Assignment Cover Sheet

Bachelor of Business (Talented)

Student Name Vy Thao Le

Student Number B1121916271

Subject Name Business Communication

Lecturer Anh Tuan Pham

Title of Assignment LP2_B1121916271_Vy Thao Le_BC1

Length 3 pages

Due Date 09/02/2020

Date Submitted 12/02/2020

Declaration:
● I hold a copy of this assignment if the original is lost or damaged.
● I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been copied from any other student’s work or from any
other source except where due acknowledgement is made in the assignment.
● No part of the assignment/product has been written/produced for me by any other person except where collaboration
has been authorised by the subject lecturer/tutor concerned
● I am aware that this work may be reproduced and submitted to plagiarism detection software programs for the purpose
of detecting possible plagiarism (which may retain a copy on its database for future plagiarism checking)

Signature: ………………………………………………Vy Thao Le……………………….

Note: An examiner or lecturer/tutor has the right not to mark this assignment if the above declaration has not been
signed)

Learning Portfolio 2
TEXTBOOK QUESTION:
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1. Provide two examples of different points of view you have had with someone else. What do
you think caused these different viewpoints? How did you deal with them?
Example 1:
There was one time when my sister and I had an argument about whether children have to be obedient
to parents and stay silent regardless of the authenticity in parents’ words. To be more specific, she
reckoned that as a child, one should forebear anything as parents are those who had put up with all the
thick and thin to give birth, bring up and take care of us. Yet, in contrast, I did not think so. My firm
belief was that children do not ask for being born; thus, parents have to have the responsibility to do
their best to raise the child/children to the age of 18. Moreover, it should be noted that this has nothing
to do with the authenticity in parents’ words with children, if adults are wrong then they should know
how to correct their behavior, however old they are. In the end, when all the efforts to reach a mutual
mindset are all in vain, we decided to stop arguing yet still respect each other’s opinion as we both know
such differences stem from personal cultural awareness: she is more of the Asisan and I am more of the
Western.

Example 2:
While I was surfing Facebook the other day, I stumbled over a comment on a post about Greta Thunberg
saying that her behaviour about global warming should be praised and her words should be
implemented. As an advocate of the climate mitigation trend, I was totally happy with the good will of
Greta, yet I had to disagree with the commenter as in my point of view, the way she expressed her good
will only shows that she was an aggressive seven-teen-year-old teen who went here and there to yell at
adults and suggest insanely unrealistic solutions. Back then, after posting my view and providing all the
credible resources to consolidate my opinion, I realized that there was a fair amount of reasons by him
came as convincing to me, so I changed part of my mind about the way I see Greta: from a hostile
dreamy girl onto an advocate pushing the climate mitigation trend forward in her own way. Now,
looking back on the story, I think the differences stem from the personal perception about what should
be checked as “appropriate and righteous manner” and I also learn that as people are different, as long
as there are no harms to be made, mutual respect and acceptance should be maintained towards one
another.
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2. Emphasizing the importance of audience, salespeople often say, “The customer is king,” or
“The customer is always right,” or “The customer is in control.” To what extent do you feel in
control as a customer, a citizen, or a student?
As to the refrain as old as time “The customer is king” and “The customer is in control”, being a buyer-
citizen-student myself, I think that all the mentioned privileges are somewhat delusions. To be honest,
my shopping decisions have always been manipulated by numerous marketing channels, my “right”
have always been the “right” that are planned to profit the sellers and even when making transactions, I
feel like I will eventually get to have a compromise with the providers, in other words, get to play a role
in many a business script that has been all set up way before I sit down and talk to them. Thus, in short, I
feel I have literally no control over what I purchase regardless of all the carefully cultivated words the
sellers have been pouring into my ears.

3. List three strategies for communicating with people for whom English is not their first
language:
● Language:
+ Ignore grammar, structure and avoid technical terms as they may cause confusion
disconcertion; instead, I would focus on the main verbs, adjectives and nouns that could
describe the main topic straightforwardly.
+ Slower the speed at which I normally speak but not at the point of saying word by word since
this may make the others feel bad and dumb.
● Gesture:
+ Use more body language, especially hand gestures to point at things at place and illustrate
things (big/small/movement/etc.) that are not physically there.
● Google Translate:
+ Use Google Translate to express sentences that the others could not comprehend despite
multiple times of repetition and things that require complex words to describe. Then, I would
either show the communicators the translation on the screen or try to speak the sentences in
their language to add some fun to the conversation; as I am not afraid of embarrassing myself
for the wrong pronunciation.
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4. Identify three privileges that you have experienced because of your gender, age, ethnicity or
religious beliefs.
Age: At the age of 19, the age between being truly full-fledged and plainly innocent, it seems like I am
granted the chances to practice doing the things adults do but do not have to take all the responsibilities
that adults take.
Gender: As a girl, more often than not, I think people still try at some degree to keep their manner when
treating me: speak at a sort of soft tone, help me with physically heavy tasks and sometimes even let me
have the better part than the remaining.
Ethnicity: As an Asian, I am usually regarded as “smart” and “hardworking”, though in fact, I am quite of
an airhead with a laid-back attitude.

PERSONAL REFLECTION:
From the session , I have learnt to be more respectful towards the cultural differences among countries
and also the way to communicate with people whose English is not their mother language. Most of all, I
have learnt to be more of a supportive listener and responder thanks to the theoretical materials and
and especially the assigned task - interview 5 foreigner with different nationalities. Looking back, I
believe all are useful for my life down the road as they are all part of the communication skills, the ones
that I could hardly live without. Lastly, I am quite certain that ever since this moment, I will
communicate for the sake of the understanding of listeners; not for the sake of showing how vast my
knowledge is.