Wiki Miscommunication?

A damn good example why we should have our blogging buddies look through our work before we publish them for the world to see. You might just become the joke of the day. While doing some research for my marketing tutorial, I came across this and spotted something super hilarious. Please visit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_perceived_value

to find out what is so amusingly wrong before they correct it. To give you a hint, it's under the example section and it says "Assume the cost of producing a l***i** (cost to manufacture) is C1..." For those unpolluted minds, if you don't get what's so funny, ask me in private (:

What You Said Might Not Be What He Heard!

On the MSN just before the school term began,

Andy: Hey Trina what breadth module are you taking this coming semester?

Trina: ^$%@#!&*

Andy: What a coincidence! I am taking ^$%@#!&* as well! We will see each other in class then!

Trina: That's great! See you around then.

At the first ^$%@#!&* lecture, the students were told that they would be required to form groups of 3-5 people for projects. Trina had taken this module together with some of her friends and they naturally decided to form a group. However, for some reason, Andy felt that Trina should join his group instead and so he approached her. Trina kindly declined (more than once in fact) and told him that she had already agreed to join her friends. Not wanting to give up, Andy decided to take the matter into his own hands.

One fine day when Trina was not with her friends,

Andy: Hey guys, Trina might not be joining your group! She had asked me to take this module with her before school started and we need a girl to be on our group to have different perspectives. Therefore, she should really join my group instead!

Trina's friends were utterly confused and told her to sort things out with Andy as soon as possible. Upon hearing the incident, Trina got really furious and decided to make things clear to Andy.

Trina: Sorry Andy, I cannot do the project with you!

Andy: What?! But you were the one who................

The scenario above is a real situation which happened to a friend of mine. No matter how I look at it, the guy was largely at fault for having made the assumption (based on the MSN conversation they had) that Trina was "asking" him to take the module with her. And to make things worse, he even approached Trina's friends and said those stuff behind her back. To Andy, he probably felt that Trina "betrayed" him because she refused to join his project group. However, it is very mind-boggling how he arrived at the conclusion that Trina was asking him to take the module with her in the first place. To Trina, she was probably feeling amused and annoyed at the same time (in fact she was)! She tried to be tactful in declining Andy's kind offers but he could not get the hint and the whole miscommunication escalated to another level which ultimately involved Trina's friends. Although her friends were confused, they did not take Andy's words as they were and instead, asked Trina to settle the problem herself which was probably the best solution. Of course the story did not have a happy ending...

So, here are the questions: How should Andy have approached this issue and how should Trina have responded to his first offer had she wanted to prevent what happened after that? And now that things have turned ugly, what can the both of them do to salvage the friendship?

P.S. ASSUME = Making An ASS Out of U and ME (So always remember, don't assume!)

Without Words...

Wall.E is coming up. It's gonna be a great movie with minimum words. Be amazed at how expressive Wall.E can be without speaking a word! So can Mr Bean (-_-"). This proves that the gist of effective communication might not lie in the use of words in contrary to what many people believe! From the trailer alone, I can say that Wall.E is able to act and express himself much better than some of the human actors! Besides that, the saying "a picture says a thousand words" pretty much suggests that words just ain't everything! Since communication is possible without words, language should not be a great barrier! On your next visit to a foreign country where neither English nor Mandarin are spoken, try communicating more with the local people! If you just put in enough effort, you will be amazed at how much you can put across!

Talking = Communicating?

Talking can be one-way, conversing is merely the exchanging of words between 2 or more parties, communication is the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs, between 2 or more parties (as defined by www.dictionary.com).

At the age of 23, I have already witnessed and experienced for myself, a fair share of the dire consequences of bad communication, miscommunication, and worst of all, no communication. Communication is important to me in every aspect of life. From the simple ordering of a bowl of Dumpling Noodle at the Science Canteen during my lunch hours, to the meetings with potential sponsors and clients for some of my school projects, miscommunication is the way to ruin my day! Or lunch!

At different stages in life, you will need to communicate effectively for different purposes with different people, be it your family, your peers or your colleagues. Communicating effectively is important to me because during a discussion or argument, every party needs to comprehend very clearly each others' stands and reasons, and vice versa, in order to make meaningful and constructive exchange of ideas and information. It is not just about knowing what someone is thinking, but how and why one has such opinions and perspectives. It can be due to his family background, his culture and of course, his upbringing. It is only through effective communication, will one be able to extract such important and crucial information from a conversation, and arrive at a sound, justified and hopefully, a peaceful conclusion.

So everyone, stop talking! Let's communicate!