Dear parents and students,

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This is Cycle 2 intramural debate opportunity that you have been waiting for!  An 8-year-old child has recitals for her violin lessons, games for her tennis league, and CNY performance for her Chinese dance class.  It is the same thing for the Chinese debate.  These are the debate opportunities for your child to get more serious about their Chinese and debate skill.  The more they participate, the better they get.  No, they are not "ready ready" for debate, but that's perfectly fine.  Nobody is the first few times around.

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Teams are formed from WITHIN the class that your child is in.  Each team is composed of 3 students.  Each student can be in multiple teams within the class for different time slots.  To form a team of three debaters WITHIN your child's class, please let the other parents know of your child's availability for the following slots.  One or two parents can take the lead to figure out which three students can compete at the same time period. Then, you have one team. Once again, each student can be in more than one team to have more opportunity for debate.

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For example, John can be in a team with Jack and Jill for Saturday 12/5 at 3 PM slot and in a second time with Sarah and Sam for Sunday 12/6 at 10 PM time slot and so forth.

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A team that will compete will get to practice with the rest of the students within their own class. If everyone is competing, that would be even better.  This is why it is more difficult logistically to form a team with students from other classes.  When will they meet up with the coach to practice, and against whom?

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I will try to MATCH UP teams of DIFFERENT classes to compete based on their selected time slot.  These will be more of practice debate (练习赛）at this point for these students to learn debate.  I will make a random selection to determine which sides each team will take and notify the team ahead of time.  The coach will provide comments on how each team does at the end of the debate but will NOT announce a winner, at this stage.  With the new 90 minute format, the coach will be able to provide more detailed instruction on the debate right after.  Once again, a team requires a minimum of three debaters, to be 正ㄧ，正二，正三 or 反ㄧ，反二，and 反三.  One person in each team will make the final focus statement (总结）.  Again, each student can be in different teams within the same class, given students' different availability.

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Each debater will have 2 minutes of speech and 2 minutes for cross-examining one debater in the opposing team.  There is a 30-second break after each period.  So, each debater has 5 minutes of total time.  With six debaters, that would be 30 minutes.  Add in the final focus for both sides, the total debate time should be about 35 minutes.  That leaves about 50 minutes for instruction afterward.  We will work towards 2:30 minute format in the spring.  

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Other debate or read-aloud class students or parents can request to watch the debate on Zoom. 

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Debate entry form is due by 6PM PST on Saturday 11/21.  I hope to announce the match list by 10PM PST on Sunday 11/22.

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Entry fee: $18 per debater for each debate participated (but not for the debate moderator/timekeeper).  The cost is higher due to the new 90 minutes format and the complexity organizing these.  ​Please note that the coaches are getting up before 4 AM so that students on either coast can participate for most of the time slots.

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My daughter Caroline, a high school senior, will be present at some of the debates for the 8-10-year-old group as debate judge-in-training.

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