Post #2: Vacation Trip

Amy, Nancy, Emily, and Emma are good friends, and they decided to go on a summer trip to America.

Amy is very eager to go travelling around the U.S.A, and she has been Planning for this trip for a long time. She plans to go to New York, Boston, Washington and Philadelphia. Those are the cities that she always dreamt of going, especially New York. Amy is keen to spend a nice night watching a Broadway show. Also, she wants to go to a lot of other famous places in New York, such as the Wall Street which is the financial centre of the world. Since New York is such a dynamic city, Amy plans to spend 4 days there to have a whole view of the city.

However, during the discussion, Amy finds out that Nancy prefers to go to the western side of America. Nancy believes that cities like Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles are more interesting, and she is yearning to take a look at the Hollywood and Grand Canyon.

Since Emily and Emma do not have strong preferences, Amy feels that the discussion is going on Nancy’s way. Amy is not happy about the discussion. Though she really wants to travel with her friends instead of going alone, she still doesn’t want to lose the chance of going to her favourite places. Moreover, going to both of the western and eastern sides of America is not realistic due to the budget constraint.

So how are you going to resolve this conflict? (You can give your opinion as an outsider, or what will you do if you are one of them?)

Post #1: Effective Communication Skills

As the old cliché goes, "no man is an island." This means that we need to communicate with other people, and I am no exception. In daily life, I need to communicate with my parents and friends, and as an undergraduate student, I also need to communicate with my lecturers, tutors, and classmates. Therefore, effective communication skills are definitely very important for me.

First of all, good relationships with family members and friends require effective communication skills. For instance, I call my parents every week to share the recent developments of each other, and sometimes we have video chat. The supports from them make me to have the strength and courage to overcome difficulties and challenges. Similarly, good communication between friends makes our friendship to last long.

At the same time, effective communication skills can also help me to learn better. For example, during classes, active listening enables me to understand what the lecturers are talking about, and what the key points are. Another example is group projects which require several people to work together. Hence, how to communicate with the group mates becomes crucial in this case, as I can never do a good job only by myself. I always need to discuss and cooperate with my group mates, and sometimes I also need to consult lecturers and tutors on the projects. Obviously, effective communication skills can improve the team’s productiveness, so that a good project can be achieved.

In a nutshell, effective communication skills are essential in the daily life. Hence, I hope that I can improve my communication skills through this course.