"It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it."
-- Joseph Joubert

Language is the most beautiful thing that human beings ever brought to the world. It is our natural privilege to speak out and express our thoughts and feelings to the others. Debating, in a way, is a great combination of both words and wisdom. To most passionate debaters, it is an intellectual game that sparkles the utmost wit as to win a single round. It is definitely not easy to debate in one's own language, not to mention in a foreign one. For Non-Natives who struggle to debate in English, it's no doubt both challenging and inspiring. But most importantly, it's fun!

Every novice who first comes to know English Debate always feel frustrated about how difficult it is to convey thoughts out clearly and fluently. In debate rounds, quick wit has to be realized in quick response and efficient expression. Thus, many Chinese students find it almost impossible to fulfill a round, especially in the western format which requires speakers to talk on for as long as 7-8 minutes. My answer to them is simple: Everyone can do it; you just need confidence to make you do. In the debate world, we have a common saying as "Fake it until you make it", which implies a basic rule for all debaters---don't even think about whether you can do it or not. When people come to me begging for advice on how to speak longer, I tell them to do one simple thing: to think about what is the worst thing to happen if you speech fails. Almost 99% of them think they are going to lose face and the audiences may think they are stupid. The fact is, no one cares! No one will even remember what a debater has said after a debate round (just ask yourself how much you can remember after listening to others) So I tell them they can just talk better if they throw this burden away. And I also suggest a kind of "Open-mouth" method to achieve this goal. The idea is simple. I train debaters to speak as soon as they get a topic. It applies the same rule of prompt speeches. But to get better effects, I would require them to talk on for 10-20 minutes and ask them to think while speak and rephrase their former words from time to time. Most of them find it beneficial and can make debate easier as they can manage to speak for a long time.

But to be honest, I never consider language ability as the most important thing in debating. A lot of universities choose debate candidates from students who speak more beautifully. This is a stereotype I would definitely object to. One may speak with perfect pronunciation and good grammar, but it does not necessarily mean the content is of the same quality too. This is a flawed perception generated from our education system. In many provincial or even national competitions, beautifully-sounded accent is a premise and an advantage. But if you once get chance to know a Korean or Japanese debater you will be shocked by the fact that despite they don't speak with a standard American or British accent, their speeches can still be great and convincing. The most surprising thing to realize is that the different accents don't even affect their thoughts conveying. So it's a mistake to always evaluate a debater only by whether he/she can speak with a good accent.

A lot of people think we have gone through much training before getting such good results in international tournaments. But I should say that we only start a few months ago with no specific experts assisted. Though we have some international debate societies who back us in many aspects, in actual training and practicing, we are all on our own. Parliamentary Debate is a relatively new format which only came to China few years ago. We coached our teams by also consulting to various resources and experience on internet most of the time. But in a way we form our unique style because there's no model to follow. The most important thing to finish the task of building a high quality debate team is to introduce them to the world of arguments and inspire them to love debating. Passion is the best impulse. And then it's all about practice. We debate twice a week and once a month holds small tournaments inside our group. Case discussion is also a good way to develop certain skills.
I love debating simply because of the satisfaction I can gain from it. Every time when I think of myself clashing my ideas with others, I always find it so delighting and appeasing. That's why I would love to see more people enjoy debate as I do. With that, EDS-BLCU will continue to welcome students to join our group, to debate and to discover the fun from it.

We debate, there we are.

Amanda Ou
President of English Debate Society
Beijing Language and Culture University
Coach of the First Price Team in the First XISU-IDEA International Debate Tournament