DEBATE-A-BOOM
By: Brian lee, Michelle ahn and Amy Kim
Editor: Amy kim
Web designed by: justin chee
Among middle schoolers in Korea, debate is a big interest among students. Students enjoy expressing their thoughts, investigating for logical fallacies in arguments, and outsmarting other teams especially since they are in such a competitive society.
In this country, the Asian Parliamentary debate is the most popular form of debate. This form consists of two teams. The government side agrees to the motion while the opposition side disagrees on the motion. Each side consists of three members to each clarify their points, refute the other side, and summarize the whole debate in 6 minutes each. There are other types of debates that are handled in different types of competitions, such as the British Parliamentary and Public Forum Debate. “Despite the fact that debate can bring stress because of its competition, skills such as engagement, speaking and reflex naturally develop in the process,” said Nicholas Kim (9), a member of the HS forensics team and grand champion of Yeonhap Television News (YTN) Debate Tournament. Even though debate is a competitive sport, it is currently creating a dynamic boom in our community. Students today are willingly sacrificing their extracurricular time to debate. “I started because a couple of people asked me if I want to do debate,” Junie Kah (8) said. Many debaters approach this extracurricular activity in a similar way. They are either encouraged by friends or parents. However, debate receives contradictory views from the ones that tried it out. It may be a logic game that inspires passion, as well as a tiring ritual of listening and speaking. Whatever it may be, people who have passion always turned out to be successful debaters. Many cases have shown that even extreme talent cannot beat those with passion. “When I got crushed by a 6th grader team, I was considering to quit debate. From then on, I stopped debating for half a year. But soon I realized that debate was very important to me, so I started again,” said Lauren Ahn (11), a high school debater who is currently in the Korean national team and has been debating for six years. While debating, students may experience losses, however those very losses are great opportunities for development and learning. Despite the fact that losses impact even the sturdiest debater’s route to success, many students are passionately pursuing their debate career with passion and commitment with bright futures awaiting them. |
Before going up to the podium, Michelle Lee (8) and Michelle Ahn (8) independently organize their notes in order to give the best speech possible.
Ian Lee (8) and Nicholas Shin (8) talk to each other about their thoughts on the NFL Elementary Grand Finals that took place on the stage.
Ian Lee (8), the second speaker of team opposition, proudly proposes his rebuttals against the affirmative side’s three arguments that were previously presented.
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