Reflections of our Group Project

During the course of my project work, it was my first time working with foreign students whose grasps of English were weak. It was definitely challenging because of the language barrier and we could not understand each other’s ideas and wants clearly. Our styles of communication were also different. I am used to being indirect and instead of directly challenging another person’s views or making an outright request for something to be changed, I would pose it in form of a question. Usually, one would realize what I was getting at and correct the problem at hand. This ranged from basic things like getting on the same page of things during a group discussion, to more tricky issues like trying to explain to someone how his work was not up to standard. However, I soon realized that the subtlety is lost if one’s language skills is weak, because they would only get the superficial meaning of what I asked. Soon, I found it more effective to pose direct requests and things speeded up from there, as we understood each other much better.

Patience is also key, especially when working with someone from a different cultural background. Often much easier said than done, it is unfair to one if s/he is disadvantaged because of his/her weak language skills. It is not one’s fault if English is not one’s native tongue (and it’s such a culturally imperialistic mindset to think otherwise). So as stronger speakers, we should always empathize, be more encouraging and always give positive recognition for every small effort or improvement. Doing so really went a long way in boosting my teammate’s confidence. This also proved to be the critical point, as productivity really spiked when I was more patient and I could see him putting in more effort to speak English too. Indeed, constant encouragement is key in motivating someone to speak regularly in a foreign tongue.

Besides linguistic challenges, another huge obstacle was that our project was based on a local problem. Naturally, as a foreigner who has been in Singapore for only half a year, his would not have as much depth of the insight into things as what locals have. In light of this, I initially allocated him more tasks that were either simpler or at most design-related, as that was his forte. I had the wrong mindset that this project is language-intensive and would be out of his reach. However, this proved to be counter-intuitive because he felt that I did not trust enough and thus, did not put in much effort too. However, this changed 360 degrees when I delegated significant responsibilities to him, like report writing and data analyses. It was after that that I could really see his interest and drive to excel spike.

Therefore, when managing people, while it is natural for us to feel insecure delegating responsibilities to people, I leant how to rein in my insecurity and be more trusting. This includes listening to someone else’s ideas more, even if they were poorly expressed, and let someone take on greater responsibility right from the start. This trust is critical in forming good working relationships and this recognition and indirect affirmation of someone’s abilities is often what kick starts in one the drive to perform and excel.

However, whilst recognizing this, I also have to be realistic about the task’s demands and deadlines. We were lucky to be given six weeks to work on a project and this gave us ample time to figure out what we wanted, consultatively. It also gave us allowance and space to experiment with some ideas, even if it might not be the best ones. In the workplace, deadlines would be much tighter and if one’s language or communication skills are weak, people would have no patience for you nor would they trust you with responsibilities since you cannot even prove yourself linguistically. Therefore, it is important that we communicate well.

Thus, knowing that our workplace would be globalized in the future, this experience has definitely taught me how to empathize better and communicate in ways that respects and not undermine, regardless of one’s cultural background.