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Grade 9: Cindy So Won NHSDLC Champion

November 3, 2016

Grade 9: Cindy So Won NHSDLC Champion

On October 29th and 30th, seven students from the YBL debate club at SHSID attended the Jiangsu round of the NHSDLC (National High School Debate League of China), and all of the reached the final rounds. One of our teams stormed ahead to win the Jiangsu Round championship. Cindy So from the winning team shared her experience with us:

How do you feel about the tournament?

Cindy So:We spent two days at the tournament. The first day consisted of four preliminary rounds. The top 16 teams out of 60 made it to the elimination round on the second day. Daniel and I won the first place at the first day, so we qualified for the elimination round.

The tournament was pretty tiring. We did eight rounds in total during the entire two days and both of our throats got a little numb.

What was the resolution for this tournament? How did you do the preparation for it?

Cindy So:The resolution was ‘Urbanization in China has Done More Good than Harm.’ The topic was revealed a long time in advance. We did preparation together in the YBL debate club. This club was organized by me and a Grade 11 student since the start of September. We did research together. Daniel and I wrote the cases for the tournament and prepared blocks for many contentions.

Were you on the Pro side or Con side?

Cindy So:Both sides has to be prepared because we can be on different sides for each round and a coin toss would be used for the decision. And that’s also why we should know what the other side may say during the rounds. Blocks should be prepared for every possibility.

What did you learn from this tournament?

Cindy So:I’ve attended some debate tournaments before. However, my partner this time is from Grade 10. Daniel and I wrote cases and rebuttals together. He has more debate experience than me. Although I was the first speaker and he was the second speaker, and we therefore had different roles, I was still able to learn a lot from him.

Why do you like debating?

Cindy So:It is very interesting to look at a question from different angles. We can learn both the advantages and disadvantages for any one resolution. Research skills can help us a lot for our daily subjects. Debate can broaden our horizons by forcing us to learn a lot of new things. Also, our English skills can be developed by debating because. It needs not only speaking skills, but also writing skills.

Which part do you like best during a round of debating?

Cindy So:I like both the speech parts and the crossfire parts. The speech would be calmer than the crossfire. However it can still be a challenge because you would learn how to expresses the points that you want to express within a limited time. The crossfire can cause a lot of clashes, which is good. However it can give the judges a headache sometimes, because the arguing can be very aggressive!

(Written by 9(4)Cindy So Picture by Yi Gao Supervised by Yi Gao)