I’ve always wanted to try debate. I remember last year a video popped up on my recommended page on YouTube. Its title was “Intelligence High School Debate,” and once I scrolled down to the comment section, I could see mad amounts of people heaping praise upon these Korean high school kids debating. Comments like, “please dont let my asian mother see this,” or “Are they really high school? Damn when i was in high school i was debating my classmate if my answer is correct but later none of us got the correct answer.”.

I thought I had to try this thing out because whenever we did debates in elementary school, I would destroy everyone — at least that’s how I would remember it.

So when last month my friend asked if anyone wanted to become his debate partner, I accepted.

Before this, I had close to no debate training, only the occasional debate in English class. So, I was going into this without any clue of what I was doing. The worst of it all, however, was that I only had one week to prepare. So, even if I did have a knack for this thing, I would still get smothered by other competitors. But inspired by the success of my previous challenge on learning Chinese, and looking to challenge myself further, I thought I had a chance.

Training

I wasn’t able to develop a thorough plan for training because I only had one week before the tourney. I barely did some research on the debate format and rules (British Parliament) and consulted Quora for ways to improve at debating.

I endeavored to emulate a real debate by watching a recording of a debate match and taking the place of one of the participants. I used the intelligence high school debate video I mentioned above; turns out they aren’t as perfect as the comments make them out to be.

I didn’t do anything else for training. The only other drills were isolating specific parts of the aforementioned practice — prepping, speeches, note-taking, etc.

My friend helped me a lot by giving me feedback on the speeches I recorded and explaining to me how debate works.

I’ll estimate that I trained for three hours a day, but I missed two days because my family went on a vacation. So, in the end, I got something like 18 hours of preparation for this debate event.

The Tournament

The organizers of this tournament decided to host it over Discord because, well, Covid. They hosted the event over the weekend, with rounds on Saturday and Sunday.

If you’re unfamiliar with how British Parliamentary Debate works, you can watch this video. There also should be a post about how debate works in the future. But I’ll try to cover it quickly here.

Essentially, four teams are all against each other, and there are two sides: one arguing in favor of the proposition (government) and the other against it (opposition). The teams on the same side are also competing with each other, albeit more passively, through trying to prove who has contributed the most to the debate.

The opening government starts the round with a speech, and after they’ve finished, the opening opposition starts speaking. This order continues until everyone has spoken, which ends the match.

Each person can only give one speech, but during the speeches of others they can quickly refute or add a piece of information, this is known as a POI. The judges release the subject of debate 15 minutes before the round starts so that the teams can prepare during those 15 minutes.

How I Did

Coming into the first round, I was a bit nervous. We were the last team to speak, and as I said before, it was my first time. I thought I was going to bomb it, and I had no idea how skilled the competition was. The motion went something like this, “You are a parent of a child who is in a long-term relationship. It has come to your attention that your child is cheating in this relationship. THW tell the partner of your child.”

The motion sounds confusing, but basically, all it is saying is that you, as the parent, would tell the boyfriend/girlfriend of your cheating child. Since we were speaking last, we were in opposition to the motion. Looking back, supporting this motion is a lot harder than going against it.

Anyway, I tried my best to distinguish my arguments, but at the same time, I bsed my way through. I said some stupid stuff about how Confucius valued the family, and for that reason, we ought to not tell the child’s partner.

In the end, we somehow got second out of the four teams in the round. I was laughing so hard because our arguments were complete trash.

The next round, however, we came dead last. The motion was something on supporting labor unions instead of trade unions, which, frankly, I don’t think anyone was knowledgeable on.

In the round after that, we got third place. This one I felt was unfair because I thought I performed my best in this round, and the arguments of the other teams made no sense. The motion was on contacting uncontacted tribes.

In the final round, we didn’t get the results right away because the judges had to plan who would make it on to the semi-finals and junior finals (top teams with members younger than grade 9 or teams with a first-time participant). The motion was on amplification, which is when non-men support the ideas of other non-men in the workplace regardless of stance to advance the feminist movement.

We didn’t make it to the junior finals. We were one point off. It kind of pissed me off, but whatever I couldn’t control it. What was funny, though, was that we finished second in the last round — a round where I bsed the most, where I legit knew nothing.

Takeaways

We didn’t do as well as I planned, but with only one week of training and so many uncontrollable variables in the tournament, I think I’m satisfied with the result.

I surprised myself with the improvement possible in a week, but next time I would spend maybe a month or more. Had I spent longer, we likely would’ve gotten the edge and made it onto the next stage — the junior finals.

As for debate, I’m not sure if I’ll continue. I read a lot of non-fiction anyway, so I guess that debate would be a sure-fire way to use up that information. But, I do have a lot going on in my life. So for now, I’ve put debating on the back burner. I have no clue what I’m going to do with this skill, or if I can even call it that, nor do I know when the next time I’ll debate is.

I wouldn’t say that I wasted this week, though. I might not debate for a long time and lose a lot of my progress, but I’ve learned how to learn quicker.

Also, beginning this challenge, I not only had little knowledge of debating, but I also had little awareness of the possibilities. Now that I’ve finished, I’ve become aware of just how much better I should and can be — I’ve become aware of how much is possible.

We have to try things to learn about our interests, and also learn more about the world in general. If you try more things, then you’ll be able to know just how much better you can get.

It’s time to do something new. I mean, you don’t want to stay unaware of what’s possible right?