REFLECTIVE WRITING

NAME : VINAYAGI A/P SELVAM

MATRIC NO : A140586
An event that I had difficulty in communication skills is during our CHC
group visit to organization called Beautiful Gate Foundation at 29, Jalan SS2/59, 47300
Petaling Jaya, Selangor. We went to the visit on 20
th
March 2014.We moved from UKM KL
campus at around 12pm.We managed to reach there at 2pm.I had difficulty in communicating
with the authority of Beautiful Gate Foundation. Our conversation is mainly about if our
patient can join their organization to learn hand phone repairing skills or any other computer
skills. During the conversation, I felt lost because unable to continue the conversation, few of
my team members also experienced the same thing. We were expected to ask them questions.
But, we were unclear of what to ask them.
This incident arises because of the Beautiful Gate Foundation authorities are mainly
of Chinese community. They were very fluent in Chinese and they prefer to talk in Chinese
as well. However, they able to answer in English but they were not as fluent as their Chinese.
In this situation, my Chinese friends in the CHC group helped us to translate everything told
by the authority. We did experience difficulty in describing some of the medical terms
regarding our patients condition. The one we had difficulty to explain was colostomy.
Somehow, our Chinese team member explained it in Chinese language. Anyhow, this
situation arises due to language barrier.
When I realise the authority does not understand what I meant, I immediately ask my
friend Sherlyn Lai, who is a Chinese and able to well converse in Chinese language. I believe
this action helps us to ensure the conversation kept going. However, their body languages
were showed some uncomfortable feeling when I tried to seek help from my friend. At that
moment, I was confused whether my gesture was wrong or does not show me as a
professional. But at that moment, it was the only way to keep the conversation keep going.
All of us were lost when they questioned about our patient. It showed that we were not very
particular regarding our patient and not well prepared. Somehow, we managed to get further
information about our patient through phone calls. We did not prepare regarding questions to
be asked to authority, so at some point of our conversations, people from authority were
waiting for us to continue the conversation.
From this incident, I learnt that it is always good to have multiracial members in a
group. It has many advantages. It is always good to learn a new language. Since Chinese
community being the second largest population in Malaysia, it is good to learn the Chinese
language. It might be helpful when Im practicing medicine in future, especially when I take
history of the patient. I believe my communication skill is good. My strength is I able to
come out different types of questions to keep the conversation going. I was daring enough to
question to all my doubts regarding the organization. I believe it was because my eagerness to
help our patient. But, my weakness is I made the authority people to feel uncomfortable.
Another weakness is I do not know to converse in Chinese language. I made the conversation
too serious as I do not know how to make it into a more cheerful conversation. In this
situation, the unexpected result was when they felt uncomfortable. Maybe they are
uncomfortable because they feel shy because they are not really fluent in English .However, I
feel if I was able to make the conversation not too formal, I could have overcome that
awkward situation.
In term of improving my communication skills, I decided to train myself to talk more
cheerfully and avoid talking too formal like a robot. I realise in real life people will feel
uncomfortable when we do so, and they are not really giving all the information needed as
they feel it so awkward. In future, as a future physician, I believe talking cheerfully will help
me to get a better history of patient and they dont feel it awkward. So, I should not talk like a
robot and must get some touch besides improving my communication skills in order to
become a good doctor.