Why debate?
Debating will…
- introduce you to the art of public speaking, with regard to structure, style, and strategy -on the whole, it will make you a better speaker, be it in your youth club, religious congregation, during lessons, at family reunions, at the breakfast table, or in exams.
- make you feel as a part of a wider context, making you aware of problems that may affect us all at some point.
- show you how you can incite emotions with your words.
- encourage you to overcome your personal handicaps – be it asthma, stuttering, or speech anxiety.
- train you to swap perspectives to see the world from a different angle.
- teach you how to win real-life discussions – whether it’s about grades or your monthly allowance.
- make you feel confident, not only in public speaking.
- pave the way for a career in law, administration, politics, sales, or marketing.
- provide you with ample background knowledge for essays – in your English classes, but also in Social Studies, History, R.E., or Geography.
- help you to improve your spoken and written English.
- increase your communicative and intercultural skills, putting you in touch with debaters from other schools, regions, or even countries.
- improve your performance in oral exams, especially in the communication exam.
- inspire you to think more profoundly about things that really matter to your country – economics, ecology, politics, ethics.
- train you not give up once you’ve been defeated – and teach you to learn from your mistakes when you get feedback from the judges.
- accustom you to stressful situations and teach you to stay calm and relaxed.
- enhance your flexibility and creativity.
- drill you to structure your thoughts and deliver well-organized speeches.
- instruct you how to ward off insults, aggressive remarks, sarcasm and irony, teaching you to defend yourself verbally.
- teach you worthwile lessons in hypothetical thinking and show you how to create your own personal utopias and dystopias – a world that should or should not be.
- make you less sensitive towards populism and propaganda.
- make you familiar with rules of politeness and teach how to engage in a debate fairly and respectfully.
- show you how to identify different types of arguments and fallacies, including means of dealing with them effectively.
- improve your social skills while you're working together as a team.
- train you in keeping to time limits and, more generally, to master task-on-time assignments.
- help you to become more aware of the importance of body language and train you to be more persuasive whenever you gesticulate.
- improve your abilities as a listener.
- transform you into a faster and more efficient thinker.
- familiarize you with the speaking styles and strategies of famous orators, from Cicero to MLK.
- develop your own thoughts and build up a case that will stand.
- teach you to keep your emotions and temper in check.
- develop your ability to visualize facts and use powerful images when you speak.
- provide you with a wide range of methods how to settle conflicts by offering a compromise.
- instruct you how to define the terms you’re working with – and open your eyes to how definitions matter.