Debate: 24th of Feb. '14

Today is the last day of this year's debate club meeting. It is pretty sad that debate club has to end this early because less and less people are coming. Basically what we did today in debate club is evaluating the debate club meetings and the debate competitions we attended from the beginning until today. My friends and I thought that we did okay although we can now look back and point out some mistakes that could have been done better. My supervisors, Ms. Debbie and Ibu Stephanie, also asked for some feedbacks for debate club this year. My friends and I suggested that debate club should be more interactive. Maybe we can do different things in each meeting because this year's debate club seems to go in a cycle: talk about the technical aspects of a debate, research, practice debating and talk about potential debate competitions. Maybe instead of only focusing on debate, we can practice other skills that are crucial for school, like writing, being involved in a socratic seminar and delivering a presentation. That way people will not get bored so easily. Because in the first few meetings of debate club this year, there were actually a lot of people who were interested in joining. A lot of people came to the debate club but afterwards less and less people came. Despite all that, my friends and I believe that we have come a long way. We learned a lot of things about debate: how it works, what to talk about, how to deliver a speech during the debate, and about the technical aspects of debate. We experienced several debate competitions and we understand how challenging they are. We made new friends during the competition and everything that we have gone through is just something that cannot be exchanged. I am glad to have taken debate as my CAS activity.

Debate: 10th of Feb. '14

So today is the debate that goes under the motion: THBT the media should be prevented by law from intruding the lives of public figures. Darrell came late so eventually Mandy, Febe and I are the ones who debated for the opposition team. We were all very nervous. I felt like I forgot all of the things that I have learned in debate club before. At first I can't remember the technical aspects of a debate but thankfully my mind switched on again (phew!). I believe the affirmative team actually started the debate quite poorly because they didn't define the motion clearly and didn't explain the mechanism at all. They defined media as papparazzi and reporters, public figures as celebrities and intruding lives as taking pictures and interviewing celebrities that are walking down the street to go to a shop. When my team pointed out some flaws in the definition of the motion, especially for intruding lives, the second and third speakers of the affirmative team defined the motion differently. Each person in the affirmative team has different interpretations of the motion and my team made a very big deal of that. The biggest setback of my team is probably that we were too focused in arguing about the definition. We were so focused on that that we didn't completely rebut the arguments made by the affirmative team. We paid attention too closely on the definition of the motion that we didn't realized that the affirmative team has not set forth the mechanism to their proposal. As the opposition team, my team also didn't suggest a better way to solve the problem that is stated in the status quo. Thus, at the end my team lost. I believe that the debate is fair and my team still has a lot to improve on. Specifically myself, I did sign post and I feel proud that I can carry it out before but I still lack confidence. As echoed by the adjudicator, my tone isn't persuasive enough. I stutter a lot. Thus, I believe that to be a better debater I should increase my confidence and put my emotions into every word I say, just like the debater in the WSDC video I watched last week.

Debate: 3rd of Feb. '14

Next week there will be a debate under the motion: THBT the media should be prevented by law from intruding the lives of public figures. My team consists of Mandy, Febe and Darrell. My team and I are in the opposition team. I researched and developed some arguments today. I discussed them together with my team mates and they tried to give in some suggestions. I also rebutted some of my team members' arguments so as to make our arguments more in depth and not refutable. I believe we came up with quite a lot of strong arguments, which may be the strength of today's discussion but we haven't decided who will speak first, second, third and fourth as the reply speaker, which may be the weakness of today's meeting.

I am quite excited but also am quite nervous for next week's debate. It's been a long time since I last debated in front of a number of people. I have to make sure I remember to sign post this time so my speech will be organized and easy to understand.

Debate: 27th of Jan. '14

Like last week, debate club today was spent by watching and discussing a video from WSDC. The motion was: "THW legalize the sale of human organs." It was an interesting debate because I personally disagree with the motion, so I had personal opinions on the debate. The affirmative team of this debate is from Pakistan while the opposition team of this debate is from Singapore. In my opinion, the affirmative team started off pretty good. The first speaker had a lot of emotions and facts that support his arguments. However, I believe that the first speaker of the opposition team presented his arguments stronger. He was a better speaker than the first speaker of the affirmative team. He was confident and although he did not have as much emotion as the first speaker of the affirmative team has, he delivered his arguments and evidences clearer and in a more logical manner, thus more persuasive. Throughout the whole debate, the opposition team, however, did not rebut all of the arguments that the affirmative team mentioned. At the end, the affirmative team from Pakistan won. The adjudicator explained that the affirmative team was clear in explaining about how people will be saved by letting the motion pass whereas the opposition team was not really convincing in explaining how they are going to save more lives through their different model. I learned a lot from today's debate club meeting. Even from the adjudicator I learned how to speak in a more organized manner. I realized that sign posting does really help the listener to understand what the speaker is saying. Thus, for my next debate, I should really use sign posting to help my adjudicators understand what I have to say.

Debate: 20th of Jan. '14

Today we watched and discussed a video from the WSDC with the motion: "THBT the police should use racial profiling when fighting." Obviously, the debaters I saw in the video are so much better than I am as a debater. It will take some time before I will, if ever, be that good. But watching and discussing the video is a step for me to get there. It helps me understand what are expected for me to be that good in debating. Through the video, I learned that tone and presentation are really important. Body language also is important because it shows what the person is thinking. There are times when some of the debaters in the video portray a "closed" body language. This shows that they were scared of their opponents, which should be true because their opponents were really confident and poised. At the end, their opponents, the affirmative side, won. I learned from the affirmative team that the first speaker should define every single detail in the motion clearly. He or she should also be very confident. The first speaker should really know what he or she is saying and really believe in the mechanism that his or her team has made. The second and third speakers have to present themselves in the same way but they, especially the third speaker, have to rebut effectively against the opponents' arguments. They have to show that the opponents are talking nonsense and they have to defend their stand on the motion. After watching the video, I realized that it somewhat connects to my daily live. When making a decision or conveying an opinion, we have to be consistent. We can't change from one decision to another or one perspective to another because then no decision will be done and people who listen to our opinions will be confused. Nevertheless, this does not apply to TOK since in TOK we have to stay neutral and accept all decisions and perspectives.

Debate: 13th of Jan. '14

Today the debate class practiced our reasoning skills on the motion: THB mothers should stay home and look after their children. We discussed how we would define the motion if we were the affirmative team and how we would oppose the proposal if we were the opposition team. We discussed this with the whole class. I believe my friends and I came up with some good points. We decided that mothers in this motion should be women with working husbands while children should be anyone under 5 years old. When mothers are defined as women with working husbands, it means that when they are on their paternity leave, the household's economy will not be as much be disrupted. However, this creates a controversy between sexes. Why should mothers have the chance to stay at home and relate with their children? Why can't fathers have the chance to do the same thing? The affirmative side will then argue that it is not fair for women to not have these rights after carrying the baby in their wombs for 9 months and finally giving birth to them at that point. Nowadays is the era of women empowerment. Thus to limit women to not be able to have paternity leaves are contradictory with the objective of today's era. Basically that is an overview of how the debate practice went. I believe that this practice is very useful because it helped me to develop my critical thinking and therefore improve when I case build in my next debate. This skill can however be applied to other subjects not just debate. For example, in Business Management, I can use critical thinking to analyze a given case study more effectively.

Batik: 26th of Dec. '13

The Final Result of My 2m Batik Cloth

What I did today:

• Dyed the cloth to its second color, dark blue
• Took off the wax by boiling the cloth in a large bucket

What I felt and feel:

• Today is my last Batik lesson. I feel proud of myself because I am able to go through the entire course successfully. I didn't get left behind the schedule too much. I can finish the three cloths (handkerchief, tablecloth and 2m cloth) in 16 meetings, which are the number of meetings per course. I am able to persevere through the challenges that this course provides. There are times when I was really bored and stressed out because of the lesson but I finally could overcome those feelings. 
• I feel relieved after today's Batik lesson because I now know that making Batik is hard and energy consuming. So I'm relieved because I will not be doing that every single week again. Even so, I also feel sad because I can't express my creativity through Batik Art anymore. I now have a higher standard for myself when making Batik but I cannot achieve or even try to achieve that standard because I do not have a chance to make Batik anymore. I don't have the materials and tools to make Batik at home.
• After I finished dyeing the cloth, I felt quite disappointed because I wanted navy blue as the second color of the cloth but it turned out that the second color of the cloth will be sky blue.
• During today's lesson, I felt interested because today's activity was something new to me. For the previous cloths, the handkerchief and the tablecloth, they all were dyed by the people who work in the place where I have my Batik lessons in. I didn't get to dye them myself. So today was a pretty interesting day for me. I get to learn new things and I get to stand up, unlike those dreadful days when I had to sit down on a small short chair waxing the cloth one ornament at a time. Even so, I was quite scared during the process of dyeing because we were using HCl solution and HCl solution is dangerous to the skin. It can burn and make your skin itches. Even though I used gloves, I was scared if the solution will accidentally splash to my skin. 
• After finishing the last cloth in the course, the 2m cloth, I feel happy because it doesn't turn out as bad as I expected it to be. The ornaments that I created look pretty even though they can be neater (see pictures below). The lines that I thought would be very thick before the wax was removed turn out to the best sized lines in the entire cloth; they are thick enough to be clearly seen from afar. Even so, I feel like I can improve myself especially in creating the ornament that will be the center of attention, the focus of the cloth. I feel like if the focus of the cloth is prettier then the whole cloth will look a little bit better. I think I can also improve in the choice of color because dark and light blue are very soft while the ornaments used for this Batik cloth are quite edgy (the triangles on the sides of the cloth and the lines striking out of the focus ornament). 

What I learned today:

• My supervisor told me that all of the cloths I made my Batik on are made 100% from cotton. This is an organic material, thus maximizing the result of the Batik's color because organic materials have a high ability of absorbing dyes and can absorb evenly.  
• I learned that there are two types of dyeing in Batik, one that uses Napthol and second that uses Indigosol. Today I used Indigosol. So to dye, there needs to be 3 buckets. The first one is for the normal water, the second one for the warm Indigosol solution, and the third for the cold HCl solution. The cloth will then be dyed into the buckets accordingly to the order that has been just stated before. To make sure that the cloth is fully soaked in the solutions, a bamboo stick is used and placed above the cloth to hold the cloth down in the solutions.

The left part of my 2m Batik cloth

The right part of my 2m Batik cloth

In overall, I feel grateful that I chose Batik as my Creativity activity. I got to experience something new, situations that evoke varying emotions and learn new knowledge about my country's rich culture.

Batik: 24th of Dec. '13

What I did today:

• Continue applying wax on the 2m cloth using canting
• Added more ornaments to fill up the blank spaces on the cloth
• Added wax to the part where the wax didn't go through the cloth
• Covered and decorated the mistakes that I did in the previous meetings

What I learned:

• I noticed that the Batik artists that worked in the place I have my lesson in are not as boring as I thought Batik artists in general are. I thought Batik artists would be very calm and slow but the Batik artists that I met today actually liked rock music. They listened and sang to it. I shouldn't have prejudices about Batik or any other things.
• I soon begin to understand and have the feeling of when the wax is not in its ideal temperature and when I should change and re-scoop the wax in my canting. 

What I noticed:

• I noticed that the ornaments that I made looked like snowflakes, which suits to the occasion this week because it's Christmas holiday! I should've finished it today so that I can use the finished cloth tomorrow, for Christmas! I should've used red and green dye colors too! Too bad I colored the cloth with light blue already.

What I felt:

• Quite excited to see the result because the 2m cloth is the last cloth I will do for this Creativity activity and first cloth to try applying wax as a base. Almost all of the ornaments I used on the cloth are of my creation so I'm pretty excited to see how it will look like. After adding more ornaments and filling up the blank spaces, the cloth looks pretty good, and that's another reason why I am excited for the next meeting where I will dye and boil the cloth myself to take the wax off the cloth.

Batik: 23rd of Dec. '13

The Final Result of My Tablecloth Batik

What I did today:

• Continue applying wax on the 2m cloth

What happened:

• The tablecloth is finished! It has been dyed into a black colored dye and the wax has been taken off through the boiling process.

What I feel and felt about the activity:

• I feel happy and proud of myself because the tablecloth looks better than I expected 
• Interested because I did something new today. Instead of applying wax (nembok) inside the ornaments, I applied wax outside the ornaments as a base color of a part of the cloth. I blocked and so maintained the first dye color as the base color of a part of the 2m cloth.
• I was confused at some points when I was applying the wax on the 2m cloth because I didn't know what else to do with it, I don't know where else I should put the wax on
• When I was applying wax on my 2m cloth, I felt hopeless because the ornaments looked very ugly. I can't imagine how the cloth will look like when it is finished

1. The black dye that creates a cool uneven
effect in the small white triangle
2. The vague white outline of the big triangle

What I learned:

• On the finished tablecloth, I saw that the part where I thought I blocked it with wax completely isn't actually blocked completely. The dye seeped into the thin layer of the wax. Even so, fortunately, it doesn't look as bad because of the dark colors used (black and dark brown). It actually creates a cool effect (see the picture on the right)
• On the tablecloth, there are also some parts that should've been white but because the wax applied was so thin it detached during the dying process and got colored in (see the picture on the right)
• There should be repetitions in the ornaments because if not, it will look weird. It will look like a mistake has been done instead.
• When applying wax to the cloth, the lines should be thick so that it can be visible in the final result. The lines that I thought would look very thick when I was still applying wax on the cloth  turned out to look normal at the end.
• I shouldn't feel hopeless for my 2m cloth because like my tablecloth it turned out to look better than expected. So, I should not assume that my 2m Batik cloth will turn out horrible. Instead, I should focus on learning from the previous mistakes, improving and giving my best.

Batik: 18th of Dec. '13

• What I did today:
• Continue applying wax using canting on the 2m cloth
• What happened:
• The 2m cloth is dyed into a light blue dye
• How I felt:
• Bored and frustrated because the process of applying wax never ends
• Confused because I didn't know how else to decorate the cloth 
• What I encountered today:
• The owner of the Batik place who is also the father of my supervisor advised me to add some more ornaments because my 2m cloth at that point looked really plain and uninteresting
• What I have to do:
• Formulate an idea on how to fill up the blank places on the cloth. Come up with some more ornaments to put on the cloth but since the cloth has been dyed I cannot make the new ornaments multicolor. 

Batik: 11th of Dec. '13

• What I did today:
• Continue applying wax using canting on the 2m cloth
• "Erasing" the unwanted wax on the 2m cloth by putting water on the area where the unwanted wax is in, attach a hot iron on the wax on the cloth, rub the wax off the cloth (using detergent if necessary)
• How I felt:
• Interested because today is the first time for me to try to "erase" the wax from the cloth
• Devastated because "erasing" the wax from the cloth is harder and more time consuming than to apply wax
• What I think about the activity:
• I think today's activity is important because after all the mistakes that I made I think it is necessary for me to fix some
• Today's activity was important because it teaches me a different skill, different than the previous ones I have learned. Slowly I'm understanding all the steps needed to make Batik, which is important because I should learn something wholly and not partly.
• What I learned from the activity and how this learning (for example, a change of perspective) might apply more widely.
• It is harder and more time consuming to erase wax than to apply wax on the cloth. This teaches me to be more careful and serious when doing something. I should not depend on the ability to erase and redo what I did. I should not underestimate the first step of a process. Even in my classes at school, I should not underestimate and do poorly in rough drafts because it is better to start right and finish right.

Batik: 4th of Dec. '13

• What I did today:

• Continue applying wax on the 2m cloth using canting
• How I felt and what I thought about the activity:
• Today's activity was infuriating because I did the same activity as I did before (nothing new) and I kept on facing the same problem (wax accidentally dripping to the cloth). Even though I tried to push back the part of the cloth that is underneath the part that I am trying to apply wax on, doing that is time consuming, complicated and sometimes doesn't even help.
• At some points I was so stressed out because the wax kept dripping from the bottom of the canting to the cloth, making the patterns on the cloth not neat and full of unwanted drops of wax
• Today's activity was quite boring because I did the same thing that I did previously
• What I perceive:
• Do Batik artists feel bored because they are stuck on doing the same routine everyday?
• What the activity means to me and what the value of the activity was:
• Valuable because I get to experience the life of being Batik artist, including the moments when they feel bored and tired of making Batik.
• What I learned from the activity:

• I learned that the wax usually drips from the space between the bronze plate and the wooden handle of the canting. When I take the wax with the canting, the wax creates a small puddle in the space between the bronze plate and the wooden handle, which results to it dripping undesirably to the cloth. So next time, I should pay more attention to that part of the canting before getting the canting near the cloth.
• After all the frustration I encountered when making Batik, I now appreciate Batik artists and Batik Art more because I now know that Batik artists have to be very skilled, careful and most importantly patient.

Batik: 27th of Nov. '13

• What I did today:
• Applied wax on the dyed tablecloth using canting (this process is also called as nembok)
• How I felt:
• Relieved because nembok, which is applying wax the second time after the cloth is dyed, is much easier than applying wax the first time on the cloth
• What I think about the activity, what I perceived, what the activity means to me & what is the value of the activity:
• I think the activity done today is fun and meaningful because it is easier than last meeting's activity and it is something new that I have never tried previously. This is the first meeting that I tried nembok, which is why, I think that today's meeting is important.
• What I learned from the activity and how this learning (for example, a change of perspective) might apply more widely. 
• I found out that the previously applied wax are cracking. The supervisor told me that it is normal. The cracks are due to the storage condition and properties of wax. This is the reason why the process of Batik should be done as fast as possible. 
• Today I learned about a process of waxing called nembok. It is used when more than one color of dye is applied to the cloth. By nembok, the colored part of the cloth will be covered with wax and be protected from being colored again with the next color of dye, allowing more than one color of dye be applied on the cloth. I realized that making Batik is actually the reversed of coloring, painting and all the other common art activities. 
• Thus, these facts made me realized how smart Batik artists must be.

Batik: 20th of Nov. '13

• What I did today:
• Applied wax on the 2m cloth using canting
• How I felt:
• Stressed out because I did not finish applying the wax today whereas according to the schedule set for me, I should've finished applying the wax today.
• Today's activity time was also stressful because one of the employees in the place where I have my lesson kept on bothering me so I could not concentrate on finishing my work
• What I think about the activity:
• I think today's activity time wasn't as productive as the previous activity time because I did not cover much task plus I did not finish the task that I should've done this activity time
• What I perceived:
• I realized that the people who are making Batik in the place where I have my Batik lessons are actually not as slow as people say people who make Batik in general are. I am much slower than them.
• I realized that the place where I have my Batik lesson is quite prestigious and looked upon in Bogor because I kept on seeing students from all over Bogor interviewing my Batik teacher, Kak Lisha and seeing the many achievements she and her team have (e.g. last week I couldn't do Batik because she was in Yogyakarta to attend a competition that relates to her Batik business where at the end she won first place).
• What I learned from the activity and how this learning (for example, a change of perspective) might apply more widely. 
• I now understand that people actually do value Batik so highly. Before taking this activity, I thought that Batik had always been under appreciated by the society of Indonesia, which was why one other country took it and claimed it. But that isn't true. People actually do value Batik very highly. Maybe previously I was just not surrounded by those people who value Batik so highly. So why don't the people who I know before taking this activity value Batik as highly? This question challenge me to be the one who spread and raise awareness of the high value of Batik in my community.

Debate: 18th of Nov. '13

So yesterday was the debate competition in President University. In debate club today, we reflected on what we've done. We watched the video of our final round and pointed out the mistakes we did and how we could do better next time. I think today's debate club was useful because reviewing performances is very important. It is sometimes better to look back at what is done than to keep on practicing. I found out that in the final round I lacked confidence and I should have been more aggressive in my speech. I did pretty well in digging the topic though. Ibu Stephanie, one of my supervisors, said that I did well in choosing the examples to support my arguments. Today's debate club meeting does not only made me realize of my weaknesses but also of my strengths.

Debate: 17th of Nov. '13

The venue of the final round

Courtesy of President University

My team won first place in this week's debate competition! I am so proud of my teammates and myself. I never imagined winning first place in a debate competition this fast. I learned and had a lot of fun. The final round was under the motion "THW ban all donations to religious organizations." After today's debate competition, especially after the final round that was held in a huge public room, I am definitely more confident in speaking. I now understand that besides having POIs to the opponent speaking, I can also have Point of Clarification to clarify what I said if the opponent gets it wrong. I also learned that all speakers should explain everything thoroughly because if we don't take a lot of time explaining our arguments, the adjudicator might not catch all of them and even maybe skip one whole argument we mentioned. This week's debate competition also made me realized more of my weaknesses as a speaker. In the final round, I was so nervous that I didn't use the whole 7 minutes to speak. I went down in the 6th minute. I felt that I could have spoken more and explained my ideas more thoroughly but I was so nervous that I forgot the things that I wanted to say. I should also learn to speak more aggressively so that I can intimidate my opponents

Me speaking in the final round of the debate competition

Courtesy of President University

and show that I strongly believe in what I say. I still need to improve my organization skill too. In some of the rounds today, I felt like I could have been more organized in the things I said. Even so, in overall, I think my team has improved a lot from the previous debate competition. We communicated pretty well and we had a lot of information to support our arguments. For me personally, what I think I did well was in giving factual data and feedbacks to my team. I believe that I should keep on doing that.

Debate: 16th of Nov. '13

Today is the first day of this week's debate competition. Fortunately, the rules that disallow the speakers to have notes and step down before 7 minutes were taken back. This week's debate competition was held in President University. My team prepared printed documents and electronic devices since the competition this time allows us to use our electronic devices when case building. Today's debate competition was interesting because it was different than the one in BPK Penabur. The kinds of people we meet here are different and the way things are set up are also different. Today was interesting because not only we won two of the three rounds, we also made a lot of friends. We met the people we went against in the previous debate competition, in BPK Penabur, too! Debate competitions are very educational and fun. Today I learned that we should dig our arguments deeper. As far as the arguments may seem, if they can be related to the motion and explained well, they will make points or even bring extra points because of the depths it provides the debate with. I also learned that I often repeat what my team's first speaker, Valeska said, which is a loss for me because it is time consuming. At the end, I do not have enough time to further explain and strengthen what Valeska has said. I could actually just say, "as was clearly explained by my first speaker..." and carry on to develop her argument straight away. Thus, I should really improve this for tomorrow's debate rounds. I am so nervous for this week's debate competition because the opponents all seemed so tall, big and mature. Physical appearances do affect how intimidating we are to our opponents. Too bad none of my team members are tall and big.

Debate: 11th of Nov. '13

This week I am joining another debate competition. My team for this week's debate competition is the same as for the previous debate competition. I will be with Sherni and Valeska. Today's debate club meeting is aimed to prepare the students who are joining the debate competition this week. This week's debate competition is both impromptu and prompted with no notes allowed when speaking in the podium and a minimum amount of time of 7 minutes per speaker. With this unfamiliar rules, today's debate club meeting is used for my team and I to practice debating under the motion "THW eliminate gender category in sports" using the rules established for this week's debate competition. We practiced speaking without notes for at least 7 minutes. This adds more tension to the debate competition and I am really worried because when I practiced before, I couldn't reach 7 minutes and my organization skill was really really bad. I forget a lot of things that I was going to say. I skipped one main point of my argument. After today's debate club meeting, I feel really anxious. I just hope that the debate competition held this week will be kind enough to actually take back that rule. After today's debate club meeting, I can see major flaws my team has as a whole. I can see that our communication skills are not good. We talk but rarely listen to each other, thus we usually misunderstand each other when the debate has started. We also do not have enough data to support our arguments whereas the opponent had a lot of factual data. We based our arguments mainly on our hypothesis, which is bad because it won't be as strong. Surprisingly though my team won the debate round today. the adjudicators said that they could relate more to my team's arguments. So today I learned that the way we deliver our speech (if it's relatable to common people or not) affects drastically to our winning or losing.

Batik: 6th of Nov. '13

• What I did today:
• Drawing new patterns on papers, tracing papers and a 2 meters new blank white piece of cloth
• What happened:
• The tablecloth was dyed in brown dye
• How I felt:
• Confused and nervous because I have high expectations for my last Batik artwork, which is the 2m cloth
• Excited for my tablecloth because the result after it is dyed in dark brown is great!
• What I think about the activity:
• Challenging, definitely
• Interesting because the situation changes all the time. The process of making Batik is very dynamic and not monotonous.
• What the value of the activity was:
• The activity done today was basically the whole process of how to Batik (although not all of the steps are completely finished and not all are done to the same cloth). Thus, the activity done today was actually the most valuable activity done so far throughout my Batik lessons. The activity done today was the core of my Batik Creativity activity.
• What I learned from the activity and how this learning (for example, a change of perspective) might apply more widely.
• I learned that my first impression about Batik was wrong. Batik is not boring at all. Thus, from this I learned that I shouldn't judge a book by its cover. I should not be so fast in taking judgments, especially about my own country's culture!

Debate: 4th of Nov. '13

Today I debated on the motion: "THBT children who commit major crimes should be punished equally as adults." I was the second speaker, like usual. I think it went quite well. I came up with a lot of good points however I could have done better in delivering the speech. Like the other days, I got very nervous speaking in front of my peers and the adjudicators, Kak Karin and Ms. Debbie. I forgot a lot of things that I was going to say, thus missing out on a lot of what I believe are good arguments for my team's side, which is the affirmative side. I stuttered several times, and that affected the way the adjudicators evaluate my speech. It came to them as if I wasn't confident in what I was saying. I definitely need to improve my tone and confidence. However, in overall, I believe I did well. My team members, which consists of Georgio and Sherni, also did well. As the affirmative team, I believe that my team did okay because for me personally, being the affirmative team is harder than being the opposition team and I believe my team defined the motion quite clearly and also constructed the mechanism pretty neatly. The only problem for my team is probably the way we deliver. At the end, my team won! I was pretty happy but this doesn't mean that I should be contented with the way I deliver my speech in debates. It is important for me to keep on improving so that I can be a better speaker and therefore achieve this CAS activity's objective.