Meizi Li
HUC108
Professor Gardner
September 22, 2008
Let me tell you one amazing thing happened to me. I speak better Chinese and
Korean since I come to United State.
I am very glad that I have this opportunity to share my communication skills
with you. Today, I want you to know I speak two languages and how those influence me
in communication skills, and also I am good at visual delivery and I feel confident when I
make speeches if I practiced. However, there are few places I should improve as soon as
possible especially my English skills which I want to improve from taking this course.
Let me introduce myself first. I come from Shenyang China. I am Korean
nationality in China. In all of my schools including primary school, middle school and
high school, teach two languages at the same time. When I was in China, I only
communicate with those people who can speak two languages and sometimes we mixed
up those two languages. For example, in one sentence, generally, we speak Korean, but
some words, we use Chinese. It makes me feel uncomfortable when I speak in one
language without another involved. When I came to united state, there are not so many
people speak both Chinese and Korean. I practiced Chinese and Korean well here by
communicating Chinese people and Korean people. Why I talked about so many things
about my languages is because I realized that how it influenced me in communication.
Speaking two languages always make me have more opportunities to communicate with
people.
Come to America to study was my dream since I was a middle school student.
I asked to study aboard to my family, they disagreed because they just could not leave me
alone in another country. Finally, I made deal with them that come to America after I
graduate from high school. Why I choose to study aboard and choose America to study,
is because of the studying systems are very different. I think American education is better
than Chinese education in many fields. For example, in China, we do not do presentation
as much as American students do. I realized that communication skill is very important
when studying in America. America colleges have a lot of presentation and group
working from where required good communication skills. I had very hard time with my
first presentation in my old school in Michigan. I think I am very strong in visual delivery
especially in eye contact. I practiced eye contacts a lot when I prepare to get American
visa. My teacher told me it would be helpful to get visa, and truth proved that my teacher
was right. I got the visa at the first interview.
My weakness of communication skills are basically on the language. I am
not master English better than anyone of here especially in pronunciation. It is hard for
me to use appropriate technical language to explain clearly. I feel confident when I
prepared, when I practiced, but when I make conversations with people in English, I
always worry about my grammar and pronunciation. I want to improve my English skills
not only by taking this class, but also by everything I experience in New York when I talk
to people in English.
My communication skill had improved a lot since I come to United State. I
have been taking classes in Michigan State for one and half year. After that, I have no
problem with writing emails and memos, and familiar with making an informative or
persuasive speech. However, there are also lots of places I can improve my skills such as
understanding the problem, reading and writing effectively and built confidence when I
talk to people. Not being master in English makes a lot of problems when I communicate
with people. From this class, I want to improve my English skills in many fields such as
choosing appropriate words either when I make speeches or talking people so that I can
be easily be part of a project team, and meeting with a high ranking official at my
company or college.
In conclusion, I introduced myself as a bilingual person, and my strength in
communication is visual delivery especially make eye contacts, my weakness is English.
I want to improve my English skills from taking this course. There might few weaknesses
in my communication skills need to be discovered in the future by taking this course too.