To apply what we have learnt in the classroom to become an effective listener and speaker as well as an eligible team player in the real communication is not as easy as I thought initially. However, through this meeting, I have made a lot of progress and have the confidence to go further.
Last Friday, my group mates and I had the very first meeting. Before the meeting, I thought that I was the only PRC in this group whose English speaking skills was not that strong. I really feel the pressure and upset during the preparation. However, it turned out that the meeting with my group mates went on dramatically but successfully. At the beginning, I could not catch some of my team mates’ points and I asked them to restate with a shy face. However, the encouragement and sincerity from their eyes made me feel much better. On the other hand, my group mates were all glad to slow down the speaking pace and paraphrase their points in a more understandable way to me. After I got what they wanted to talk about, my pressure began to go away. Every group mates showed the willingness to communicate with each other on their faces as well as the body gestures. With the help of this atmosphere, every group mates were completely engaged in the discussion and the meeting went on smoothly.
Last Friday, my group mates and I had the very first meeting. Before the meeting, I thought that I was the only PRC in this group whose English speaking skills was not that strong. I really feel the pressure and upset during the preparation. However, it turned out that the meeting with my group mates went on dramatically but successfully. At the beginning, I could not catch some of my team mates’ points and I asked them to restate with a shy face. However, the encouragement and sincerity from their eyes made me feel much better. On the other hand, my group mates were all glad to slow down the speaking pace and paraphrase their points in a more understandable way to me. After I got what they wanted to talk about, my pressure began to go away. Every group mates showed the willingness to communicate with each other on their faces as well as the body gestures. With the help of this atmosphere, every group mates were completely engaged in the discussion and the meeting went on smoothly.
When the meeting nearly reached the end, we began to talk about the target users of the project. I had my opinion on the interface design for different users. However, I could not find some proper words to describe my idea. Therefore, I used a lot of gestures and paraphrased them in many different ways. But it did not work and made the situation even worse. My group mates got more confused. Because of the cultural differences, the way I organizing a sentence and choosing words is quite different from the native English speakers. Kim then said that she could understand Chinese and asked me to say it in Chinese. Then, I just used Chinese to directly express my idea. Unfortunately, this solution did not work either. The reason is that I already have tried hard in English and I could not translate them back into Chinese very quickly. The sentences were kind of mixture of the two languages. I had no choice but to switch back to English and try to paraphrase them again and again. Suddenly, Sathish got my points surprisingly. I felt so happy. What a long and tough process! I almost really lost my confident in speaking out my idea. From this process, I got to know that, if I could not express something in English, I should not change to another language; I should persevere to try my best to paraphrase and reconstruct the sentences till they are understandable.
I think the barrier for me in speaking English is that I cannot combine the words which appear in my mind into proper sentences. Sometimes, after I spoke out a sentence, I knew that I have made a mistake and even myself could not understand the sentence. Due to lacking of enough practice of speaking English, I do not have the feeling of speaking the language freely and fluently. The group meeting really provides a platform for me to gain the practical English speaking skills. I think, as the time goes on, I will have more and more proficiency in my English speaking.
Hey Zhenyang,
回复删除I felt part of your pain about the language barrier when I was in China. Its hard to send a message across when we find it out to do it in words. If you ever find yourself in such situations, my advice is to show it out in actions or on a piece of paper. I am really happy that you are putting in effort in speaking english. Honestly, i find your english pretty good for a PRC.
If there is a need of conveying your message out in chinese, please do go ahead. And please do tell us if we speak too fast! We will definetly be glad to slow the pace down.
Cheers!
Hi Zhenyang,
回复删除I am so sorry for not being able to translate your words accurately! Cultural background does affect how we organize our sentences and how we choose our words. It also affects how we understand others' words. I interpreted your Chinese sentence in a different way from what you were trying to express based on my "Singapore Chinese".
I can understand part of your pain on language barrier when I was in China. Similar to your case, I was speaking Chinese but no natives could fully understand what I meant. Vice versa, I couldn't fully understand what was being said. What I did was to keep rephrasing my sentences and changing the words I used. Sometimes I have rephrase my sentences up to three times.
I have to agree with Sathish that your English is already quite good. Most of the time, I am able to understand your sentences. Also, there is no need to be shy as this is part of learning. I am sure everyone is learning something out of these meetings. Lastly, I admire your courage and determination, keep it up!
See you in the next meeting! Cheers!
I have previously thought that our communication barrier can be easily overcome since we have a common mother tongue. However, after reading your blog post, I realise that I have underestimated the difficulty of intercultural communication. By putting more effort in listening when you speak and applying my experience of working with a PRC student in my ‘A’ levels Project Work, I hope that it will make your job easier.
回复删除On a side note, your ideas, especially those related to programming, are valuable to us. So please do not give up on them even if we do not understand initially.