Volume 1 / Issue 3 / 2 ~ 3 Aug 2013 Point of Information Point of Information Seon Kyeong Kang, Michael Kang, Hyeok Ran Kwon,Min Ji Kim, Hyun Woo Jimmy Nam, Gil Hwa Lim, Seo Young Oh, Mingiu Paul Lee, Jung Eun Shin, Won Il Jang - Middle school debate final round - Motion THB students should be allowed to work
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Volume 1 / Issue 3 / 2 ~ 3 Aug 2013
Point of InformationPoint of Information
Seon Kyeong Kang, Michael Kang, Hyeok Ran Kwon,Min Ji Kim, Hyun Woo Jimmy Nam, Gil Hwa Lim, Seo Young Oh, Mingiu Paul Lee, Jung Eun Shin, Won Il Jang
- Middle school debate final round -
Motion
THB students should be allowed to work
2
WFUNA NEWS
A Complete picture –II
Remember the 12-faced die story from the previous volume? In it, you were able to see what is ‗behind the scene‘,
so to speak, through the eyes of trainer Noura Mansour. In this volume, A complete picture –II, we are back with the
other side of the story with interviews with the students. Let us see what the WFUNA Youth camp debate classes are
like from their point of views.
Student Interview:
By Seon Kyeong Kang, Michael Kang
Q1. How was the class?
Rosy Park
Trainers are wonderful, really nice, and I really
like the classes. When I am sitting in classes, I can‘t
feel the time go by. I sit in my chair and it feels like a
few minutes have gone by, but in reality a few hours
have gone by. Classes have been repeats of being en-
chanted by them, only to be woken up by calls for
meals.
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WFUNA NEWS
Yeong Eun Kang
I think it‘s really good that I can learn new things. I learned
basic things about the debating. I was not experienced. It‘s pret-
ty difficult to participate in the class due to the language prob-
lems. On the other hand, I can improve my English skill, and
this is one of good points of the class.
Young Ju Seo
There are many teachers and trainers who care
about us, and that is really good. They all explained
materials with details. Also, we did various activities
including lecture, extra-curricular programs, and rec-
reation. So I could refresh my head and participate in
activities more enthusiastically.
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WFUNA NEWS
Q2.What did you learn and how did you learn them?
In Hee Kang
We learned not only the formal structure of debating but also
ways to think logically. We were also encouraged to ask many
questions. By asking questions, we tried to break the stereotypes
we had. I think breaking our stereotypes helps a lot to deepen
our power of thought. The topics were usually about wide range
of world issues such as how to improve human rights, including
injustice and ethical problems spread throughout the world. And
I think those are the basic things needed to understand world
issues, so they are really helpful.
Emily Hong
I think I have been learning something beneficial and eye-
opening. Through the classes, I think I become more aware of
world issues. Also, I gained the capability to speak in front of
many people as well as becoming more aware of world issue.
While participating in the camp, I felt the need to read more
books. Also, lesson about identity was really good. We talked
about the true meaning of identity and how the society judges
others by their appearance. I agree that these perceptions should
change.
Eric Chun
In classes, we learned how to debate on concepts such as human rights. Spe-
cifically, some of the concepts we dealt with are rights of children and stu-
dents. I think what we are learning is directly in tune with the value that
WFUNA promotes and is being brought into the classrooms effectively. What
we have done in classes are, in my opinion, no easy thing to do for both the
trainers and the students, but I think we have done awesome jobs so far.
In terms of debate, we learned how to build and present arguments. More
specifically, we learned how to define specific terms of the motions and how to
develop those into arguments. We were also taught how to present and rebut to
arguments in detail (8 methods just for rebutting!).
Class time taught me many things and allowed me to engrave much of them
onto myself so that I can apply the lessons that I learned in my life.
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WFUNA NEWS
Being What We Want To Be
For the third day of extra program, students watched several videos that dealt with differing topics depicted in
different places. Some dealt with sickness in the third world, some poverty, and some with women‘s rights. Though
what videos describe are different, the overarching theme of human right and peace and security were evident—all
of which are exactly the value the United Nation promotes. This program aims to help students understand these
concepts in depth and from several different viewpoints.
As part of the extra programs, elementary and middle school students wrote article on gender equality and em-
powering women, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, and ensuring envi-
ronmental sustainability. High school students wrote on shift of power and injustice in courts. All students posed
themselves as powerful individuals with power to influence the world in the future and were told to describe what
they would do to improve the problems that stems from the topics they chose. After their completion, students put
the articles together into a news paper.
At the end of the activity, students voted amongst themselves the best news paper. The following is an interview
with the winning team:
―We had three topics to choose from when making the news: environment, safety, and disease, which are im-
portant worldwide issues relevant to all of us. Based on the videos, we chose various forms to write articles. We pre-
sumed that we are the owners of corporations that contributed greatly to the society. More specifically, we posed that
we became the best in our respective fields of aspiration. As one of the most influential people in the world, we de-
scribed the story of success along with problems of the world, and offered solution to the problems that we chose. To
finish up, we wrote the main theme in the middle and the title of the newspaper on the top.
All the members really enjoyed the program. We did not have any trouble dividing the parts. In other words, we
cooperated very well which, I think, was the key to winning the first prize. We also had fun decorating and writing
the newspaper.‖
By Seon Kyeong Kang, Jung Eun Shin
Interview:
For the past three days, students
have been busy learning the arts of
debate, Asian Parliamentary style
debate to be more specific. Readers
may wonder what exactly Asian Par-
liamentary debate is and why stu-
dents are learning this specific style.
The next few paragraphs will provide
the readers the skeletal structure of
Asian Parliamentary debate and help
understand why students are being
taught debate in this format.
Asian Parliamentary debate
(henceforth AP) is the standard style
of debate dominantly used in inter-
scholastic debate tournaments among
Asian nations. Much like the British
Parliamentary style debate, which is
modeled after actual parliamentary
debates, AP consists of two teams:
the government side defending a giv-
en motion and the opposition side,
quite fittingly, opposing the motion.
Three members from each team take
turns making seven minute speeches
in addition to a final four minute
speech given by either the first or the
second speaker of the teams. After a
motion is given, students are given
thirty minutes to organize and build
their positions.
The first speaker of the debate,
called the Prime Minister (PM),
comes from the government side and
defines the debates‘ definitions of the
key terms as well as introducing the
arguments that will be made by the
government side. Then, the Leader of
Opposition(LO) accepts or challeng-
es the definitions introduced, rebuts
the PM, provides the opposition po-
sition on the motion, and introduces
arguments. Deputy Prime Minister
and Deputy Leader of Opposition
assume identical roles of rebutting
arguments made by the previous op-
ponents and putting forth new argu-
ments. Third speakers are called the
Whips. They rebut and defend all
arguments presented in the debate
and summarize the debate in a favor-
able light for their respective sides.
Finally, the reply speakers from both
the government and the opposite
sides analyze the debate and their
contributions to explain why their
party wins rather than their oppo-
nents.
Now that we are at roughly famil-
iar with the debate format, the fol-
lowing question remains: why learn
AP debate? One among many is the
fact that most debate tournaments in
the secondary education level held in
Korea are in AP format. Since tour-
naments below university levels are
almost exclusively in AP style, it is
more fitting to use AP style debate.
AP format teaches students essential
life skills as well. Unlike other styles
of debate, there are three members in
a team, rather than two, and this ad-
ditional teammate make a big differ-
ence. In a limited amount of time, 30
minutes, debaters have to assemble a
cogent and rational case on which all
three debaters can agree—a difficult
task even among close friends and
much more difficult than it is with
only one other teammate. As such,
students should attain or heighten
skills relevant to teamwork by partic-
ipating and learning AP debate.
Now let us zoom out a little and
consider the big question. Why de-
bate in the first place? Why spend an
entire week teaching students to de-
bate? First, students learn how to
think logically and how to communi-
cate their arguments. Why this is true
is obvious; to debate successfully,
participants have to design powerful
arguments with which to convince
the target audience. Powerful argu-
ments are, of course, logical argu-
ments. Students will also learn effec-
tive methods of communications. No
matter how logical one constructs
one‘s argument, it is worthless unless
one can effectively deliver it, as the
point of debating is not about throw-
ing a collection of words and phrases
at the opponent but is about convinc-
ing the audience.
Furthermore, participating in de-
bate allows students to broaden their
horizon. The wide range and the na-
ture of debate topics in which stu-
dents engage compel them to break
out of the comfortable grounds. De-
bates on topics such as should abor-
tion be allowed, to which degree hu-
man rights champions need for de-
velopment, or to which degree the
developed world needs to support the
developing nations are, in general,
inflammatory matter usually avoided
in conversations. As such, students
rarely get to think or discuss such
core matters of the world in depth
and settle on a simple answer or not
thinking about those issues at all;
debating solves this problem. Engag-
ing in debates urge students to think
hard about these issues and, conse-
quently, opens them up.
In addition to opening students up
by having students engage a wide
range of topics, debates render debat-
ers‘ minds flexible. On a given issue,
students are required to think about
multiple facets and devise different
approach, all the while building
sound arguments. Naturally, thought
processes will become supple and
fluid. Moreover, students are always
required to argue from the govern-
ment and the opposition on random.
This means that students will often
have to argue against their beliefs,
forcing them to examine issues form
entirely new perspectives which re-
quires much mental elasticity. In this
way, flexibility is cultivated.
There it is. The rules and the rea-
sons as to why you should consider
debate seriously have been explained
concisely for you. Through this ex-
perience, participants are expected to
learn to effectively communicate,
cooperate and most importantly, uti-
lize logic in order to persuade. In a
world in which countless interests,
not all of them exactly for the greater
good, collide, the capacity for stu-
dents to maintain, and logically
speak students‘ righteous mind is of
the greatest importance. WFUNA is
providing them with the tools with
which to attain the necessary skills
prerequisite to becoming an effec-
tive, critical communicator. We hope
the students will take advantage of
this opportunity.
AP &
Debate
Page 6 - By Michael Kang -
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WFUNA NEWS
Middle School Debate—Finals
PM LO
Government Opposition
Motion: THB student should be allowed to work
DPM DLO
GW OW
GR OR
Students not only learn from school, but they can
also learn while working
Working takes away the time for children to study and
socialize.
Students do not have to rely on their parents for
allowance. Also, they contribute to the economic
growth of the country.
Children cannot focus well on studying if they have a
job. They will be tired from work and would lead to lack
of concentration while studying.
In order for students to learn, they have to have
money. Also, managing to work and study at the
same time is possible.
Even if students can learn from work, it cannot be bet-
ter than learning from school, since school is an institu-
tion specialized for teaching.
Opposition side mentioned many points that are
out of motion. However, our side did a good job
separating the different cases for developing and
developed countries.
There are only limited number of jobs that young peo-
ple have and what they earn does not contribute much
for a country’s economy.
By Seon Kyeong Kang, Jung Eun Shin
8
WFUNA NEWS
As finish our debate week...
I have been debating for some time now, since high school to be ex-
act. I think debating changes what people think. This is one of the mag-
ic of debating that I was attracted to, and I think my students are find-
ing that out by themselves.
I initially thought teaching elementary school kids would be a chal-
lenge because I expected shorter attention spans from them; I was wrong, however.
The children were eager to learn from the start, and they stayed concentrated.
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the children are already thinking on their
own, and all I only had to do was prod them a little. I was only there to help when
they had technical difficulty and to give moral support when they were stuck. Being
the bright children they are, children were able to quickly reach a consensus amongst
themselves during discussions, and had fun during debates. This was especially true
because children were constantly engaging each other.
Won Joon Kim
Class: UNDP
For the past week, I have been working with high school students, es-
pecially with 6 students of ILO. High school students, including ILO,
have so far gone through many exercises and lectures on human rights.
Specifically, what we have been doing was urging students to think and
discuss about what kinds of rights clash with each other. Through dis-
cussions, we wanted our students to ask questions and actively engage
each other.
I can say with pride that students have made significant progress since
the beginning in ways both expected and unexpected. They learned how
to work as a team, communicate with each other, and individuals exhib-
ited peer management skills. These skills, needless to say, are invaluable qualities
that will help students succeed in their lives, not only in debating but also in com-
municating and working with similar people with common goal ( in this case, win-
ning the debate). Regardless of results of debates, I believe all my students are al-
ready winners because they have already won the test of learning essential life skills.
Maya Nenadovic
Class: ILO
By Seon Kyeong Kang, Michael Kang
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WFUNA NEWS
This week, I wanted to make our students think, rather than making
them just do things mindlessly, especially because the children I am in
charge of are high school students. Debates were, of course, important
part of the class, but we focused more on issues rather than on debate
itself. We prodded students to exercise their minds by thinking about
things they may not have thought about before: military service, environment, their
rights as students, so on and so forth. To do so, we, the trainers, maintained the lec-
tures and idea as the main structures rather than discussions.
Compared to the beginning of the week, students made so much progress. At first,
students were not willing to debate and appeared shy or unconfident. Now, they are
more than enthusiastic and excited to speak. This confidence that allows them to
speak in front of the public is essentially giving them the confidence to do anything
in the world. This increased confidence is one of the most important things they are
taking away from the camp.
Tarish Arumugam
Class: ICJ
During the past few days, we taught students the basic principles of
human rights through the AP debate format. More prominent issues we
dealt with within the bounds of human rights are criminal justice sys-
tem and democracy. Within these two issues, rights of one are always
in conflict with those of other, and the students were encouraged to dis-
cuss why one triumphs over the other. In terms debate, we taught stu-
dents the roles of the speakers and what the important points are to be made in de-
bates.
I think one of the more difficult parts of class was helping students enjoy debat-
ing. Despite the difficulty, I think students are finally starting to enjoy debating and
we are happy for it. I‘d like to thank all the students for their active participation.