07.12.08

SAID China Debate Event Reports (February and March 2007)

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:40 am by dsbear

Dear Members, Friends, and Partners in Debating,

SAID was involved in 3 overseas debate education programmes in China in the months of February and March 2007. Below are the details of these 3 events:

a) Macau University (MU) Debate Workshop (9th to 12th February 2007)

24 members of the Macau University English Club attended a 2.5-day Debate Workshop in February 2007 conducted by Loke Wing Fatt. The university students were introduced to the major varsity debate formats and taught the basics of good debating. On 12th February, an American Parliamentary Style Exhibition Debate was staged by 4 debaters for the student body of Macau University.

SAID would like to thank Mr Si Tou Ieng Kit, Head of the Student Affairs Section, Mr Theo Cheng, Manager at the Student Affairs Section, Mr Alcal Wang Xin, President of the Macau University English Club and all the debaters for making the weekend spent in Macau more profitable than a thousand trips to the local casinos!

b) Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) Debate Education Programmes (2nd to 8th March 2007)

Over a period of 6 days in early March 2007, a series of British Parliamentary (BP) debate education workshops were conducted by Loke Wing Fatt for 60 freshmen, 250 sophomores and 6 professors of the School of English & International Studies (SEIS) at the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU).

Providing excellent guidance and facilitation as Co-Trainers were Ms Liang Hong, Debate Coach & Lecturer at the SEIS and her 8 senior debaters from the BFSU Debate Team.

On 6th March 2007, a lunch-time debate workshop was also conducted for over 120 members of the Beijing Language & Culture University English Debating Society (BLCU EDS).

My special thanks to Ms Liang Hong, Dr Jin Limin, Assoc Professor & Deputy Dean of the SEIS, Dr Wu Qing, Asst Dean of the SEIS, and Dr Gong Yan, Assoc Professor & Director of the Canadian Studies Centre for their inimitable hospitality and earnest support for debating at BFSU.

c) Tianjin City Universities American Parliamentary (AP) Style Debate Workshop (9th to 13th March 2007)

In Tianjin, the sister city of Beijing ( about 3 hours away), Hewlens Wong, Anthony Paul and Loke Wing Fatt from SAID conducted a 5-day American Parliamentary (AP) Style Debate Workshop at Nankai University for over 60 university students from Nankai University, Tianjin Foreign Studies University and Tianjin University.

Public lectures on debating cum exhibition debates were also staged for the students and lecturers of these 3 major universities of this famed seaport city of China. The 3 SAID trainers also held a lunch-time exhibition debate at the renowned Tianjin Experiment High School.

We are very grateful to Mr Alvin Wang Xianan, the President of the Nankai University Debating Club, for single-handedly pulling off this joint-varsities event with such flying colours, and for being such an absolute host. Our thanks also to Mr Ma Dongye, Chairperson of the Free Space Foreign Languages Association in Tianjin Foreign Studies University, and Ms Olive Wang Chenchen, Chairperson of the Tianjin University English Club for smooth organisation of our public debate workshops at their respective universities.

We were very impressed by the success of this entirely student-driven joint universities event. The collective desire to promote debating by student leaders from the 3 universities in such an inclusive manner exemplified two key values of all good debate education programmes: Cooperation and Competition.

Attached are selected pictures of the above events for your viewing, please.

Thank you for reading.

Loke Wing Fatt
President
Society for Associated Inter-Tertiary Debaters (SAID)
Singapore