan 2013

More listening exercises and I can tell that I am improving on this. Today Mr. Charlton assigned us in pairs randomly and we started to interview each other and later on we introduced our newly met friend to the class. I got to know more about Jasmine from China although we did not talk much cause she seems like a very shy girl but it went well. That's a relief! I've always loved to do presentations cause I love to talk but ever since I came to Thailand, it's quite hard to communicate here with the people but today I had the opportunity to present and I know my skills have gotten rusty and I am willing. to practice more: D.

1st Week - Opening a Conversation done by Jan 10, 2013.

Today I did a listening exercise and missed one phrase, it's frustrating but I know there will be more to come in the near future hence it's good for me to improve my listening skill as it has been quite a while I haven't practiced. Learnt a bit about the western culture as well as Thai culture and interested to know more; there are different types of greetings and we just can't direct translate our usual sayings used in our home country to other language as it may have different meaning.

WOOHOO! The last video before midterm is ready to be watched! This was a conversation between Laila and Nadd and here are some of the examples of how leave-taking conversations should take place.

Week 7th - Leave-taking

Here we come to an end of the book, and today Mr.C taught us the proper way to leave-taking cause sometimes it can be really awkward cause the other person can't seem to be able to stop talking and you are stuck in the conversation. Mr.C said the most effective way is to fake a phone call from others cause that's the easiest.. Leave-taking I think is not an easy task to do cause you don't want the other party to feel bad and you just can't leave cause you just don't know what the exact words to say to them without leaving with guilt. In this chapter, there are some words or sentences that can be used to indicate that you need to leave at that time for example "I'll get back to you" or expressing gratitude to them. It can be concluded that when you want to take a leave you can say directly that you need to go urgently, or you summarize things that had been said or expressing thanks as mentioned above as well as give the other party a follow up so that they can understand that you're about to put an end to the conversation.

This is a video suggesting how formal and informal conversations should happen. This is a conversation made between Laila and Nadd. Enjoy watching :D

This is a video about entertaining someone, asking where would they like to go and etc. Hope you enjoy :D

Week 6th - Making Arrangements

As usual we started off the class with more audios for example; fill in the blanks, continue the sentence and many more exciting exercises. This time Mr.C taught us on how to make use proper sentences or words when we are making arrangements with other people, whether it is formal or informally. There are various kind of ways on how you can say to make arrangements. In order for us to practice this Mr.C gave us a task to do and the task for today is as expected making a video again, making use of the words in the textbook and make dialogue formally and informally. This is quite fun actually, I'm used to make videos now, it's no longer a hard task compared to when I first made my own video. That was... SUPER HARD! Oh.. There are also weird words use in the texts such as 'How are you fixed?' it sounds really wrong cause as Mr.C said when you said things like that, it's usually use for animals. So some of the words sounds really weird to me but hey that's the fun part cause we definitely had a good laugh. That's it for today, can't wait for next week's lesson!

Building Rapport

This is an example of different tones use in conversation. The recording was made between Laila and Nadd. Enjoy :D

4th Week - Building Rapport

One common thing that we do every week is listening to the audios hence my listening skills have improved a lot more than I first came in to the class. Lately, the workload has increased and it's getting tougher.. It's a good practice though because everyone needs to talk and participate to make it fun. So far I must say the most challenging task for me is to make dialogue, to record and make a video! It is my first time to make a video and oh man it is so not easy and time consuming as well! Enough said. Oh! Another cool thing is, every  useful sentence or expressions we heard in the audios Mr. C asked us to add in to our dialogue. After one video, more videos to come! This time around, Mr.C exposed us more to emphasizing stresses and what effect does it have with different tone you use. That's why I love English! Change the tone and stress on some of the words can make the conversation more interesting. From the tone you can tell whether the other party is interested or not.

5th Week - Entertaining

This week we're finishing off last bits of Building Rapport and moved on to another topic; Entertaining. This time around it taught me on how to say appropriate invitations, how to accept and declining invitations politely. This topic mainly explains on how to entertain guests and in the first few pages, it did mention about how to 'break the ice' by using humours; tell the guests some jokes or show them entertaining stuffs. I remembered on how I used to entertain guests coming from different universities to my university back in Brunei and it's no easy to try to talk to them when the ice had not been broken because of the cultural difference and language boundary as well. We were assigned to make another video on how to make an invitation, accepting/declining the person invited you. This chapter is quite useful for me because I am a type of person who does not know how to decline invitations cause I am afraid I might offend them in way possible hence through this I can learn on how to start saying 'No' to others and be confident about it. :D