KIDA TALKS Guide to Prepping for Debate Tournaments

KIDA TALKS Guide to 

Prepping for Debate Tournaments

Edited by JyaHyun Lee a.k.a Albert

The burning summer and window-breaking typhoons are slowly giving way to the new season: fall. In fall, the KIDA Cup will travel to another school that manages to win yet another tournament. So, are you ready to debate?

Courtesy: Tae Young Kim

Maybe, you have spent too much time on the beach and gotten out of the ‘debate mode.’ It is time for all of us to get back into that mode, where we are ready to argue the craziest cases and manage to convince people who pretend to be judges. Here is a guide for you to remind yourself what you are made of: ARE (For those of you who haven’t debated enough, ARE stands for Assertion, Reasoning, and Evidence).

One word of caution is due here. Know your level and know what you are looking for. There is so much useful stuff online that you will definitely get lost in the ocean of information unless you know what you need. Think of the feedbacks you have received from trainers and adjudicators and figure out which area of debate you need to work on. It may be that you want to watch some videos to improve your manner, or you may need to read up and learn some principles (i.e. First Principles) that may guide you through debates of any and all topics. There is not much time left until KNC and pick and choose what you want to improve until the tournament.

* NOTE: This is only the first version of this article. With your help, this article can grow into a collective distillation of Korea Debate experience! Any and all comments and links are highly appreciated! 

It's actually my bookshelf, one that has books that have absolutely nothing in common.

1.       Read Up: Former KNC and NEAO Champion, when I asked him what he wanted to share with the rest of debate community what he thought would be a helpful advice for the debaters, said “Read Up!” The importance of research, of the sometimes mundane routine of reading the newspaper and the Economist everyday can never be emphasized enough. Although current issues are not known to dominate the motion topics, reading the news will equip you with the knowledge, understanding, and information necessary for good debates.

2.    Google it: There are surprisingly rich, various, and high-quality debate-related information online. You will have access to videos, cases, arguments, and debate instructions. Here is a brief list of some of the most helpful ones.

What is Debate? Asked and answered, by Logan

A.    Learndebate.net: Logandran Balavijendran, a.k.a. Logan, has put together this website that consists not only written explanations of basic debate information, but also videos of himself explaining them. Debate has never been this accessible to rookies. To use all the contents on the site, you must create a new account and log in. The site focuses on Asian Parliamentary format but the videos can be applied across debate formats. Perhaps the best resource online for Rookie debaters. (www.learndebate.net). Thank you Logan!

Courtesy: Logan

Courtesy: MAD

B.    MAD (Monash Association of Debaters): Surprisingly big number of even experienced debaters do not even know that this website exists. If you are looking for written material guiding you through your debate career, you got them here. Monash Association of Debaters (MAD) is known as one of the most successful debating societies in the world and is quite active in sharing its expertise in debate through Journals, Guides, and etc. On this website, you have a wide range of resources including debate videos, lectures, debate handbooks, matter files, and etc. Here is a list of some of the most useful resources.

                                  i.   MAD Website: http://monashdebaters.com/

                                 ii.   MAD Training Handbook: Useful for both rookies and experienced debaters.

1. http://www.monashdebaters.com/handbooks.php

                               iii.  Training Guide for University Debating: The word is, learn the First Principles to get ahead!

1. http://www.monashdebaters.com/handbooks.php

                                iv.  Debate Videos: Contains some BP videos at Worlds

1.  http://www.monashdebaters.com/videos.php

C.       Miscellaneous

                                  i.  Debatabase: Accessible, ready-made debate cases consisting of background information, arguments, counter-arguments, and links to related articles. Best for rookies and intermediate debaters

1. http://idebate.org/debatabase

                                 ii.  Debatepedia: The Wikipedia of debates! Same principle as Debatabase but more detailed and based on written material from online sources. Best for rookies and intermediate debaters

1.    http://debatepedia.idebate.org/en/index.php/Welcome_to_Debatepedia%21

                               iii.  LearnDebate.net_VIDEO: Videos, Videos, and more Videos! Consisting the total of 326 Australs, BP, and AP videos taken in tournaments around the world in the last few years

1.  http://blip.tv/loganimal

                                iv.  DebateVideo: Provides debate videos, lectures, and other material in a variety of debate formats. Suitable for someone experience of debate and is used to different debate styles.

1.  http://debatevideoblog.blogspot.kr/

So What is the Right Thing To Do?

3.    Learn the Real stuff: It is one thing to watch debate videos everyday, and quite another to read and learn the specific disciplines of studies that provide the knowledge for debate. Here is a very brief list of links to non-debate resources that may help you do better.

A.    Justice: The famous book and lecture series by Michael Sandel, Professor of Political Philosophy at Harvard University. Close look at the lectures alone will give you an idea of how to base your arguments in certain philosophy.

                           i.    http://www.justiceharvard.org/

B.    SNOW: Online compilation of educational videos. The current collection amount to thousands and thousands, some of which have Korean or English scripts. Will be of good use, only if you know what you are looking for.

                          i.    http://www.snow.or.kr/

INTRAMUROS REPORT: Korea Debaters Moving Ahead

INTRAMUROS REPORT: 

Korea Debaters Moving Ahead

Whoever said that Korea was weak in Asian debate?

Reporting the results of the Korean participants at:

4TH INTRAMUROS IV - Manila, Philippines (August 24-26th)

Four prelim rounds, 32 teams break to Octos

Semi Finalists: 

EWHA JiHye Amy Park & Mina Lee

Octo Finalists: 
SOGANG David Kim & Minyoung Rho
KU Ky Heo & Tim Wonhyong Lee
The Cereal Killers Joonhak Choi & Diane Song

Best Adjudicator:
Gyumin Zeal Kim (UU)

Congratulations Korean debaters!

Courtesy: Hyewon Rho

Photo  Courtesy: Korean teams at Intramuros

For your Information, List of motions:

Intramuros International Intervarsity motions

Round 1: THBT the homosexual movement is better off trying to reform religious institutions from within than rejecting the institution altogether

Round 2: Where capacity and relationship/interest exist, THW allow more than two parents for a child to be recognized by the state

Round 3: This house would punish medical workers who flee from their duties during epidemics

Round 4: THBT political parties have done more harm than good to the democratic process

Octo Finals: THBT the UK Government should forcibly take Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy

Quarter Finals: TH prefers an atheist world

Semi Finals: THBT debt needed to finance the recovery of the Eurozone from the crisis should be collectively incurred by all member states (i.e. THW issue Eurobonds)

Grand Finals: THBT it is legitimate for states to purchase land from and sell land to other states.

Courtesy: Bangladesh Debate

http://bddebate.blogspot.kr/2012/08/intramuros-international-intervarsity.html#.UD45GdhHqc8

Interview with 2012 Australs ESL Break team Solbridge

Interview with 2012 Australs ESL Break team Solbridge

Invigorating Speaker,

JuSeung Yi’s dream

Interviewed by JyaHyun Albert Lee

Edited by Hyo Jeong Kim

2012 Victoria University Australs was a feast for Solbridge Debating Society with their ESL Breakout news. It is no wonder that they have risen to London Debating Olympic caliber (if it had existed) and we can expect another ESL Champion in 2013 Berlin WUDC following the last year's WUDC EFL champion from DAE(Debate Association of Ewha).  KIDA TALKS had an e-mail interview with one of the Solbridge Australs members, JuSeung Daniel Yi, who is a dandy guy and easily noticeable with his splendid Harry Potter glasses even from 10m away.

JuSueng is a Chief Adjudicator for the upcoming Fall KNC that it might be intriguing to peep into his personal profile.  

2012 Solbridge Australs, MJ, Seoyoon, JuSeung from left

1. Hello! Would you briefly introduce about yourself?

Hello, my name is JuSeung Yi, 25 from SolBridge Debate Society. I’m currently studying International Business at SolBridge International School of Business. I love talking overnight with people over soju, taking a random walk, and killing my time in bookstores and shops. When it comes to debating, I usually work as a Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) or Leader of Opposition (LO), but the roles often change to Prime Minister (PM) and Deputy Leader of Opposition (DLO) based on our team cases.

2. This might be what future wannabe ESL Champion hang on your every word. How did you practice for Australs 2012?

Most of our practice focused on building up the matter file. As soon as the summer vacation started, we divided research work into different themes based on the past Australs motions: social, education, health, children and families, religion, media, pop culture, feminism, developing world, 1st World, politics and international organizations, democracy, Asia, economy & business, immigration, wars and drugs, sports, environment, indigenous people, law and order, tax and equality.

At the same time, we also made a separate matter file from Economist Debates. After that, we arrived in New Zealand a week earlier to participate in Pre-Australs, which is a preparation tournament. During Pre-Australs, we were able to practice debating and get used to Australs debating and judging style.

3. How did you make up 2012 Australs team?

Unlike other schools which go through a tryout for team selection, teams are selected by our coaches in our society. For 2012 Australs, without exception, our team was also selected by our coaches based on their evaluations.

The road for Infinite Challenge (Moohan-Dojeon in Korean) 

4. What is the most memorable episode that you want to share with our KIDA Talks readers during the 2012 Australs Tournament?

What happened at Australs stays in Australs. I will say that much. :)

5. Did you expect that you would break out as an ESL Team?

No, I didn’t expect to break this time. You might know as a debater that as you debate on and on, you sometimes have a weird periodic feeling about yourself that you are not ready for the certain tournament or something is not working out in the way you wish to be. Also, I felt that we did not practice enough as a team for Australs. MJ and I have debated as a team for a while but it was the first time to team up with SeoYoon

6. What was your team’s overall goal for the 2012 Australs?

Of course, we wanted to break as an ESL team and win the ESL cup. Our realistic goal, however, was just to learn from the tournament as much as possible in preparation for other tournaments in the 2nd half of the year such as NEAO and Worlds.

7. Would you evaluate your two other team-mates individually?

SeoYoon is a great team player. Like sports, team work is very important in determining team performance in every round. She is a type of person that puts her teammates before her. She is also very focused during the preparation time. Sometimes, when you have a long tournament like Australs, you get exhausted and have a hard time keeping yourself focusing on debating. But, she was always focused on fulfilling her role in every round.

MJ, on the other side, is the best person to cover our back as a whip speaker. He is very good at connecting missing dots we failed to make in the first two speeches and brings easy-to-understand analysis to debate. He is also good at logically linking ideas and arguments into one.

The background of the photo is a beautiful Wellington Ocean

8. How did you feel after the Semi-Finals of the ESL round?

Just mixed feelings like “I hate myself”… And as always, “I felt I should’ve done it better…”Especially, when I found out that I didn’t take one of my notes with me to the podium, I was really embarrassed in the middle of speech and had a silent, awkward 5 seconds that felt like 50 minutes to me.

9. Would you vividly describe the Semi-Final round?

Our opposition team was Macau A and the motion was that “THBT media should not report private lives of politicians”. We basically talked about how the media is not fulfilling its role and right of politicians is being undermined. However, we could not prove the links clearly and did not go further to explain why that is bad on a societal and individual level. On the other side, the opposition did a better job of defending the status quo and cutting the linkage of our arguments.

10. I heard your coach (professor) supported your team a lot. How did he assist your team during the tournament? 

He supported us a lot throughout the Pre-Australs and Australs. He watched every round we were in and gave us feedback on how we could improve for next round. The feedback helped us a lot to fix our bad habits and mistakes we often make.

11. What did you feel after participating in Australs 2012?

I feel participating in Australs 2012 was a great learning experience for me. I was happy with the feedback the judges in Australs provided. The feedbacks helped me find my weaknesses as a debater and have a better idea of how I need to work on them. Also, watching some of the world-renowned debaters’ speech was a great motivator.

Personally, with all good memories with friends who were with us in NZ and KIDA members who cheered our breaking from Korea, the tournament was a valuable time to look back and appreciate what I have around me.

Good memories unforgettable with friends in NZ

12. Will you participate in Australs 2013 again?

Sadly, No. .

I’m graduating after fall semester. But who knows I might participate as an adjudicator.

13. Your goal as a debater?

For now, I want to make it to the Finals in the upcoming NEAO and to break as an ESL (or EFL) team in WUDC Berlin 2013.

14. What kind of a person do you want to be in future?

In broad terms, I want to become a person who can inspire others through my actions, lectures and books, whether in the education field or business field, like Seth Godin and Daniel Pink do (though I still have a long way to go). In the short term, I want to study business further in terms of the organizational behavior, motivation, and NGO management, and run a social enterprise. In that sense, I think debating is a great step forward to that end.

In every single his word, KIDA Talks could feel how much he cares his team members and fell in love with debating. KIDA Talks will be always there rooting for JuSeung with all might for his bright future as an inspiriting dream maker.


END.

Are you MAD?

Are you MAD?



Learning from the Most Awesome Debating society in the world,

Consisted of Marvelously Attractive Debaters!

Interviewed and edited by Hyo Jeong Kim

Monash Assocation of Debaters, MAD is currently ranked as one of the most successful debating societies in the world, following recent two World championships in 2011 and 2012. MAD has long history, entering its 50^th year in 2012. MAD has 700 members, with around 100-150 active members who regularly attend training and social events. Are you curious about MAD? This is all about MAD, hearing from Gemma Buckley and Chris Bisset.

Gemma is the President of MAD, studying Arts at Monash. She has been a part of MAD since her first week of university, which proves her destiny to be the president. Chris is a Training Manager of MAD, majoring in Law and Arts. He is smart enough to triple major but also an easy-going guy who loves to relax on the couch watching TV dramas with sweet potato chip

Hearing from Gemma about general administration of MAD

Recruiting process and motivation

MAD recruits people from all backgrounds, including people who have absolutely no debating experience. MAD prides itself of having a unique training program, which is able to create great debaters of people within a short period of time, no matter how good or bad they started out. MAD is competitive. It is difficult to get into teams for tournaments like Australs and Worlds and that knowledge definitely motivates members to work hard on improving their debating.

Alumni Tradition

MAD has a strong tradition of alumni coming back and providing training and assistance to younger debaters. Despite the fact that many of alumni work important and stressful full-time jobs, they are usually very willing to provide whatever help they can. Former members generally feel like they owe something back to the club, given how much help they were given by alumni, so they want to pass on the knowledge that they have in the same way.

Election process to be board members

MAD elects our executive once a year. All club members get to come and run or simply vote for candidates at the Annual General Meeting. It is very competitive to actually be elected. In general, there is a huge emphasis on work ethic and previous commitment to the club.

Hearing from Chris about training system of MAD

General information about training session

The training of members falls to the Member Training Officer who has a seat on the executive committee. Every Monday at 5pm, MAD provides seminars which normally have a choice of three that vary according to subject matter and degree of difficulty. Seminars or lectures are given by senior members of the club or by past members of the club. Kiran Iyer, for example, often gives a seminar about Russian politics because he has done a lot of work in that area. We also have more general seminars about tactics or manner.
We normally use PowerPoint slides and we have a pretty good collection from previous years, but we always leave it up to the individual presenter to fine-tune them. We try and make the seminars as interactive as possible and to have as many examples and real world scenarios as possible. Seminars normally go between 45 and 60 minutes.

After seminar, we have dinner provided by free pizza and then we have a practice debate which ends at 10 p.m. These happen each week throughout the University Semester and are alternated with Internal Debating tournament some weeks.

Debating Topic

Motions are normally selected by the Internals Officer and they aim to be both accessible and yet challenging. At the beginning of the year when we have lots of new members we try and make sure the topics are interesting and exciting to keep them attracted to university debating. We run one debate each week where some of our more experienced second years do more complicated and quirky topics. These are meant to help explore interesting arguments that we might not normally make. For example we debated the topic, ‘That Iran should pre-emptively strike Israel’s long range fighter capabilities’ or ‘That we should abolish all prisons’.

Preparation for International Debating Competition

Sometimes it feels like we’re debating morning and night. Our normal expectation is that teams A-C will do at least 20 debates each, plus pre-tournament warm-up competitions. We also do matter preparation whereby we divide up different areas to research and then prepare very brief reports and share them among the teams.

MAD team selection process

Selections are the responsibility of the Externals Officer and they are normally done by people totally outside of the MAD institution. This might be older, former MAD members, but we normally try and get highly accomplished people from other universities because they are less likely to be swayed by friendships and other things. Sometimes we help by compensating these people for their flights and accommodation.

We have an initial stage whereby everyone gets to debate in front of each selector. People’s positions in those debates are allocated randomly. The selectors then decide which debaters they want to see again and these people move into the ‘call-back’ stage. There are then two or three debates (with positions and team composition decided by the selectors) in front of the whole panel. The selectors then rank the speakers.

From here speakers can swap with one another, but only with the consent of everyone affected by the swap. The teams are then formed with the first three (or two for BP) ranked speakers forming Monash A, etc.

Special Training Session

There was a debate with Christian Scientist, John Mckay under the motion . ‘The evidence does not support evolution and could support creation. Like this, MAD is often contacted by external groups that want to do public debates with our members. We use these events as an opportunity to attract new members and help build an exciting campus life. We have had other debates about Organ Donation, Refugee policy and homelessness. One of our unforgettable session was, we had one session with a former member who is now a motivational speaker and public speaking consultant for corporate boards. He came in and did a session on manner, in which he asked us to recite the Gettysburg Address and do it in as many different voices and speeds and tones as possible. It was very funny.

Last thing to say for Korean Debaters?

Gemma : Debating is such a worthwhile exercise. It really makes you a more thoughtful, confident and well-rounded person. Given that, it is absolutely worth putting time and effort into becoming the best debater you can be.

Chris : Do lots of debates. Do something different in each debate. Don’t just debate for the sake of it – think about what you’re trying to do and how you can do it better. Debating requires practice, but it also requires deliberate, disciplined self-criticism or else you’ll just keep doing the same mistakes over and over again. Watch some of the videos of debating on the internet to get more experience of the best debaters in the world!

Lessons from the Gurus of debate

Hearing from the Guru of debating

Interview with World Debating Champions Amit and Kiran

Interviewed and Edited by Hyo Jeong Kim

On the last day of World University Debating Championships, these two guys, Amit and Kiran, were the final holders of the champion trophy which everyone admires even to touch it. As the opening Government in Grand Finals under the motion “This house supports nationalism”, they have successfully led the debating by emphasizing the role of nationalism as the collective power among citizens. This is interview with Kiran and Amit.

Amit and Kiran, with Champion grin on their faces

Could you introduce yourself?

My name is Amit Golder. I am 24 years old, and currently work for the Victorian Government.

My name is Kiran Iyer and I am currently in my final year of a Politics/Law degree at Monash University.


How and When did you start debating

I started debating when I was at high school, because some of my friends were doing it and I wanted to hang out with them. I love debating because I enjoy considering ideas, thinking critically and meeting fun and interesting people from around the world.

I started debating far too long ago in high school! I’ve loved debating at university because it’s a great chance to meet talented people from across the world.


When was the most difficult time as a debater?

When I started debating at university, I found it very difficult to keep up with the very intelligent and knowledgeable speakers at Monash. I thought I would never be able to compete with them, because they seemed to be able to handle every debate so easily, while I was struggling to remember where Burma was!

Debating is a difficult competitive activity and I’ve lost countless debates in my years at Monash. At times losing can be disappointing, but it is always a good learning experience.


Who was your role model as a public speaker, debater or life model and why?

As a debater, Roland Dillon and Ivan Ah Sam were the speakers I most idolized. They were sophisticated and original, but also massively persuasive to all kinds of people. I also idolized them because they were incredibly gifted debaters who were very Australian – that is, they didn’t try to copy the debating styles of other people or countries to succeed. My life role model is of course Victor Finkel, because he is rich.

I love Barack Obama. I wish I could be as charismatic as him!

How did you make both of you a team?

Funnily enough, Kiran and I debated together at Assumption Worlds 2008! We had team selections, and from that Kiran and I decided we would like to debate with each other again. We’re friends and get along really well, so it was an easy decision.

Amit and I have debated together before which made it very easy to work together. We had fun together regardless of whether we won or lost debates, which made it easier to deal with the pressure of Worlds.


How do you manage conflicts while preparing for debating?

I can’t think of any conflicts! We never blamed each other for the debates that we lost. Ultimately, it’s important to keep debating tournaments in perspective and even if we lost, we would have felt lucky to have had the chance to participate.


How did you practice for the competition? How much and was there any special training that only two of you share?

We did 3 warm up tournaments (New Zealand BP, Melbourne Mini and Sydney Mini). We also did practice debates with the other Monash teams, judged by former Monash debaters like Victor, Tim Jeffrie and Ravi Dutta. We also spent some time, just as a team, preparing cases and doing practice preps on various issues. Finally, we individually did research on assigned matter areas – although I must admit that I was pretty poor at this.


What is your strong point and weakness? What did you do to overcome your weakness? Could you evaluate each of your partner?

It is very difficult to be objective about strengths and weaknesses, better to ask people who have adjudicated us! I think my strength is my creativity, but my weaknesses are certain matter areas (such as finance/monetary policy) as well as sometimes problems with logic (sometimes my arguments sound fine, but actually are not logically consistent!).

I really enjoy rebuttal but I find it very difficult. At Worlds, I worked hard with Amit to improve my rebuttal and make sure I didn’t miss any important points. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t!


What is your next goal as a debater?

I am happily retired from competitive debating, so my goal is getting drunk to celebrate upcoming Monash victories at Wellington Australs and Berlin Worlds!

I prefer to focus on relaxing and drinking for a while, before thinking about the next tournament!


Last word for Korean Debaters?
I had such a good time in Korea at Australs 2011, hope to see you all again soon!
All of the Korean debaters I’ve met are great fun- looking forward to seeing some of you at Wellington Australs!