English Debate Competition

Since the topic for this blog post is “English Debate Competition”, so why don’t I try to write this in English especially my MUET examination is in the next month? Then, another English blog post is written.

Today is the English Debate Competition for my school. The topic for the competition is “This house would imprison those women who smoke during pregnancy”. What’s my team stand? Opposition, which means we are going to disagree with the statement.

For this competition, I had burnt so much midnight oil and tried to put effort as much as I could. For sure, I was scolded by mom for several times because she worries about my health. Preparing for the debate competition at the eleventh hour isn’t a good thing.

This morning, my friend suddenly felt not confident. She said that she won’t enter the competition again even if we win for the first round. Then, she told me one thing that made me scare and nervous. The thing is she doesn’t want to prepare the reply speech which is only allowed for the first or second speaker to represent. Oh my god, she’s the second speaker and I’m the first speaker. So, this burden automatically falls on me. Last minute write a speech and represent it? I never did that before even in the Chinese debate competition! My weakness is language, luckily this is not Malay debate competition, because among the 3 languages, Chinese, English and Malay, Malay is my worst language. I used to able to speak in Malay better than English, but don’t know why now’s my Malay worse than my English.

Anyway, I accepted the challenge, forced to accept it. We knew that our opposition team is quite well. I heard that they were well prepared for the debate competition. Their first speaker, debated in Chinese before like me but she has a better English speaking skill than me. Their second speaker, debated in English before, knows the rules and tricks of English debate competition well. Their third speaker, he is our school public speaking competition champion.

Suddenly came out an idea. Adding one more point in about 2 hours before the competition start for back-up. Never felt nervous before the competition start, but joking around, asking the opposition team not to be so aggressive in giving point of information (POI) during the competition. Yes, I was pulling their legs for fun.

Once the competition started, I found that my hands start to shiver like what they always did in the debate competition. Their first speaker able to finish their speech well although declined some POI from us. After that is my turn to give my speech. As I expected, they were trying to give me POI so that I can’t answer them well. Anyway, I accepted all the POI as this can help in my score.

After I ended my speech, I still can felt my heart was pounding so fast, hands were shivering. I tried my best to note down their mistake but due to the shivering, I can’t write them well. Their second speaker is quite well in giving his speech too. I gave him POI too, for sure, but he replied the POI with quibble well (To me, that’s quibble.), don’t know whether the judge believe him or not.

Our second speaker was not bad too. She showed her ability in debating well. Opponent team third speaker is very brave. He didn’t prepare any script but just trying to prepare it on the spot. Although he looks so nervous, he is still able to end his speech well. Our third speaker accepted some POI, and then she almost declined the remained POI from opponents. This made me laugh, the opponents laugh too.

Finally, the result was announced. I can’t believe my ears when I heard what the chairman said. The winner is opposition. We won the competition. The most unbelievable result is… Me as the best debater in this competition! I never won this honor before. It’s hard to believe that I beat those who are better in English speaking than me. After checking the result and the marks I get, slightly win our second speaker, she had 70 but I got 74 marks.

So, what’ll be the next? Semi-final. Will my luck continue until the competition is over? Anyway, our second speaker decided to quit and third speaker doesn’t want to be third speaker anymore. So, how’s our team going to rearrange? The forth participant plays his role in the next round.