To: Professor Blackstone
From: Siti Nadiah Senin
Date: January 21, 2019
Subject: Self Introduction
Subject: Self Introduction
Dear Professor Blackstone
I am writing you this email with the intent of introducing myself. My name is Siti Nadiah Binte Senin, a year two undergraduate in the hospitality business programme at Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). Prior to joining SIT, I graduated from Temasek Polytechnic (TP) with a diploma in aviation management and services. During my final year in TP, I had an internship experience with Changi Airports International in their Airport Operations department.
Upon graduation, I took a gap year, during where I immersed myself in several voluntary works. These include leading a group for humanitarian trips to Jordan and Aceh. I also organised talks and camps for youths between the ages of 10 and 25. Last year, I had another internship experience with AUX Media as an events assistant as part of my industry attachment.
Over the years, I realised that communicating with strangers makes me feel anxious and less confident. I tend to stumble over my words and avoid making eye contact throughout the conversation. On the other hand, I am a good listener for my friends as they are able to share with me about anything. Most of the time, I am able to understand the message that they are trying to convey and give appropriate responses.
By the end of this module, I hope to master more communication or workplace skills which can assist me during my upcoming internship. With more guidance and practice each week, I also hope to overcome my shortcomings and become a more confident individual during my conversations with others.
I look forward to attending your class for the upcoming weeks.
Thank you.
Best regards
Siti Nadiah Senin
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Edited as of 19 February 2019
Commented on:
Zakiyah
Afifah
Carolyn
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Edited as of 19 February 2019
Commented on:
Zakiyah
Afifah
Carolyn
Dear Nadiah,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your self-introduction. I think your writing is very concise and organized with consistent language. However, kindly allow me to correct the sentence of "between the ages of 10 to 25" to "between the ages of 10 and 25".
It will be great if you could share more about the humanitarian trip with me as I will be very interested to listen!
See you in class!
Best regards,
Shu Ling
Hi Shu Ling,
DeleteThank you for spotting the mistake. I am more than glad and willing to share my experiences with you. I look forward to communicating more with you in class. Maybe we can even know more about each other by the end of this trimester. See you in class!
Hi Nadiah. It is refreshing to know that you are passionate about volunteer work. It is not often that I hear of someone who would rather spend their free time volunteering to help others. The last time I volunteered was back in secondary school. I visited an old folk’s home with my Girl Guides CCA. It was an interesting experience which resulted in me having a greater appreciation for my grandparents. It has been years since I last volunteered. Would it be possible to share with me any upcoming volunteer initiatives you might come across in the future? I look forward to hearing from you.
ReplyDeleteHi Afifah!
DeleteI started getting interested in volunteer work as my friends were there with me during the start of my journey. They made everything that we did back then more interesting. If you're interested, I suggest you to ask along a group of your friends to volunteer together for an initiative. Start somewhere and you'll soon love volunteering in no time!
Hello Nadiah,
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading your blog! It is impressive that you have worked in Changi Airports International, I am always interested to learn about air operation and I hope I am able to learn from you! Similarly, I would get anxious while speaking to people I am unfamiliar with because I find them intimidating however, lets continue to learn and improve our communication skills together! I look forward to seeing you in class.
Hi Cheryl,
DeleteI'm glad you enjoyed my writing. I didn't know you're interested in the aviation sector as well. I feel slightly better now that I know I'm not the only one feeling anxious while communicating with other people. We should strive to get rid of this feeling and be more confident by the end of this trimester. After talking to you the other day, I'm also sure you're more than capable of doing so. See you in class!
Dear Nadiah,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this informative letter. I appreciate how you have covered the scope of the assignment, but I feel that you just skimmed the surface in terms of providing concrete deatils.
I'm particularly interested to know more regarding your gap year experience and your leading humanitarian trips to Aceh and Jordan. What did you focus on? What was involved in setting up the camps? How did you engage the students you worked with? Was communication ever an issue?
For your strengths and weaknesses in communicating, you have given some detail but that could have been expanded with an explanation or two about the contexts as well. When you went abroad, you must have been dealing with strangers, often with people who didn't speak English or Malay. Did that seem difficult at first? How did you bridge the gap between your shyness and the reality of leading camps for kids you didn't know? What about language use?
In terms of your communication, we will work this trimester on many facets, including refining writing skills. For this letter, you do a great job showing a clear command of English. However, you might consider these minor points:
1. sentence structure
-- I took a gap year where I immersed myself > I took a gap year, during where I immersed myself
-- Some of which include leading a group for humanitarian trips to Jordan and Aceh. > (fragment)
I look forward to learning more about you, and from you, this term.
Best wishes,
Brad
Dear Professor Blackstone,
DeleteFirst and foremost, I apologise for the late reply. I’m surprised that my involvement in voluntary works had garnered attention from yourself and several other classmates as well. During the humanitarian trips, my team and I focused mainly on improving the living conditions of the people there. For example, we revamped a boarding school at Aceh and built a water filtration system for the students there. We had also collected funds to provide basic necessities for the Syrian refugees living at Jordan. This include food, drinks, clothes and blankets as it was the winter season when we went.
When I was at Aceh, communication was not an issue as we could understand each other’s languages which are similar. It was also easier engaging them as they were only children of ages below twenty. On the other hand, communication with the people at Jordan was harder as I could not speak Arabic and they could not understand English. The refugees were also mostly adults, which made me anxious each time I had to converse with them. Thankfully, being with my friends who could also speak Arabic helped to ease my duties there.
Finally, I had been organising camps and talks for youths for a few years now. I believe these experiences have helped me in becoming more confident when speaking in front of a huge crowd. That being said, I still feel the jitters each time I had to make new friends while being in a new environment. A perfect example is the recent orientation camp before entering the university.
I hope this clarifies all the questions you had for me. Your lessons had been interesting for the past few weeks and I definitely look forward to the next few weeks of class.
Best regards,
Siti Nadiah
Thank you, Nadiah, for the detailed answer. I appreciate your sharing in response to my questions. Now your level of confidence and fine delivery in the final presentation all make perfect sense. You are very admirable, indeed! Keep up the great level of community enegagement, abroad and in Singapore.
ReplyDelete