My Biodata: A 3rd Party's Perspective

Johny is currently a third year NUS undergraduate majoring in Chemistry. He has a deep interest in analytical chemistry because of the wide variety of practical applications it can bring to benefit the modern world.

Besides excelling academically, Johny also believes in holistic development through life-skill learning. As such, he took up lifeguard and CPR courses in case somebody in distress requires help one day. He also set himself a goal to learn at least one life skill annually.

Having served onboard different vessels in the navy, Johny is highly adaptable and independent. Leadership quality is also his strong point. He held the position of Staff sergeant in NCC during his secondary school days and moved on to become the Vice-chairman of Science society in Jurong Junior College. He was in charge of organizing many events such as the annual Science fair and orientation meeting for the new members. Johny’s leadership ability saw him through national service where he joined the Officer Cadet School to commission as a naval officer.

Leading a balanced lifestyle is what Johny engaged in too. Outside of class, he actively participates in various sports such as basketball, jogging and swimming. Water activities ranging from diving to power boating are also part of Johny’s leisure pursuit. He hopes to do skydiving one day!

Finally, Johny firmly believes that we only live life once. Hence, one should make the most out of it through life-long learning and possess the curiosity to experience the different chapters of life. “Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you only spend it once.”

Animal communication. The ideal one?

Throughout the course, we have been learning how to communicate better with another person through verbal and non-verbal means. But probing deeper, I asked myself why do we need to learn all these? Is it to bring out the best of ourselves? Is it to avoid misunderstanding? Or is there even a need to learn to communicate better?

Personally, I feel that human language is highly sophisticated as we are able to express ourselves in infinite ways by just using a few words or gestures. On the contrary, animal communicates using a set of responses due to stimuli. In animal systems, each signal has one and only one function. More than one sign cannot share the same meaning. For example,

Bees dance when they have found nectar.

Elephants show affection by entwining their trunks.

Gorillas stick out their tongues to show anger.

Horses rub noses as a sign of affection.

Unlike animals, humans can lie. They can use language to distort the world around them. Animal communication is based on a limited inventory of signs. If you learn the set of signals and their meaning then you know the system completely; there is no creativity for extending it further. This is not the case with human language. If you were to learn the entire set of words in any human language, you would still not know the language.

We can say that the signs of animal communication are more like inborn and involuntary human reactions such as laughter and sneezing than they are like human language.

We know humans have always had laughter and tears as natural inborn responses. Children develop them naturally and they don't change from generation to generation even though we can use these responses deliberately or to suppress our naturally-felt urges to express them.

Comparing both, the animal communication system is much simpler to comprehend. With that, don’t you think the world will be a better place to be in if the human communication is as direct and honest as what the animals do?