Interview: Top Japanese Team at NEAO

Interview: 

Highest Ranking Japanese Team at NEAO 

(WASEDA 1)

Waseda 1 

(Takenori Hayashi and Masanori Hayashi)

How was NEAO for you in general? Share with us the good, bad, and the ugly.

We think it was really good. Actually it was the first time for us to participate in NEAO as debater, but our performance was okay. We got 13pts in preliminary rounds and broke as 9^thseed. As individual speakers, both of us got EFL speaker prize (EFL Best & 4^th best). If we were allowed to get a wish, we would have wanted to break 8^th and get exempted from Pre-Quarter! (we lost there lol) .
Moreover, it was great to see our friends such as Tae Yeoung, Hyewon, Youngcho, Chian Lim...and more!! Of course we also made a lot of new friends! We think NEAO is the best place for North East Asian Community to tighten the bond :)

What do you think is the biggest difference between debate in Korea and Japan? How should we learn from each other?

It must be remembered that this is just our opinion but we believe the difference is the focus of debate. Japanese debaters usually likely to focus on the micro stuff such as depth of analysis so they try to put as many logic/reasoning as possible. Japanese are generally good at explaining complex mechanism by making strong logic. On the other hand, you guys Korea have many good speakers with fantastic presentation skill. Thereby we have perception that Korean debaters are good at macro approach to debate. In terms of extension building, this skill is wonderfully demonstrated by showing different angles of debate. 

The good news is that both KIDA and JPDU have own debate video resources. We suggest you to feel the different style and learn each other by watching video!

Who did you find the hottest at NEAO?

Dave Hwang, the Tournament Director! He took care of us very well! Very attentive man.

Who was the most inspiring speaker for you at NEAO?

Won Chian Lim from FDU! We know he's a good speaker but especially his speech at the grand final was so funny! lol We praise him for making great Prime Minister speech on that difficult topic. It was such a memorable one.

Who was the most inspiring adjudicator?

It's actually hard to decide....every adjudicator was very inspiring to us. If we have to choose one adjudicator in particular, we say Jan Galas was the one. He judged us twice. His feedback helped us especially after Round4, when we got 4^th. His feedback helped us get 1^st consecutively at Round 5 and 6!

Any last words for Korea Debate community?

We'd like to thank CAP and Org.com members who made this event really happen! We also appreciate all debaters and adjudicators who made each round competitive and exciting. Waseda will come back to bring championship back to Japan next year!! Finally for people who's going to organize KIDA IV, good luck! We do hope it would be as great as this NEAO.