2017 MATC Scholars Program: Ms. Amy Maki

Larissa Sazama Author

11/03/2017 Added

19 Plays

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Ms. Amy Maki, Founder and President of A. O. Maki & Associates, L.L.C., discusses appropriate communication skills. For more information, please visit http://matc.unl.edu/education/scholars-program2017.php.

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[00:00:01.351]I'm gonna use this as a little bit of learning moment,
[00:00:05.481]that is when you come to a conference like this,
[00:00:10.548]be on time, because speakers, whether they are busy
[00:00:15.554]or not busy, we think we're busy.
[00:00:19.508]So be on time.
[00:00:22.787]I was just a little concerned
[00:00:23.620]when we were waiting at the bus stop.
[00:00:26.226]My name is Amy Maki.
[00:00:30.144]I was at the University of Washington in Seattle
[00:00:33.922]for about 30 years.
[00:00:36.657]Retired from there, opened up my own company
[00:00:40.518]and work in the area of developing human capital, you all.
[00:00:46.544]And I was born in Cleveland, Ohio.
[00:00:49.317]Raised in a predominantly African American community.
[00:00:53.598]Moved to Seattle and discovered I was Asian.
[00:00:56.014](laughing)
[00:00:58.046]And, it was a rude awakening.
[00:01:00.218](laughing)
[00:01:02.417]So, some of the things I'm gonna say and present to you
[00:01:06.441]I don't want you to take affront like,
[00:01:08.701]well, what is she trying to do?
[00:01:12.515]It is me, and it really is.
[00:01:14.387]And I also have a degree in Spanish.
[00:01:18.831]I was telling students before,
[00:01:21.489]when I taught the multi-cultural ed class
[00:01:24.052]at the University of Washington,
[00:01:25.862]I presented the first minute of my course in Spanish.
[00:01:29.594]At which point, a student went out of the room
[00:01:32.653]because he thought he was in the wrong class.
[00:01:35.849]But I was trying to set a tone of feeling
[00:01:41.819]that you could say anything you wanted in the class.
[00:01:44.955]You would feel comfortable.
[00:01:46.450]But there are some assumptions we all make
[00:01:51.093]when we first meet somebody, correct?
[00:01:53.773]First impressions.
[00:01:55.749]This session is about communication.
[00:01:59.083]We're gonna go over a quick introductions,
[00:02:01.943]why we're here, what I hope you gain from it,
[00:02:05.208]and then do some practicing.
[00:02:07.895]I hope you all brought pencil and paper with you,
[00:02:10.552]since we provided that.
[00:02:12.878]And then, you will be called on to come up front
[00:02:16.688]and participate in a few activities.
[00:02:20.069]So, those who sat in the back, be prepared,
[00:02:23.034]'cause you didn't come up forward, so I'm gonna call on you.
[00:02:26.882]But, here what we're gonna talk about today,
[00:02:29.712]the importance of communication.
[00:02:32.234]There are a lot of things we take for granted
[00:02:36.826]when we're speaking, whether it's our tone,
[00:02:41.386]our pace, and so we'd like to talk about
[00:02:45.469]the non-verbal communication cues that we use.
[00:02:49.853]We're going to also begin a personal statement
[00:02:53.168]for applying to graduate school.
[00:02:55.708]If we don't get to that,
[00:02:57.863]or you need additional help, you have my email.
[00:03:03.687]You wanna send me a rough draft,
[00:03:06.445]subject, title, in the email,
[00:03:09.217]let me know that you're from MATC
[00:03:11.437]and you have a personal statement,
[00:03:13.148]I will be more than happy to review it for you, OK?
[00:03:17.240]So what I hope will come of this is that you'll gain
[00:03:20.701]a better knowledge of what communication is,
[00:03:24.354]how to use it to your benefit,
[00:03:27.265]both written and verbal communication.
[00:03:31.651]We're gonna start with just general terminology.
[00:03:34.741]What's the philosophy,
[00:03:36.174]what's the psychology behind communication?
[00:03:39.925]What are the components of verbal and written communication?
[00:03:44.934]And then, again, we're gonna do some practice
[00:03:48.253]of actually beginning to do that.
[00:03:51.213]I'm gonna go back here.
[00:03:52.534]So what is communication?
[00:03:55.703]Tell me, what is it?
[00:03:57.460]What are we doing in communication?
[00:03:59.706]Sharing.
[00:04:00.771]Sharing.
[00:04:02.500]Conveying a message.
[00:04:03.554]Conveying a message.
[00:04:05.484]Expressing ideas.
[00:04:06.538]Expressing ideas.
[00:04:08.221]So we're trying to express, get communicated,
[00:04:11.800]get an idea to one another.
[00:04:15.034]How do we do it?
[00:04:17.385]Talking.
[00:04:19.664]Verbal, talking
[00:04:21.688]Writing.
[00:04:22.692]Writing.
[00:04:25.343]Body language.
[00:04:26.407]Body language.
[00:04:28.279]What else do you do all the time?
[00:04:30.676]Texting
[00:04:31.509]Text. (laughing)
[00:04:32.424]Emails.
[00:04:33.934]Email.
[00:04:36.753]And those are great methods.
[00:04:38.132]Texting, emailing, phone conversations.
[00:04:43.160]I wanna more focus on the texting and the emails.
[00:04:49.548]A lot of us use that daily,
[00:04:51.406]but what it doesn't give you
[00:04:54.824]is the non-verbal communication skills that you'll need,
[00:04:59.224]one, when you take an interview to go to grad school,
[00:05:03.080]two, when you go for a job.
[00:05:06.544]Although a lot of companies, now, interview by Skype,
[00:05:11.458]and other methods, you still are going to have to learn
[00:05:15.706]about that face-to-face, facial expressions, pace,
[00:05:23.619]and tone of what you're trying to communicate.
[00:05:28.403]And my concern with, not only this generation,
[00:05:31.631]but the next, is that with all the texting and FaceTime,
[00:05:37.598]or whatever the new technology is going to emerge,
[00:05:42.697]is that we don't learn how to communicate face-to-face.
[00:05:48.513]And not only that,
[00:05:49.390]we don't know how to communicate cross-culturally.
[00:05:54.029]So, another point I'd like to make at this conference is
[00:05:57.954]when you are at any conference or any gathering
[00:06:03.101]do not, party all you want with your friends afterwards,
[00:06:07.006]during the sessions,
[00:06:09.533]hang out with some people you don't know.
[00:06:14.120]Variety of reasons.
[00:06:16.506]They could be your colleague in the future.
[00:06:19.500]They could be the dean of the school
[00:06:21.173]that you want to become a professor at.
[00:06:23.804]You might need a collaborator in your research project,
[00:06:28.239]and you'll have their name in the back of your mind,
[00:06:31.069]or in my case, my memory's not that good,
[00:06:33.151]so I write it down.
[00:06:34.624]I have an Excel spreadsheet.
[00:06:36.501]When I meet people, I think,
[00:06:38.667]oh, maybe I might do this with them, or that with them,
[00:06:41.615]I put it down, I have a topic area,
[00:06:44.178]so when an idea comes up and I say,
[00:06:46.192]ooh, I would love to talk about how to network.
[00:06:52.776]I think I'm gonna call Dr. Chimba's office
[00:06:56.449]and find out if his student's need that.
[00:06:59.084]Or, I'd love to go to Tennessee.
[00:07:01.867]So I can look up my topic,
[00:07:04.506]and I have that information available to me.
[00:07:08.190]But that's just a little extra.
[00:07:12.027]Make sure that you go around
[00:07:13.735]and meet other people at the conferences.
[00:07:18.437]So we talked about what communication is,
[00:07:21.047]getting back to that,
[00:07:22.554]and I think the key thing here is number three,
[00:07:25.341]a common system of symbols, signs or behaviors.
[00:07:30.999]And, guess what, do we all have the same common system?
[00:07:39.552]Do we have the same symbols?
[00:07:41.471]Sometimes, I mean, generally speaking,
[00:07:44.355]you know what a stop sign is,
[00:07:45.919]whether the word stop is written across it, right?
[00:07:50.722]But there are common systems of behavior
[00:07:53.431]that we communicate with others,
[00:07:56.575]but, if we're not in the same cultural background,
[00:08:01.349]it doesn't mean anything to us.
[00:08:03.253]For example, if there are two Asians
[00:08:07.874]walking towards each other, what's gonna happen?
[00:08:15.912]What's gonna happen?
[00:08:17.232]Are they gonna acknowledge each other?
[00:08:20.648]Not likely.
[00:08:22.647]No, they're not.
[00:08:24.685]If you walk across, and like I said,
[00:08:29.828]I was grown in a different community.
[00:08:33.142]So, I see another Asian coming, and I say, hey, hi.
[00:08:37.456]Their response is do I know you?
[00:08:42.111]Or, they don't say anything
[00:08:43.552]and they put their head down and they walk on.
[00:08:47.669]What happens, particularly, with black males,
[00:08:51.774]if you're walking by somebody?
[00:08:56.036]They greet you.
[00:08:57.040]They usually give you some sign that, hey I see you.
[00:09:05.594]And how about Chicanos, Mexicanos, (speaking in Spanish)
[00:09:11.474]As Louise says, you do the nose thing, right?
[00:09:15.864](laughing)
[00:09:16.697]And you walk by,
[00:09:17.571]but at least you know you've been acknowledged, right?
[00:09:23.457]So, those are some of the common systems of symbols
[00:09:27.396]that they're not always the same.
[00:09:29.665]So what happens when you go into an interview
[00:09:34.923]and the person across from you
[00:09:36.969]doesn't look anything like you, has no idea.
[00:09:40.844]So, the importance of some of the symbols, signs
[00:09:45.897]and the pace and tone.
[00:09:48.797]Because when I introduce myself to you,
[00:09:51.374]I usually speak, relatively slowly.
[00:09:54.662]My name's Amy Maki.
[00:09:57.398]I'm from Seattle, Washington.
[00:09:59.984]I let it go at that.
[00:10:01.855]Now, if you're from Puerto Rico,
[00:10:04.087]they like to talk really fast.
[00:10:07.493]If I didn't speak Spanish,
[00:10:10.428]I would never know what your name was.
[00:10:13.213]So, remember, when you're entering, introducing yourself,
[00:10:17.321]change your pace, slow it down, enunciate,
[00:10:23.121]so that people can remember who you are.
[00:10:29.755]Some of the terminology that we're talking about right now,
[00:10:34.621]but I'm giving you words to describe it,
[00:10:38.244]and the importance of who you're talking to,
[00:10:41.696]what you're trying to say.
[00:10:43.722]So, it's important to know who your audience is.
[00:10:47.864]I knew you were students,
[00:10:49.136]I knew you were engineering students.
[00:10:51.348]I made some assumptions, that you might be very concrete,
[00:10:55.548]sequential, so I gave you an outline,
[00:10:58.673]I'm trying to follow the outline.
[00:11:00.938]I am not an engineer, and I'm not so linear.
[00:11:05.618]So sometimes we digress.
[00:11:07.769]I will try not to do that too often.
[00:11:12.110]You have to listen to the question.
[00:11:15.866]So, in the interview,
[00:11:17.557]whether it's your graduate school interview,
[00:11:21.193]or any other interview,
[00:11:24.609]or you're responding to a request by a professor,
[00:11:27.907]listen to what they're asking,
[00:11:30.858]or what they're saying.
[00:11:33.054]If you do not understand,
[00:11:37.057]if you're Asian, what do you do?
[00:11:41.910]This is a generality, mind you, but if you,
[00:11:44.601]particularly of international Asians, Chinese, Japanese,
[00:11:53.594]if you don't understand the tradition is--
[00:11:57.289]Quiet.
[00:11:58.426]Nod.
[00:11:59.515]You just nod, or mmm hmm.
[00:12:02.496]Do you understand?
[00:12:05.041]You haven't a clue, and the reason there is
[00:12:08.874]because you're trying to protect your honor, right?
[00:12:13.589]I should know this, but I don't.
[00:12:17.097]He's my boss, he's my supervisor,
[00:12:19.294]I can't let him know I don't know.
[00:12:21.446]That's not the way to communicate.
[00:12:25.551]And, also, if you don't understand,
[00:12:28.605]how are you going to produce something that they want?
[00:12:34.793]So, if you listen, you don't understand, are you gonna say,
[00:12:37.904]hey man, I don't get it?
[00:12:42.559]Or, is it the body language, like, kinda thing?
[00:12:48.713]So how are you gonna address that,
[00:12:50.336]that you didn't understand?
[00:12:53.053]What kind of tone are you gonna use?
[00:12:56.574]What pace, what pitch, can I really, I don't get it,
[00:13:02.680]kind of thing, or are we gonna say,
[00:13:06.960]could you repeat that question?
[00:13:08.765]I'm not quite sure I understand.
[00:13:15.127]Or, are we gonna say, I don't get it?
[00:13:17.338]What did you say, I don't, um, um, you know.
[00:13:21.116]The pace.
[00:13:22.343]Take it slow, be articulate, keep your tone down,
[00:13:27.246]don't raise your pitch, 'cause to me,
[00:13:32.194]when you raise your pitch and you're really kind of speaking
[00:13:35.175]I don't know what's going on, it's like, holy crap,
[00:13:38.136]this person doesn't have a clue on what's going on.
[00:13:42.791]So, tone, pitch, pace, and also inflection.
[00:13:52.230]For example, I'm not sure I can do the inflection right,
[00:13:59.248]but a lot of foreign languages have different inflections.
[00:14:03.647]Have you ever been on a bus, and tone,
[00:14:09.347]with a group of Chinese, international?
[00:14:12.550]Speak very loud, and at a very high pitch.
[00:14:16.914]And you're thinking to yourself, are they all deaf?
[00:14:21.288]But, culturally, that's the level that they
[00:14:25.780]are normally speaking at.
[00:14:28.717]So, again, remember who your audience is.
[00:14:32.835]Is it the dean?
[00:14:33.886]'Cause you're not gonna go into a dean and ask for money
[00:14:38.238]in a squeaky, non-organized voice.
[00:14:43.197]And, you have to listen.
[00:14:45.573]Body language, again, is very, very, important.
[00:14:51.028]So, even if you're nervous, some people,
[00:14:53.247]I have a grandson who's 19, if I could do it,
[00:14:55.948]I'd tie his foot down to the ground.
[00:14:58.322]Because all I see when I'm talking to him is this.
[00:15:01.739]Because he sits and he twitches his leg.
[00:15:04.757]And I know Bill Gates,
[00:15:05.982]but Bill Gates can afford to do that.
[00:15:09.011]My 19-year-old grandson, can't afford to do that,
[00:15:11.665]'cause he's living with me.
[00:15:14.157]So, body language.
[00:15:16.170]If you have a mannerism that you know might be distracting,
[00:15:22.920]I don't know if a lot of you meditate,
[00:15:27.001]or have a moment of silence, before you go into the meeting,
[00:15:31.809]just try to relax, and if you have that particular twitch,
[00:15:42.104]habit, try to control it, because it will be distracting.
[00:15:47.412]It will be distracting.
[00:15:49.835]The other thing is, eye contact, body language.
[00:15:57.099]And where you place your eyes.
[00:16:01.733]If you are not comfortable looking somebody in the eye,
[00:16:06.598]look kind of up this way.
[00:16:10.036]Now, I work for a dean, bless his little heart,
[00:16:13.174]he looks like this.
[00:16:18.519]And, he talks and it's OK for guys,
[00:16:23.916]if I'm looking like this and you're talking,
[00:16:26.536]but, if you're looking at women
[00:16:28.396]and you're going like this, I don't hear a thing you say.
[00:16:33.359]I'm thinking, why are you looking at my boobs?
[00:16:36.854](laughing)
[00:16:37.687]And, unfortunately, as much as I talk to him,
[00:16:42.318]it was something that was embedded in his psyche,
[00:16:46.350]and he just couldn't do it.
[00:16:49.113]But I had a lot of women faculty coming in to me,
[00:16:53.429]saying, what's with this guy?
[00:16:55.697]What the Hell?
[00:16:57.031]And I had to explain.
[00:17:00.108]His body language was not appropriate,
[00:17:06.379]but that's not what he was trying to convey,
[00:17:10.122]that was not the message.
[00:17:12.157]But, still, it's very difficult to convince somebody
[00:17:17.080]that that's not what they were doing, right?
[00:17:22.838]So, eye contact, very important.
[00:17:28.779]And, the message.
[00:17:30.789]What's the message?
[00:17:34.218]And, you heard yesterday, Dr. Chimba say,
[00:17:37.343]the way you write, what did you write,
[00:17:42.511]what did you mean to say, what did you say,
[00:17:46.523]and what does the other person understand you to say?
[00:17:51.017]Verbal, same thing.
[00:17:55.612]When you're talking to someone,
[00:17:58.195]think clearly what your message is,
[00:18:01.680]word selection, very important,
[00:18:08.632]and say it clearly, OK?
[00:18:12.441]Written communication.
[00:18:15.508]Again, focusing on word choice, audience.
[00:18:19.631]If you're writing a letter to your grandmother,
[00:18:21.836]or texting somebody, that's one thing.
[00:18:25.580]If you're writing a statement, to get into school,
[00:18:29.697]a totally different methodology of communicating.
[00:18:37.356]And I know that there is spell check on the computers,
[00:18:42.955]I know that there's grammar checks,
[00:18:45.041]I know that there's all types of programs,
[00:18:48.682]that you can run your essays through,
[00:18:51.778]to see if it's grammatically correct,
[00:18:55.218]and if the spelling's correct,
[00:18:57.700]but what it doesn't do, it doesn't give you
[00:19:01.165]the tone, by the words you use, the pace, by the commas,
[00:19:07.390]semicolons, the colons you place.
[00:19:11.093]It's not going to give you all the answers.
[00:19:16.496]So what's the solution?
[00:19:18.764]If I can't rely on technology, what can I rely on?
[00:19:22.428]Peers, people.
[00:19:23.535]Peers.
[00:19:25.857]Teachers.
[00:19:27.044]Teachers.
[00:19:29.929]Writing centers.
[00:19:30.950]Do you have writing centers on campus?
[00:19:36.268]So I would make sure, if you are doing a personal statement
[00:19:40.857]or even, you're writing a letter to a perspective employer,
[00:19:45.828]that you make sure that you check with your writing centers.
[00:19:50.559]Have your peers read it.
[00:19:52.965]And, also, when you're doing a presentation,
[00:19:56.516]for example, there's nothing wrong with
[00:20:00.447]having a couple of friends watch you make your presentation.
[00:20:07.212]It sounds a little scary and it's kind of odd, but
[00:20:11.584]there's nothing like your friends, who are honest
[00:20:14.986]about how you look and what you're saying.
[00:20:19.544]I mean, that is friendship, right?
[00:20:21.132]You could say, I have a girlfriend,
[00:20:23.238]that I walked out of the gym one day
[00:20:25.497]and I was all dressed in my suit, and it was a light blue,
[00:20:29.257]great, and I had these new nylons on.
[00:20:31.176]We used to wear nylons in those days, by the way.
[00:20:34.842]Nylons on, I said, well how do I look?
[00:20:37.106]She goes, well your legs look like you're dead.
[00:20:39.528]And I went, oh.
[00:20:41.733]Oh, OK, let me go to the student union
[00:20:44.200]and buy a new pair of nylons.
[00:20:47.411]But that's what friendship is about.
[00:20:49.418]So, practice.
[00:20:50.512]Also practice in front of the mirror.
[00:20:55.846]You know they always tell you to put your affirmations
[00:20:58.090]near a mirror, or somewhere where every morning
[00:21:00.433]you look into, but practice.
[00:21:03.493]And even when I do presentations like this,
[00:21:07.136]like the rest of the faculty,
[00:21:10.270]they're so polished.
[00:21:11.103]They're not nervous or anything.
[00:21:13.085]I'm nervous.
[00:21:14.079]So when I come up here, I also have to take a deep breath,
[00:21:17.934]and lower my pitch,
[00:21:20.417]because my pitch is very high when I'm nervous.
[00:21:25.075]And sometimes, even when I answer the phone.
[00:21:29.607]You know those wonderful robocalls and things you get
[00:21:32.308]and they always ask for my mother.
[00:21:35.290]I said, I'm not only the mother, I'm the grandmother.
[00:21:38.114]And no I don't want anything.
[00:21:39.490]I'm not that rude, but close.
[00:21:43.290]But I really have to bring it down a little bit, you know.
[00:21:48.822]So, grammar and punctuation, word choice,
[00:21:52.159]remember who your audience is.
[00:21:54.489]And I hate to tell you this, writing is rewriting.
[00:22:00.272]So when you do your undergraduate capstone project
[00:22:03.714]if you have it, you're gonna write it
[00:22:06.986]it's gonna be reviewed, and guess what's gonna happen?
[00:22:10.389]Rewriting.
[00:22:11.547]You gotta rewrite part of it, don't ya?
[00:22:14.408]So, just don't be discouraged.
[00:22:15.994]You just have to keep remembering that writing is rewriting.
[00:22:22.847]So here's a scenario, and I'm gonna read it
[00:22:26.753]and then you're gonna tell me what's really happened.
[00:22:29.915]Close your eyes.
[00:22:31.061]Don't read the thing.
[00:22:32.220]Close your eyes.
[00:22:35.243]You see a cashier smile at you as you wait
[00:22:37.842]in the checkout line.
[00:22:40.157]You stop your texting and you smile back
[00:22:41.923]as the woman in front of you says,
[00:22:44.465]no to the foot-stomping child,
[00:22:48.578]who's hand she tugs.
[00:22:51.377]Noticing the commotion,
[00:22:53.079]the two deaf people signing to one another turn around.
[00:23:00.922]Okay, open your eyes.
[00:23:03.548]What type of communication was going on there?
[00:23:11.442]Non-verbal.
[00:23:13.091]I'm sorry.
[00:23:13.924]Non-verbal.
[00:23:14.757]Non-verbal, the cashier smiles, you smile back
[00:23:18.023]that's saying hey, I see you,
[00:23:20.548]and you as a client, say yeah, thanks, I got it.
[00:23:25.690]OK, what's happening with the woman?
[00:23:28.465]She's yelling.
[00:23:30.302]She's yelling at who?
[00:23:31.991]The child.
[00:23:33.832]Is the child really misbehaving or just kinda, eh?
[00:23:38.657]He's being a normal child.
[00:23:41.099]Just being a normal child, hmm, OK.
[00:23:44.398](laughing)
[00:23:48.155]That's true, it is being a normal child,
[00:23:50.081]it's the intensity of how normal you wanna put up with.
[00:23:54.379]So, the other is, there also is a sense
[00:23:58.927]is there not, if somebody's walking behind you,
[00:24:02.879]you kinda turn around and look,
[00:24:05.162]oh, yeah, there's somebody there.
[00:24:07.351]Deaf people have a sense, as well,
[00:24:10.906]and we have that sense of something's going on.
[00:24:15.595]So, sometimes, we're in a meeting,
[00:24:17.154]or we're talking to somebody,
[00:24:18.564]or we're saying things and we go,
[00:24:21.021]something's off a little here, I feel some, are you OK?
[00:24:27.359]Or, you know, is that what you really mean to say?
[00:24:30.119]You know that there's intuition, maybe
[00:24:32.825]what everyone thought.
[00:24:33.888]But you have a sense.
[00:24:34.913]So that's what happens.
[00:24:36.373]OK, what if I read it like this,
[00:24:38.363]now that you all have the scenario.
[00:24:41.312]You see a cashier smile at you as you're waiting
[00:24:43.367]in the check line.
[00:24:44.852]You stop your texting and smile as the woman
[00:24:47.296]in front of you says, no, to the foot-stomping child
[00:24:53.269]who's hand she tugs.
[00:24:56.365]Noticing the commotion, the two deaf people signing
[00:24:59.215]to one another turn around.
[00:25:05.108]So, how upset is the mother there?
[00:25:09.003]Not too upset.
[00:25:16.815]You know, whatever the child's doing, stomping around,
[00:25:20.493]you know, that's fine, she's not too upset.
[00:25:23.880]So, did you notice the tone, the difference,
[00:25:27.707]what it was communicating?
[00:25:32.253]Yes, no, hello, wake up.
[00:25:34.253](laughing)
[00:25:35.086]Yes, ma'am. OK.
[00:25:37.815]The fact that it's capitalized
[00:25:38.999]and in quotation marks,
[00:25:41.003]makes it seem like she's yelling, though.
[00:25:42.628]Yeah, that's why I wanted you to close your eyes,
[00:25:45.488]that's very good.
[00:25:48.284]Because when you're writing, if you capitalize,
[00:25:52.833]what happens when you capitalize in texting?
[00:25:59.133]It's usually a sign for anger,
[00:26:00.790]read it in a loud voice.
[00:26:02.201]That is really annoying by the way,
[00:26:04.507](laughing)
[00:26:05.340]unless you're really angry at somebody, but.
[00:26:08.148]That's another thing to keep in mind, when you're texting.
[00:26:12.457]and you're writing emails.
[00:26:15.140]One, they never go away.
[00:26:16.374]I know you think when you hit delete,
[00:26:17.933]they go away, they don't.
[00:26:19.734]So be very careful on how you communicate,
[00:26:22.973]not only to one another, but to your professors.
[00:26:32.206]I'm gonna have you do an exercise
[00:26:33.503]but this is a writing part of it.
[00:26:36.806]Just to give you an example.
[00:26:38.781]So you get to read this one.
[00:26:41.454]So, do you see what happens
[00:26:42.878]when commas are not used correctly? (laughing)
[00:26:48.979]And there are many examples.
[00:26:53.338]In legal profession, those commas can be deadly.
[00:27:01.954]So, punctuation in writing is key.
[00:27:07.005]And similar is the word choice that we talked about,
[00:27:11.629]to talk about tone.
[00:27:12.739]Remember yesterday?
[00:27:14.263]I don't know about the rest of you,
[00:27:15.495]when he was talking about the GRE,
[00:27:18.509]and he put that list of vocabulary words up,
[00:27:21.656]and you had to fill them in?
[00:27:22.589]I'm looking at them, thinking,
[00:27:23.987]thank God I don't have to take the GRE.
[00:27:26.255]I mean, there are a lot of words to choose from.
[00:27:31.847]And you have to be very selective
[00:27:34.772]and make sure the context of the sentence you're writing,
[00:27:38.211]the words are appropriate.
[00:27:43.186]So, to make it applicable to what we're trying to do here,
[00:27:48.363]when you're writing for grad school,
[00:27:50.052]for your personal statement,
[00:27:53.969]or you're taking your interview,
[00:27:57.294]these are the questions that a lot of the speakers
[00:27:59.904]have already gone over, correct?
[00:28:02.371]So, why are you going to grad school?
[00:28:05.470]Please don't say because it's free.
[00:28:08.104]I know it is, that's not (laughing)
[00:28:17.159]Dr. Blevin says we'll go for free (laughing)
[00:28:23.575]And, you wanna include in your statement,
[00:28:28.009]within my discipline, what interests me.
[00:28:31.395]So if you're a civil engineering,
[00:28:33.704]what in civil engineering specifically
[00:28:36.434]are you interested in?
[00:28:40.013]Because, you're not applying to not only the department,
[00:28:43.353]but a specific area of that department.
[00:28:47.233]And, why this institution?
[00:28:51.992]And, I was a director of admissions,
[00:28:53.845]so what I'm saying is not made up.
[00:28:58.166]I don't wanna know that you love the Seahawks
[00:29:03.659]and the Huskies, and that's why you're coming
[00:29:06.355]to the University of Washington,
[00:29:08.925]if you're majoring in a STEM field.
[00:29:12.944]You might say something that you enjoy the student life.
[00:29:16.822]That's appropriate, in general.
[00:29:18.741]But, we wanna know, specifically why you chose
[00:29:21.462]this institution.
[00:29:23.486]And, why are you qualified?
[00:29:26.361]Why should I even look at your application?
[00:29:28.415]Why should I take the time to interview you?
[00:29:33.767]Mention your strengths and weaknesses that were said,
[00:29:38.378]and we don't wanna overemphasize, but also
[00:29:40.785]your willingness, OK, I might not be as good at writing,
[00:29:44.888]but I'm interested in proving that
[00:29:46.602]by taking a writing course or whatever your weakness is.
[00:29:56.051]And what do you bring to the program?
[00:30:00.260]Not only do I wanna know that you're bringing enthusiasm,
[00:30:03.970]interest, but I wanna know that you're bringing
[00:30:06.923]some sort of expertise.
[00:30:12.203]That what you're going to be doing,
[00:30:13.587]is meaningful to mankind.
[00:30:19.219]Well, how is it gonna impact mankind
[00:30:23.402]and the department in particular?
[00:30:27.661]And what do you plan to do after graduation?
[00:30:34.138]I will say to you, this sort of inside information,
[00:30:39.187]but we have a real shortage of faculty members,
[00:30:45.523]particularly faculty members, homegrown, of color.
[00:30:51.936]So if one of your things is,
[00:30:53.602]I'm not saying you have to lie about this,
[00:30:56.666]but in the future, if there's a possibility
[00:31:00.208]that you might wanna be a professor,
[00:31:02.426]you need to let 'em know,
[00:31:05.019]'cause we're looking for professors.
[00:31:10.966]And that goes with number eight, your career consideration.
[00:31:14.392]And what personal values will guide my decisions
[00:31:17.580]in coming here?
[00:31:20.993]What are your values?
[00:31:25.267]What's your integrity that you bring to the program?
[00:31:29.218]Are you a hard worker?
[00:31:31.015]Do you get up on time?
[00:31:32.555]These are not the words you wanna use,
[00:31:35.291]but these are the ideas.
[00:31:38.743]So, I have organizational skills,
[00:31:45.449]I'm a great time manager,
[00:31:48.310]I can move through the program because I have these skills.
[00:31:52.466]Because, not only do they want you,
[00:31:55.261]they want you to graduate in a timely fashion.
[00:32:01.931]And do you have a plan?
[00:32:05.444]Those who fail to plan, plan to?
[00:32:07.281]Fail.
[00:32:08.559]Fail.
[00:32:11.606]So, do I have a plan?
[00:32:16.007]These are some of the things
[00:32:16.956]you wanna have answered in your head,
[00:32:20.435]so when you go to the interview,
[00:32:22.119]you have the language, you have a plan,
[00:32:28.773]and also, you can write about it.
[00:32:34.946]So, in-person interviews.
[00:32:41.117]We talked about these things,
[00:32:43.097]body language, posture, mannerisms.
[00:32:47.339]We didn't mention proximity.
[00:32:52.278]How close do you get when you're talking to somebody?
[00:32:57.651]Somebody wanna volunteer?
[00:33:01.203]'Cause I hate to call on ya, make you feel bad.
[00:33:05.400]OK, come on up.
[00:33:06.799]Whoa, I forgot about this part has to stay with me.
[00:33:11.068]So, I teach a course in networking,
[00:33:15.453]so this is my first introduction to him.
[00:33:18.436]Why don't you start up?
[00:33:20.462]How ya doin'?
[00:33:21.383]Hi, how are you?
[00:33:22.754]I'm good how are you?
[00:33:23.587]Good.
[00:33:25.114]My name is Axel.
[00:33:26.511]Axel?
[00:33:27.571]Yes, ma'am.
[00:33:28.404]OK, and what's your last name.
[00:33:30.428]Ranga.
[00:33:31.261]Ranga?
[00:33:33.215]OK, I feel pretty good.
[00:33:35.794]You know, that's not too bad.
[00:33:37.596]What happens if I do this, Ranga?
[00:33:39.402](laughing)
[00:33:42.269]Axel, that's a little close, huh.
[00:33:44.464]It's like, whoa, wait a minute here lady.
[00:33:47.354]I didn't want to get to know you that well.
[00:33:50.125](laughing)
[00:33:51.133]OK, thanks.
[00:33:52.366]The other thing is, he has a very quiet voice,
[00:33:56.603]and I was relatively close, and that's fine.
[00:34:00.038]His name is awful different, but he said it
[00:34:02.546]at a pace that I could get.
[00:34:04.865]All I want you to be aware of
[00:34:08.097]is that who's your audience
[00:34:12.898]and you might have to bring it up a little bit.
[00:34:16.185]Sometimes, if you feel comfortable, you can stand up.
[00:34:21.350]And the other thing is, when you're in a group like this,
[00:34:24.321]like I said, mix, and that'll give you,
[00:34:27.423]the more mix you get in the people
[00:34:29.815]that you get introduced to,
[00:34:31.845]the more practice you'll have and the easier it'll get.
[00:34:39.451]Practice, practice, practice.
[00:34:43.054]And, I am going to give you, just the students,
[00:34:45.939]'cause I only brought 40.
[00:34:47.779]I didn't think about faculty.
[00:34:51.585]But I'll be happy to send faculty one.
[00:34:54.638]Years ago I wrote a guide for going to conferences.
[00:34:59.985]One of the things that's in there,
[00:35:02.956]is that you need to make sure that you sit with other people
[00:35:07.771]you introduce yourself.
[00:35:09.208]How many of you have business cards?
[00:35:14.083]OK, you should all have business cards,
[00:35:16.781]every one of you,
[00:35:18.523]because when you go to conferences and I hand you my card,
[00:35:22.506]and you're gonna want something from me,
[00:35:24.363]like for example, would you review my personal statement?
[00:35:29.444]If I have your card, I remember who he was,
[00:35:33.532]where I met him, etc., etc.
[00:35:35.995]Well what do you put on the card?
[00:35:37.506]There's an example in there.
[00:35:38.949]Just name, prospective date of graduation,
[00:35:42.581]major, university, email,
[00:35:47.529]something that a person can take away.
[00:35:51.661]I realize, that nowadays, with the phones,
[00:35:54.407]you also can just phone to phone, transfer cards.
[00:36:00.992]And that's great for some people.
[00:36:03.868]I'm still old-fashioned,
[00:36:05.711]and a lot of people don't have that technology
[00:36:08.087]on their phone, so you should carry a business card.
[00:36:16.153]So we went over all these things.
[00:36:18.730]Are there any questions about this?
[00:36:22.540]You two are smiling, you go something going on
[00:36:25.374]and I don't know what it is,
[00:36:27.113]but I am gonna find out afterwards.
[00:36:29.306]See what body language can do,
[00:36:30.879]and what you can learn?
[00:36:32.051](laughing)
[00:36:33.701]You can learn so much, so much.
[00:36:39.092]So, here's some of the barriers to verbal communication.
[00:36:47.609]Not listening, using acronyms.
[00:36:52.219]Yesterday when I was introducing the speaker,
[00:36:55.936]there were more acronyms on that thing,
[00:36:57.319]so I had to translate them,
[00:36:58.919]so when I introduced her I wasn't saying the TBR and the TCD
[00:37:04.448]everybody's going, yeah, that's really informative.
[00:37:07.965]So, I was trying to translate.
[00:37:09.401]So a lot of that, don't use those types of things in,
[00:37:13.204]not only verbal communication, you can say them,
[00:37:16.356]but then you need to make sure you define it.
[00:37:20.260]Rambling responses.
[00:37:25.387]If I ask you a question, answer the question.
[00:37:29.684]Especially in the graduate interview,
[00:37:35.151]'cause we listen to a lot of people.
[00:37:37.656]We read a lot of statements, and they begin,
[00:37:42.319]pretty soon it's like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:37:46.298]So, you do have to respond to the point, no rambling.
[00:37:53.229]Grammatical errors are very disconcerting,
[00:37:58.315]especially when you're talking.
[00:37:59.590]Like in Hawaii, oh, whatever, whatever,
[00:38:05.396]you know, if you say that in a meeting,
[00:38:08.308]they're gonna go, what, where's that from?
[00:38:12.634]Or you can say it like my seven-year-old granddaughter does.
[00:38:18.279]It's time for dinner, go wash your hands and come back.
[00:38:22.535]Whatever.
[00:38:24.049]It's like, excuse me.
[00:38:26.935]Then we have to redo it,
[00:38:28.950]but it's that again, tone, pitch, attitude.
[00:38:34.847]So, make sure grammatical errors, again, tone,
[00:38:37.778]body language, eye contact, slouching.
[00:38:43.825]I don't know how many of you are pointers.
[00:38:49.762]I'm only do that with my grandkids,
[00:38:53.827]but I try not to, but it's really hard
[00:38:56.083]when they're rolling around on the, whoa.
[00:39:02.901]But, when you point at people,
[00:39:05.557]it's very, almost offensive.
[00:39:08.631]So, I'm kind of like, do you understand,
[00:39:12.711]or can I help you with something,
[00:39:16.632]and if you are a finger pointer, and a wagger,
[00:39:20.598]maybe you can clasp your hands together.
[00:39:24.094]But, gently, not like, sitting at the table like this.
[00:39:28.578]You know, like here, like you're really nervous.
[00:39:32.831]Remember to listen, be concise, proximity, volume
[00:39:43.762]all those things that we talked about.
[00:39:48.031]OK, pencil and paper everyone.
[00:39:56.284]The faculty, when they interview you,
[00:40:00.155]or they look at your records,
[00:40:02.463]they can see that you've got an A or a B
[00:40:04.882]or a two point whatever,
[00:40:08.472]so they already know academically where you stand.
[00:40:12.314]What they wanna know is what do you bring to the department?
[00:40:18.072]If you're gonna go into graduate school,
[00:40:19.544]you have to have good time management skills,
[00:40:22.869]you have to be organized,
[00:40:25.762]so they wanna hear those things, and this is bottom thing,
[00:40:31.395]using a short guide by writing.
[00:40:33.541]If you look up this individual, there's a one sheet,
[00:40:41.514]and I don't hand them out because
[00:40:44.636]every school is different.
[00:40:48.288]And even though it says,
[00:40:49.438]talk a little bit about yourself, what your major is,
[00:40:53.072]expand on this, what you wanna do, is,
[00:40:57.887]this is like applying for a job.
[00:41:00.696]Research the institution
[00:41:02.450]and what do they ask about on their webpage.
[00:41:05.708]What do they tell you about their students?
[00:41:08.189]What do they tell you about
[00:41:10.067]what they expect from the students?
[00:41:12.458]So, look at the school
[00:41:15.785]And this is work, because you're gonna apply to
[00:41:18.886]more than one graduate school, at least,
[00:41:22.514]at a minimum, three.
[00:41:26.370]And I'm sure Dr. Baskus is also telling about
[00:41:32.326]you have to save money to apply for these.
[00:41:35.349]Except graduate school is, Free.
[00:41:38.321]so you should be able to get a waiver.
[00:41:44.962]Let's just take a few minutes and go ahead and start.
[00:41:50.049]I'm going to go back to this.
[00:41:54.838]So, with those things in mind, just get started on,
[00:41:59.560]why I as an admission director, wanna spend time
[00:42:03.781]reading your personal statement
[00:42:06.338]and consider you for graduate school at wherever.
[00:42:13.724]I am just gonna stop you for a minute,
[00:42:16.548]go over some of the barriers
[00:42:18.387]and I think they're pretty evident,
[00:42:21.171]from what we've talked about.
[00:42:25.252]Preparation, preparation, preparation,
[00:42:28.023]focus, who's the audience, grammatical
[00:42:31.930]all these things, both verbal and written.
[00:42:37.246]And, so, this is what,
[00:42:42.156]is that us over there?
[00:42:43.064]That's a scary thought.
[00:42:49.345]So, make sure you understand what is being asked.
[00:42:51.864]Think through the response.
[00:42:53.755]Respond to the specific request directly and concisely.
[00:42:57.110]Practice, practice, practice.

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nebraska transportation center
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matc scholars program
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amy maki
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2017 MATC Scholars Program: Ms. Amy Maki

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