Strong recommendation: Undercover Boss

I found this American Show randomly from a magazine.
In this show, all the CEO or COO of the American giant companies will be undercovered inside his/her own company. They all do the executive work which earns little but physically and mentally demanding in a week, they rotate around the whole country and see both the good and the bad side of their comapnies. They discover the undercover heroes who help them run their companies successfully, they also find how influenced they are that a small policy may make their employees' life miserable.
I have been gone through all the episodes of this TV show. It makes me laugh and cry at the same time. The main actors for me in this show are not the CEOs, but the tiny people who have little power at hand but treat their jobs very seriously and very respectfully. They vividly taught me three words I may keep in my mind as long as I could.
Respect. We all want to pursue a career which we have a great interest, regardless we are interested in money it brings to us or anything else. However, when life comes to a point that what you do is just for survive, will you be as cheerful as you could to face a struggling and tired new day? I could not promise I could do it. But, these people, who may be working in the theme park earning 8 dollars an hour who does not know how to pay for her daughter's tuition fee this coming fall, who may be working in the hotel and was kicked out by her parents because of teenage pregnancy, who has been working 40 hours per week since 14 to pay for his college fee, they still be as cheerful as they can, bringing joyness to the people around them, respecting their jobs and their money earned from the companies. Their respect to their jobs and their life touched me deeply.  They may be tiny in the world, but they are really strong in their life.
Faith. This is common in all the good workers in this TV show. Regardless how hard the work is, they still have faith in their life. They do not complain about unfairness, they have a faith they will finally achieve their goals and live a life they like. A 7-11 boy knows he will not do this forever, he want to help his poor people in Pakistan; a young lady lost her daughter when the pretty angel was nine, she moves on and knows she has gone through the worst part in her life and nothing will let her down. A guy in his 50s gets only 50 bucks in his pocket when he landed in America but survived since then. He believed "This is America. Anything can happen here." Although he does a night shift work and only sees his family at weekend. No complain, no exhausting feeling, just faith, in everything.
Love. Every kind of love you could think about. Life may be miserable at this point of time, as long as you get the love from your friends, your family, your staff, you will be better, at least mentally. For all these people doing their job excellent even as a plump worker, love is the thing support them all through the way.
In the end of every show, the bosses will show their true identities. The one week experience almost changed everybody involved in this show. Maybe it is a bit like a kind of advertisement for the companies, but, I believe, for every single drop of the tears the bosses have in this show, is true, not superficial. I could not summarize hundreds of the examples in such a short blog, if you get time, you can just sit down and enjoy the shows. You may not cry as almost every CEO in this show does, but you will definitely be touched by them.

In the end, good luck to Daniel's interview in Credit Swiss tomorrow~

A deadly kiss~~Edited

Intercultural communication is important in today's diverse world, as it is in a multicultural university environment such as NUS. Common miscommunications occur when individuals are not aware of each other's culture. This can cause conflict and hard feelings. In 2006, the plane brought me onto this island where I had to face different cultures. I have become more open to different cultural traditions and norms. However, sometimes I can still feel the culture shock when the westerners, especially French in this specific case, behaved very differently according to the oriental understanding. 

About two years ago, there was an event conducted by NUS Office of Student Affairs. It was an international student event which took place in NUS campus, and you could get the chance to interact with people from different nations. I enjoyed the whole process; I talked with different people, coming from Australia, France, Canada, Laos, and of course, China. At the end of the event, people waived their hands to say goodbye to each other. At the point of time, our two emcees appeared on our stage. A pretty Indian girl in Sari was waving her hands to say goodbye to a group of students from France. However, the French guys seemed unsatisfied by simply waving hands. A blond guy stepped out of his group of friends and kissed the Indian girl to say goodbye ( cheek kissing) !!! The Indian girl was shocked, pushed the guy away and stared at him fiercely. The poor blond guy puzzled and was confused about what happened at that moment. 

I, as an observer and a passer-by, could deeply understand both sides. In the girl's perspective, the guy's behavior was seriously offending her and she could not understand how he dared kissing her-- just a stranger who met each other at the very first time! In the guy's point of view,  the fierce staring from the girl scared him but his act was extremely normal according to the French society. Neither side was wrong, but neither side reacted appropriately.  I was slightly shocked by the outcome of the friendly kiss, it seriously damaged the friendly atmosphere we had just created. Goodbye kiss is not wrong, but, cheek kissing killed their friendship and connection. However, in this situation, I thought I might not push the innocent away, but I might feel as shocked and uncomfortable as the girl did.

This is just a drop of water in the sea. It is important to understand the cultural norms of each other to be avoid intercultural conflicts. Training and knowledge are important ways to resolve these problems and prevent these problems from occurring again.

Shell Internship Application letter

Sun Yitong
Kuok Foundation House #713
21 Lower Kent Ridge Crescent
Singapore 119280
August 2010
Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd
Shell House
83 Clemenceau Avenue
#02-00 Singapore 239922
I am writing this letter to apply for the post of intern at your company. I am currently a third year undergraduate at National University of Singapore (NUS), majoring in Chemical Engineering. I would very like to be a part of Shell, one of the energy giants, and gain valuable insights into it. In particular, Shell’s continuous effort to contribute to sustainable development truly inspires me and the corporation value will align with my interest and value.
I am a fast learner who excels in Chemical Engineering, currently I am holding the Singapore Ministry of Education Scholarship which would offer to the top 10% students from China. My strong academic performance has laid a solid foundation for me to pursue an excellent career path in Shell.
Moreover, I have a strong interest in industrial finance. I am currently pursuing ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and have completed the fundamental level. Through the self-learning process, I got the ability to handle the multi-tasks within a very limited time; besides, I got a chance to gain a broader knowledge about the global accounting system which could help me along my future career path within industrial finance.
My past internship experience provided me relevant experience. During my internship with Bank of China, I was assigned to design PowerPoint presentations, to reconcile and to maintain balance sheet accounts, and conduct general ledger operations; this provided me an overview of real working life and helped me gain interpersonal skills. Therefore, I believe that my experience and capability will meet Shell’s value and standard.
Please find the enclosed resume with further details of my background. Please do not hesitate to contact me at sun_yitong@live.com. I look forward to discuss with you face to face one day.
Thank you very much for your attention and consideration.
Best regards,
Sun Yitong

Resolving interpersonal conflict

Conflict between people is a fact of life – and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Conflicts occur at all levels of interaction – at work, among friends, within families and between relationship partners. When conflict occurs, the relationship may be weakened or strengthened. Whether a relationship is healthy or unhealthy depends not so much on the number of conflicts between participants, but on how the conflicts are resolved.

Below I will describe the context of a conflict, including the people involved, the main problem, and the causes. Whether it is real or I will save the answer till the end.

There are two main characters in this context, a girl named Eva and a boy named Steven. They had been a couple for more than a year. They did everything together: as they were in the same major, they studied together; as they were in the same CCAs, they did activities together; as they stayed in the same hall, they went back to their own places together. They seemed to be an ideal couple in everybody's mind. When looking at them, "break up" would be the last phrase you would think about. However, within these two young people, a conflict existed from the very beginning of their relationship. The girl have the doubt whether the boy totally got out from the previous relationship and she even doubted whether the guy was very into her. The boy was a gentleman, in her mind, she was just a part that the guy could show his gentle to the rest, but not a lover.

However, she was a person avoided the existence of conflict. They never talked about this issue and the girl never mentioned about her doubt to Steven. She just used her talent about speculation to try to see how much he loved herself. Unfortunately, in this case, the conflict often lingered in the background during interaction between the participants and created the potential for further tension and even more conflict.

After the winter vacation, several days after they returned to the school. They suddenly did not speak with each other any more. No emails, no explanation, no SMS, no calls, the only thing the girl wanted was to break up with Steven. She was tired of the speculation and finally she did not have any feeling about him. She was exhausted in this relationship. No matter what the poor guy did to keep her at his side, she just wanted to escape from him. There seems no interpersonal conflict at surface, but there is a big conflict in their heart. The personality of the girl causes her avoidance of talking about the problem, the carelessness of the guy causes his ignorance of the problem. However, does it mean for every relationship which get doubt at the beginning must end in such a silent and sad way? Aren't there some possible good solutions for this intra-interpersonal conflict?

Eva and Steven could use some effective communication skills to solve the problems. They could try to put themselves into the shoes of the other person. See the world through their eyes. This gives the message that you understand what the other is trying to say. Alternatively, Steven can ask gentle, probing questions about what Eva is thinking and feeling. Encourage her to talk fully about what is on her mind.  Anything is better than a quiet, and sad break up. My question is: If you were one of the two characters in the story, what are you going to do?

In the end, my characters are hypothetical, however, the story was real.........

Why effective communications are so important to me?

According to Warren Buffett, “Your ability to convey your ideas to others will be an enormous determinant to your success". In my opinion, communication, as an act of exchanging information or instance of transmitting, is the key to a successful career and its wide implications made it crucial in our daily life.


Blogs, emails, phone calls, talks, classes…communication is everywhere in our society. The way I communicate with the others identifies who I am in this world. Rich communication skills could help me build a more accurate social status and to be better understood by the others. The effectiveness of communication is also a reflection of my interpersonal skills; this would help me build a stronger connection with my beloved ones, my respected ones and my idolized ones. Without a shadow of doubt, expertise in communication could make me optimist.

As a student with a major in engineering, although formulas and designs are my main tools to accomplish my workload, effective communication skills are considered more essential than either technical knowledge or computer skills. I obtained these new perspectives after several problems that occurred during my studies.

Conflicts during group meetings, especially while doing academic projects, seem to be unavoidable due to misleading communications between members. Ineffective communications may frequently cause discomfort after each meeting. The concept of win-win negotiation and the useful methods of communication are very poorly adapted. Most of our efforts have been wasted on solving interpersonal relationship problems rather than doing the real work. Therefore, at this point of time, I realized that adequate communication is the cornerstone of success, regardless the kind of work you are doing.

Therefore, whether in work, daily routine or personal life; the importance of communication skills should not be underestimated.