Day 9

Am kinda disappointed with myself today as 2 of my presentations to senior management within this week didn't go too well. I probably must admit that I didn't prepare well for it, but I still don't quite agree with the general sentiments that you have to script your presentation in order for a smooth delivery. Somehow I think I stumble more when I prepare a script because I'm too preoccupied with trying to recall the talking points that I can't structure my sentences clearly and my grammar goes awry. And it so happens that this week, CE made a comment on lousy presentations that every of the bosses' are now scrambling to lecture their subordinates on presentation skills. I suspect I'm probably one of the cause for CE's comment since I did present terribly in front of him last week but it really stresses me out today when my boss got others to critique my presentation today in front of everyone in the department. Appreciate the feedback, but surely there wasn't the need to do it in front of everybody? Sigh.

Today a customer complaint was forwarded to me. The customer said "the person in charge of updating the website should be sacked since he's not doing his work at all....blah blah blah". Although the person he's refering to isn't me, I cannot understand why he had to use such strong words. Honestly, we're providing a free service if we put the stats online. For everyone's convenience, we go through the effort to obtain the info and post it online. Maintaining this comes with a cost too. Pretty much understand his frustration, cos I experience this everyday, but there are laws governing the use of stats in this country. There are limitations to the stats collection infra here as well. As far as I know the ppl who generate these stats are already doing the best they can. And not many ppl can do the job. My intern who joined us for just 1 mth described the task as "simply a nightmare".

I've just completed my Intermediate 4 Jap this week. Good news is I passed the written test which is an achievement cos I needed a high score to average out my poor faring at the mid-term test (I failed). Bad news is I failed my oral test by just 1 mark and I've got to go for a re-test tomorrow. Sometimes I wonder why I go out myself under so much stress taking up Jap. Have to cope with mid-terms and finals every 4 weeks. Quite inclined to drop this and go for something less stressful, perhaps dancing or speech & drama, but it seems a waste to do so after coming all these way...

Looking forward to the 1st weekend without Jap class.