Losing that 10%

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.

The importance of communication skill

The other day, saya tengah browse Linkedin dan ternampak satu post tentang kepentingan Communication Skill. From there, my mind travelled back ke tahun pertama degree saya di USM. Anyway, before we go there, my humble opinion tentang communication skill ni penting sangat! Not only for career purpose, also for our self-growth and personality. Dulu saya sangatlah stress dan tak suka kena present, sekarang pun masih tak suka haha! Kadang-kadang saya fikir, kalau lah dulu tak biasa buat presentation, mesti saya tak boleh nak build keyakinan diri. Mesti tak boleh nak kawal perasaan nervous or stage fright dengan baik 😅

Berbalik kepada ceritanya hehe, masa saya buat degree di USM dulu, I was majoring in English for Professionals (EfP) & minoring in Communicative Arabic. By course nature memang selalu ada presentation, groupwork, paired assignment etc. Penat juga nak ligan deadline. It was the busiest phase of my life up to date bila difikir-fikirkan semula. Tapi paling seronok lah for me! Gelabah all the time. Pagi-pagi dah fikir hari ini nak pakai baju apa yang sesuai for presentation lepastu sambil tunggu bas datang, fikir lagi nak present macamana? Not to mention, all the rehearsals depan cermin while memorizing the script. Dalam satu minggu tu paling-paling tidak, 2 or 3 kali kena present, and I lowkey missing that! 😁

An unfortunate presentation

So dalam entry ni, saya nak cerita an unfortunate experience that I went through masa first year first semester saya for subject LET101 - Introduction to World Languages and Multilingualism. Saya diberi tajuk untuk buat individual presentation. Tajuknya ialah: Can the use of a single language by a community guarantee social harmony or mutual understanding? The title assigned for me was so easy and straightforward. Tapi, I saw it the otherwise, so whole presentation was a disaster completely. Presentation itu carry 10% of my final mark, which in my opinion is a lot. Selebihnya nanti akan ada exam, written assignment begitu. Itu pun belum tentu can score well, let alone the thoughts of losing 10% just like that.

Saya masih ingat, the class was set up pada waktu petang di bilik tingkat atas bangunan PPBLT. Dalam bilik tu ada small rostrum and one step stage. The audience was my tutorial friends. Nasib baik bukan satu batch, kalau dak boleh bergenang ayaq mata time tu jugak. So, my name was called upon. First thing of course slotted in pendrive di laptop and my slide was projected on the screen. Depan saya ada my lecturer yang assessed the presentation and my friends. Saya pun tap keyboard and start presenting. Mula-mula okay la kan sebab baru introduction. Mai dekat tengah slides sikit, muka lecturer saya dah berubah and she seemed so confused.

Wehhhh bayangkan lah aku yang dekat atas stage tu macam nak gugur jantung tak boleh nak deduce what’s going on ni?

I was stopped from presenting

After some time, my lecturer felt my Powerpoint slide was so lengthy and did not make any sense at all to the question, so she stopped me. That time my jantung gugur already. Surely, my tiny weeny 19 year old soul yang belum mengenal dunia ni could not take it. Pensyarah saya pun memberikan komen yang agak menyentuh kalbu. Sedih beb! Sepanjang waktu tutorial tu, saya betul-betul rasa nak cecepat balik asrama. Dah habis kelas I went to my lecturer and asked for an apology hahaha maybe I was too sad, too angry, too disappointed and too embarrassed, therefore that was my instant reaction 😓

Keluar sahaja from bilik presentation, memang meleleh air mata from corridor tingkat 3 sampai bus stop pastu sambung lagi naik bas dengan mata sembap till I reached my hostel room. USM tu kan sebesar-besar alam, yet I turned my eyes blind to the crowd. Zaman tu belum corona and tak pakai mask, tapi confidence level memang tak boleh dijual beli. Thankfully, saya ada best friends yang sangat baik to calm me down and give words of encouragement 💗

Getting that 10%

To think about it now, that was so full of drama and I was very dramatic 😂Berhari-hari juga saya fikir macamana nak make up my mistakes. Saya pun decided to email my lecturer asking a way. Pensyarah saya suggested me to write an essay sebanyak 500 words berpandukan title yang diberikan for my presentation. The moment saya dapat the second opportunity tu, I worked my bones and spines off. I submitted the essay in time & berdoa wholeheartedly. Alhamdulillah, saya received quite good marks for it. Towards the end of semester, bila dah sit for final exam and completed other components, my total grade for the subject LET101 was [A-].

Pengalaman yang menginsafkan

It was a lesson learned experience for me yang mengajar saya banyak benda especially tentang payahnya menuntut ilmu. That really reminded me to a well-known advice from Imam Syafi'e: 'Jika kau tak tahan dengan lelahnya belajar, maka kau harus sanggup menahan perihnya kebodohan.'

To think about it again, imagine berapa kali unfortunate experiences yang saya lalui dilalui oleh pensyarah-pensyarah saya in pursuit of seeking knowledge? Looking at how and where they are at now, well I am sure it must have been quite a trip.

Sekian, till next entry!