HCIS Debate Team (Feb-Jun 2011)

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Early this year, under the guidance of Ms. Alison Hack and Mr. Im Zhen Jie, the English Language Faculty formed the HCIS Debate Team drawing members from the lower secondary. Despite being amateurs in the art of school debates, they have achieved commendable results.

In their debut in the 'Singapore Secondary Schools Debate Championship' in the months of February and March, the team lost all three preliminary rounds with very small margins. In the 'Raffles Under-14s Debate Championship' held in May, they lost to Raffles Institution and Hwa Chong Institution but won Global Indian International School. More recently in June, in the 'Singapore Poly Debate Open 2011', the young team competed against 22 secondary schools and broke through the four preliminary rounds to the quarter-finals (winning against Saint Joseph Institution and Singapore Polytechnic but losing to Nanyang Girls High and Anglo-Chinese Junior College)

The ranking of the individual speakers are as follows:

Yip Wenqian (Se 2R) - 39th out of 156
Daniel Horlacher (Sec 2R) - 74th out of 156
Tsang Fan Lok (Sec 3E) - 86th out of 156

The other members of the debate team comprised Dave Gan (Sec 2R), Angus Ku (Sec 2I) and Ryan Lee (Sec 2J).

Our congratulations to the team for the excellent job done!

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Debate Reflections

I was never a confident speaker and had difficulties with interviews.

However, it all took a sharp turn when I was called upon to attend a "debate workshop". Not wanting to defy teachers' orders, I decided to do so.

Debating first struck me as fun, as the afternoons spent on training served as a refreshing change to my otherwise dull routine of lessons and homework. Our coaches, Mr. Im Zhen Jie and Ms. Alison Hack, were really skilled and dedicated in guiding the team. Every day was a fun and fruitful day.

It was only later did we realize that no journey in life is a bed of roses - debates started to test our optimism. For our first competition, we worked hard day and night in the hope of winning the rounds, but alas, we lost by a big margin for the first round. What was worse was that we lost the next few rounds by extremely small margins. It was absolutely discouraging; it took our passion away. Every single team member felt like giving up. However, with the help of our inspiring coaches, we began to acquire resilience - to be strong, to get back on our feet after a fall - and continued on our journey.

As another tournament approached, we persevered through long, tiring evenings of training. There was grumbling, glaring, and lots of yelling among teammates. Despite that, it brought us closer as a team and created a bond among us. We could not see it at the time, however, but slowly and surely, we shaped into a team. It probably comes as a surprise to many given the perception of debate as an individual sport, but it really was, a team effort.

Imagine our joy when we finally won a round in the subsequent tournament! The sense of achievement was extremely satisfying. Almost immediately after, we entered a third tournament, won another two rounds, and were credited for our teamwork. We even surpassed numerous other schools and broke into the quarter-finals! All of this confirmed our efforts, and drove us even further to strive for excellence.

Today, I can proudly say that my fear for public speaking has been completely eliminated, through debate. Furthermore, I believe that my critical thinking skills have been sharpened much more as compared to my slow, ignorant past self. On top of that, debate has instilled into me the values of Hwa Chong International School: acquiring Resilience, building up Teamwork, achieving Excellence and experiencing Joy. Debate is certainly not a "fun and easy" experience, but definitely one that is eye-opening and life-changing.

By Yip Wenqian (Secondary 2 Resilience)