Critical Reflection

 Module learning

A goal that I had set at the beginning of the module was the focus on being a more confident person when interacting with strangers. 

Due to the nature of the lessons, I was provided countless opportunities for interactions with strangers. One such instance was when the table seating plan was changed. Initially, I was taken aback by the need for a new interaction. Not given any choice, I had to engage with the people around me at the time, in which I attempted to strike up a conversation. Though it was awkward at times, it provided me opportunities to practice speaking out my thoughts and form a connection with the other party. From these interactions, I learnt that communication not only gets easier with practice (instead of keeping to myself), and also people like to talk about themselves, and thus by asking the right questions in order to genuinely want to know the person better, it will in turn make the conversation flow better and more naturally. 

Thus, with things like communication, avoidance will only lead to a deterioration in interpersonal skills and instead should be the opposite, where with more communication, it gets easier. And when the need arises for future interactions, by expressing genuine interest in the person during the conversation, it helps improve its flow.

Project learning

Another goal that I had set was to improve my idea articulation, especially in front of an unfamiliar audience.

Due to the nature of the module needing for a project presentation, the actual presentation portion is a major milestone of the journey. which ties into the goal set for the module. At the beginning of the presentation, due to the initial anxiety, my body was jittery and adrenaline-filled, leading to jumbled thoughts. However in that instance, I thought about how an imaginary, confident speaker should appear when speaking, both his/her mannerisms and tonality. Noting that slowing things down will help my thoughts flow better, I took slow, deep breaths. During my portion where I had to speak, from the get-go I was still speaking a little fast. But upon realisation, I consciously slowed down my speech, adjusted, and found a comfortable pace to speak at, allowing for me to finish the presentation without any hiccups in my thought process.

This rhythm I had found during the presentation itself by slowing down and relaxing, in hindsight, was like trusting in myself that I could deliver and perform at the optimal level I believed that I could. This was likely because with more experience with something, our familiarity with the subject would be increased. Similarly, by forcing fake-confidence, that feeling of confidence gets familiar to our body and becomes easier to replicate into real confidence.

With these accumulated experiences, I had learnt not only to trust myself in the process, but also that slowing down my speech really does help with enunciating and articulating my thoughts better, as it comes hand-in-hand with the feeling of confidence.