Debate Tryouts Postponed

Today there was supposed to be a debate tryouts with the new English faculty member, Anna Alfaro Manurung. She's a Filipino, an avid debater, and gladly wanted to be BINUS International's debating coach. But before she start any coaching session, she would like to hold a tryout first to check on our logical thinking, English skills, and speaking skills. It's supposed to be today but apparently it is postponed until next week.

I started debating when I was in High school, though it was not really that serious. I went to serious practices and competitions starting my first year in college. But even when I say 'serious', the practices were never intensive nor effective. The coaching system was based on 'seniority', where fellow senior will coach their junior. With this system, we could never really breakthrough any outstanding achievement. We could only be as good (or in most cases, worse), as the senior that coached us. I myself went to four (if I'm not mistaken) competitions, and the best I could get was being an Octo finalist. I do hope this will change with the arrival of Mrs. Manurung :)

I learnt a lot from debating. First of all, my critical thinking was really challenged. I need to be very critical each time the opponent give their speech, so that our team could attack them with a good rebuttal; and at the same time, strengthening our own case. Next thing, I learnt how to structure my thoughts. Giving a debate speech is the matter of convincing the audience (especially the adjudicators). If you can't structure your thoughts, you could never really convey the message in a meaningful way. Since I'm usually the first speaker, who laid down all the background of our team's case, speech structure is even more important.

Being a final year student wouldn't get me very far in the future competitions. I might not be able to compete at all. But I am still excited to get all the things that I might be able to learn in the coaching sessions. Who knows, I might have a chance to be an adjudicator in the future International competitions (Ireland, anyone?) :)