Ka Wing Chan

During the winter break, I began with my work study program as a BCTC staff. The picture below is the place where I spent most of my winter holidays. Working as a BSTC staff not only requires the technical knowledge but also requires some communication skills. As a BCTC staff, I need to first patiently listen to the students’ questions, then inform them the solutions clearly and simply after fully understanding their situations. Basically, this job involves a informative communication style since my major mission is to constantly provide proper information to the students. I think having a good communication skill is important in this job. Since the students are not familiar with the machines, it is my job to teach them step by step clearly. Otherwise, I will be blamed by my boss and those students will be miserable.

Throughout this semester, I want to improve my communication skills by enhancing the clarity and fluency of my speaking. Even though these two elements are very simple, they are the fundamentals in the art of speaking. Mastering these two elements is helpful to be successful in job. In my case, having a clear speech definitely helps because students will be able to follow directions more easily. I think the major obstacle that I have to overcome is my accent. Because I am a nonnative speaker, it is hard to eliminate my accent. Sometimes my accent reduces the clarity of my speaking and I will need to repeat my sentence again.

In this communication class, I look forward to make progresses and become a better speaker.

Anthony “Tony” Robbins

Its been knowing for years for his famous life coach and motivational speaker. He believes in the power of positive energies, overcoming fears, healthy mind, and persuasive communication.The nature of Robbins speech are not meant to be memorize, conversely what makes them so attractive is the direct way he talks and, leaving the audience inspire is one of his major purposes.  He also shows the potential that people have saved, gives them a self-help, tells people what they want to hear and need. He gets the audience involve with personal experiences and also through the neuro-linguistic programming. Getting someone from the crowd and showing real and live examples to the group makes part of what his message is and what kind information he wants them to persuasive.One of the quotes I mostly like is “stay committed to your decisions but, stay flexible in your approach. Sometimes we encounter situations in life that we do not know what to do or how to act, but the important thing is to be flexible and creative in finding out the exit and achieve the goal.The picture was taken in one of his seminars and therefore it can be deduce that he is having a positive impact, people are smiling and seem to be connected with his words which is part of his achievement at the time of interacting with the listeners.

-Anabel Acevedo Velasquez

I work at a food distributing company as a secretary. I manage things behind the computer like emails, filing papers and accounting tasks. I work in the same office as my boss and I listen to her answer phones and talk to her clients knowing all the right things to say to satisfy them but at the same time get what she wants. It seems so easy and natural, which made me think it wasn’t a hard thing to do. Occasionally, she will be too busy dealing with other workers or customers and I would have to answer the phone calls. To my surprise, it is not as easy as it seems. Some clients are hard to understand or speak too fast for you to keep up with the order and you have to know how to ask them to repeat what they are saying with out offending them. You also have to know how to make small talk with them so they feel like they are taken care of at a personal level. You have to pick your fights and learn when to give in and let the client have it their way and when it is appropriate to reason with them. Sometimes, she would be yelling and furious because the employees messed something up but once the phone rings, her tone of voice changes completely and suddenly becomes very friendly and cheerful. I would like to learn how to respond according to other’s reactions and on a professional level. It would be great to be able to obtain the skill to be likeable and make people want to talk to you.

-Winnie Yan

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Response to option 2:

Over the past few months, I have been volunteering at a local hospital in which a part of my job is to speak with the patients. I spend most of my time communicating with these patients as I attempt to really connect with them and talk about how they are feeling. Generally, I have pretty simple conversations with them while they wait for their medical procedure. The usual topics in discussion were their anxiety or nervousness. When having a communication with these patients, you have to act a certain way. The qualities essential to communicating with them are compassion and understanding. You have to empathize with them since some may be going through a tough time and possibly dealing with fear.  Sometimes, these qualities are difficult to maintain because I do not know exactly how they may be feeling. In fact, there have been a few times in which I was unsure of what I should say to someone. I wish to connect with them on a more profound level, rather than a trivial one. In this class, I hope to learn how to have a better relation with not only an audience, but with another individual. In addition, I want to learn how to really communicate to the person who I am speaking with and establish a connection.

-Leyla

I volunteer at the Immaculate Conception Religious Education Program for children every Sunday morning. I teach first graders the basics of the Roman Catholic Religion. It is very important to have good communication skills in this environment because the children are there to learn and take in everything I say during the class. Since they are all first graders, their attention span may be quite short. Thus, it is vital to deliver an entertaining speech so the kids do not get bored and start misbehaving during the class. Even though the lessons are basic it is important for me to be able to make them enjoyable for the kids.

In this Communications class I hope to improve my communication skills and learn to make persuasive and entertaining speeches. It can be difficult to achieve this entertaining communication style because I need to come up with examples, which the kids can connect with and thus make them participate during the class. As we discussed in class on Monday, the way we deliver our speech can depend on the size and type of audience. In this case, I believe a younger audience makes a speech harder to deliver because usually a younger group needs to be entertained in some sort of way in order for them to pay attention. Since I teach kids that are six through seven years old I have to make sure to use vocabulary that is easy enough for them to understand. This is sometimes difficult because in a college environment we are constantly expanding our vocabulary and this makes it a hard transition between both environments. I try to make every topic I teach clear and to the point in order to prevent the kids from getting confused.

Overall, this communications class will come in very handy because as a teacher to a young audience the purpose of my lessons are to both inform and entertain. 

The picture I am posting was taken at a show that my band recently played.  I firmly believe that music is a way of communicating, especially in the live setting.  There is always a need to connect and work your audience, especially in between songs!  In this context certain qualities such as the ability to adapt to your audience, connect with your audience, and create a sense of community are very important.  Getting the audience involved is one of the most crucial parts of a live show.  I love communicating with crowds and I usually try to relate to the audience with topics that may not even apply to our music.  It is important to just make them feel comfortable and have fun.  Sometimes it gets real awkward if the crowd happens to be a smaller one or if the energy level in the room is a little dead.  My band and I could always improve our skills in working crowds.  I would like to learn skills that allow us to adapt to any situation or crowd and speak to them whether it be with words or just our music in a way that gets everyone involved and passionate every night that we play.

-Mike Gusman

Nicole Segal

The image that I chose is of Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. The nature of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech was not only political, but it was also revolutionary and occurred during the Civil Rights Movement. Tensions were high during this point in history and Dr. King’s influence could beseen as thousands of people appeared when he delivered his speech. Based solely on Dr. King’s facial expression, it is clear how emotional and passionate he was regarding the issue of racism and equality. The way that Dr. King’s mouth was open showed that he must have been in the middle of making a very important point and spoke loudly into the microphone. He looked out to the audience, making direct eye contact with the people he addressed. Furthermore, he pointed his finger at someone in the crowd, as though to involve the members of the audience into his speech. A gesture such as this automatically makes people feel as though they are part of the cause. The image demonstrates a positive relationship between the audience and Dr. King, considering the thousands of people who appeared at his speech. Regardless of whether or not all of the members of the audience agreed with the content, Dr. King was seen as a highly influential leader considering he was able to generate such a massive turnout. In addition, it is visible how the members of the audience were immersed in Dr. King’s speech, with some even bending their necks in what appears to be a slightly uncomfortable position in an effort to gain a better view of him. The fact that Dr. King’s speech is studied today, found in textbooks, and still referred to by other great leaders, only goes to prove what a powerful and positive impact he had on the population.

The Half-Man Speech

In a situation where the odds are against you, it takes a riveting speech to rally the soul and empower the will of men. In times of war, a speech defines a cause. In the televised -adaption of the book, The Games of Thrones, I feel that Tyrion delivers a powerful speech to his men before an attack on the kingdom. Outnumbered by their enemies, Tyrion takes the opportunity to speak to his men. Tyrion’s character is direct and honest. There is something real with the content of his speech. Instead of fighting for “glory” or honor, Tyrion expresses and shares the men’s value of “their” possessions being taken by the enemy. He puts his words in perspective and addresses them with “your,” personalizing their stake in the war. There is nothing poetic about his speech, but he keeps it candid. What and how he captivates the audience is unique because he conveys that even though he is “half a man,” Tyrion has the fortitude to fight.  He does not ask them to be heroes for their kingdom, but to just be men and fight for their rights. The context of his speech was relevant to the people, empowering them to fight for their interests rather than the interests of their king. There are moments when Tyrion allows himself to absorb the positive reaction of the crowd. Their strong response is a sign of an effective speech. Tyrion’s speech infers emotion and personal understanding of their feelings. At the end of his speech, Tyrion declares, “Let’s go kill them,” as a unified call to action. A unified cause to fight the war.

-Janice Mae Clavo