Hassim Post-01

Hassim Ali 
SPC1017 

Hassim Ali – Draft: 

-Experience working with other people 

-Experience with own pages and concepts 

-Experience putting it together and practicing for the presentation 

 

Hassim Ali – Post 01: 

  “Overall, my experience with group one on the presentation about intercultural barriers was helpful and constructive as I got to study the material needed, draw conclusions from it, and rehearse my part of the speech. At the beginning, I was not sure what to expect when I first heard of the group project, but after hearing it explained part by part, I felt more confident and clearer about what is expected of me and my groupmates. The beginning was quite smooth as my groupmates, and I were able to establish a common platform for communication via WhatsApp and split each page and topic among ourselves. Someone in the group also had opened a common presentation template for us to insert our slides, which allowed everyone to see who was not ready yet, halfway ready, or fully ready for the presentations. Working with group one has been cooperative and seamless as I feel that we established what was expected of us within our parts and worked to fulfill our parts together. The groupmates and group leaders were also readily available for any questions or suggestions when needed, so that was much appreciated. Thus, working with this group on the first project was quite successful and well-coordinated. 

     As far as my own work in the project is concerned, Ifound it to be quite manageable, as I was able to summarize my understanding of the concepts within three slides. When I read my pages for the first time, I had to re-read it a couple of times to really understand how countries with long-term-oriented and short-term-oriented cultures differ from each other. I also did search for some examples of each culture to gain a better idea of how different they are from each other. I felt like I understood the concept of indulgence much better and could relate more of my own understanding of differences between American culture and values from other countries and their values. I also felt this way, coming into the concepts about breaking through cultural barriers and what could cause those barriers or how they could occur. Thus, I was able to summarize the important points of the topics, but also draw from my own relation and how I understood them in the slides as well. I was able to find the right images I needed to help convey the ideas behind them, and make sure to balance my slides with enough professionalism and actual substance to my content, with also having a bit of fun with it. As far as my understanding and relation to the concepts of my presentation, I understood most of the topics well enough to summarize it concisely and carry that same insight to the audience. 

  The last notable part of the project for me involved the actual speech preparation. Note that I haven’t been someone that found public speaking to be simple or effortless for me, as socializing was quite tough for me, let alone, so the thought of speaking in front of several people always had worried me. Overtime though, I came to feel less nervous about the thought of public speaking and managed to curb it with some of my own techniques which I used for this project. For one, I always started by making sure I knew and understood what I was presenting about. Once I did, I would move along to making note cards which had small details of my summaries, essentially about the specific statements and examples I would mention that may not be on the PowerPoint slides. I do not fill out the whole note card but instead write out key words and phrases for me to discuss but also not linger too long on a certain topic either. I would then ensure that I rehearse from the note cards long enough that I would be able to speak about it comfortably and naturally in front of people. Once I was able to successfully commit most of my speech to memory, or at least the main points and examples, I would then practice presenting my part of the speech to a family member or friend and see what they would think about it. I would ask them if I seemed nervous, if I talked too fast, or if I seemed to have stalled too long or even use filler words. On presentation day, I would often take a deep breath, and pretend as though I was presenting to friends or family members or even try pretending as though there was no one in the zoom meeting, except myself and speak on freely. Keeping pace has also been quite important for me, and I try to keep note of how much time I take up. The last part of my spoken presentation would be about how I introduce and conclude the topic, as I make sure to tie in the main points from the introduction or try to refer to it during the conclusion. All in all, preparing for the spoken part of the presentation may have been a bit nerving to think about at first, but with much time and self-management, I felt more confident and well-prepared to present by the end. 

  To conclude, working on this project about intercultural barriers did enlighten me some more about different cultures, and how important it is to be cognizant of other customs and values, though we may not agree with them, but should acknowledge that sometimes our way is not always the best way or the only way. Reading through the chapter made me think about some of our own American customs and how it may be interpreted in different countries, from topics like masculinity and racial matters to understanding the importance of work ethic and duty in other parts of the world. Working on this project has been informative, seamless, and very well-executed from beginning to end. That is my reflection of group project in my perspective.”