During my stint with LTA, I was given the opportunity to work with contractors coming from various countries, such as Germany, Spain, China, and Singapore. On one occasion, I was tasked to lead a project that involves me to coordinate an integrated test which requires the participation of all contractors. I held a meeting with all participating contractors and subsequently wrote the minutes of the meeting. Halfway through the project, I started to realise that all the contractors had a different understanding of how the test is going to be conducted. My project manager had to step up and assist in resolving all misunderstandings. After gathering feedback from all the contractors, I found out that the misunderstanding was due to the way the minutes of the meeting had been written. I was embarrassed and shocked to realise that what I had written in a language that I was taught from young was the cause of all misunderstandings.
It dawned on me that while working with people from so many different countries, we have to rely heavily on the English Language to communicate. The English Language may not be the most spoken language around the world, but it definitely is the most common language that people will use to communicate on a regular basis, be it written or spoken. Therefore, in order to be able to communicate better with people around the world, a good command of English is required.
Till today, I still find the English Language fascinating and there is still so much to learn about it. I will continue to get to know the language better and hone my skills in the English Language.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFrom Veronica's blog post I can relate to the importance of English in the working society .As I had gone through my six-months internship before in an engineering company, English is a common language we used to communicate with our boss, colleagues, suppliers, contractors and clients.
ReplyDeleteWithout having a good command of English, the possibility of securing the project for the company is very low.In addition, English is not just about communicating with each other, it is also about your ability in your writing skills. An example would be Veronica's minutes of the meeting. This minutes of meeting was shared among three countries which were, China, Germany and Spain. As you can tell from these 3 countries their first language is not English. Therefore, their understanding of English could be different with each other.
In conclusion, I feel that Veronica has the desire to learn and improve on her verbal or writing skills and not commit on the past mistakes. This will definitely be an advantage for her when she joins back into the working force.
Based on Veronica's situation, I can understand how important English language can be. Being able to understand is not good enough in a working society, we must be able to deliver the message well too. It is a good blog post on her opinion about the importance of English. for me, i think that she being able to know where she done wrong and how to improve is very impressive.
ReplyDeleteHi Veronica,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your real life work experience with us. It sure was enriching and it made me recall the many experiences I have been through while interning at Keppel. I feel that when it comes to contractors from different country, we ought to include graphics and even video playbacks to allow them to have a clearer picture upon what is it that you are going to do.
All in all, I feel that it was well written and gave us the reader a clear example on why is it utterly important to have a good command of english :)
Kudos to a job well done :) (Y)