WFUNA Daily Volume 1 Issue 3

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

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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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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

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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.

Eun Hye Lee

Class: WFP

UNEP & UNDP

WFUNA NEWS

- WFUNA’s YOUTH CAMP: KOREA 1st Week 7.29 ~8.3 -

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WTO

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WFP

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WHO

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ICJ

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ILO

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ICC

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IMF

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Banquet

Documents

WFUNA Daily Volume 1 Issue 3