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Tournaments

Junior Indivs 2021

Dear Teachers, 

We are excited to announce that the annual Junior Individual Public Speaking Championships is scheduled to be a remote event on 1 May (Saturday). Please read on for further details of the format and registration logistics. 

As in past years, there are three compulsory categories, namely Persuasive Speaking, Interpretive Reading and Impromptu Speaking. Persuasive Speaking and Interpretive Reading will be done and submitted as taped videos uploaded — as unlisted videos — onto YouTube from 16 to 18 April 2021 (Sunday), whereas the last category will be conducted live on Zoom on 1 May, 2021 (Saturday). Please refer to the attached pamphlet for the exact time limits of each category. More details about the video submission process and a technical guide will be released in due course. 

Each school can enroll six junior students maximum. Students up to current Secondary 3/ Year 10/Grade 9 are eligible for Junior competitions. Each school is also expected to supply one adjudicator for every three nominated students (in other words, two adjudicators for sending six students) to judge the taped videos and the live impromptu rounds. More guidelines on the judging criteria and approaches will be sent out after the registration period ends. A registration fee of HKD50 per student is applicable to facilitate the running of the tournament.

Please fill in the Google Form by 2 April, 2021 (Friday) for registration. 

Registration Form

The important dates are as follows. 

  • 2 April 2021 (Fri): Registration deadline
  • 16-18 April: Submission of taped videos of Persuasive Speaking and Interpretive Reading on YouTube
  • 21 April – 28 April: Judging period
  • 28 April (Wed): Return of the ballots from judges through google form
  • 1 May (Sat): Live Impromptu Speaking preliminary rounds + Finals 

The following is the tentative schedule of the competition day on 1 May (Saturday).

  • 9:00 – 9:30 – Registration 
  • 9:30 – 11:00 – Live Impromptu Speaking Preliminary Rounds on Zoom 
  • 11:00 – 11:30 – Break 
  • 11:30 – 14:00 – Finals (Top three in all three categories will perform live)
  • 14:00 – 15:00 – Announcement of Results 

Thank you for your attention. We highly look forward to your participation so we can continue to nurture young public speaking talent in Hong Kong. 

Best Regards,
Coaches for WIDPSC Team Hong Kong

WIDPSC-Junior-pamphlet-Download
Categories
Information Tournaments

Junior SDC 2021 Deadline Extension

Dear all,We are pleased to announce that the registration deadline for this year’s Junior SDC has been extended to Friday the 12th of March. Important information regarding the tournament can be found below:

  • Date: 10-11th April 2021
  • Venue: Online
  • Eligible Participants: Students from Form 1-3/Year 7-10/Grade 6-9
  • Format: WSDC-style with 6 minute speeches and 3 minute replies
  • Registration fee: $200

More details, including the planned schedule, can be found in the original post made in January – this has been pinned to the top of our Facebook page for your convenience. Please note that the registration deadline it stipulates is outdated: the official deadline is the one in this post.

We are excited to be able to provide junior debaters in Hong Kong this opportunity to compete in April, and hope to see as many participants as possible.

Sincerely,

The HKDSC

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Information News Tournaments

Oxford Schools 2021 HK Regional Rounds Results

Dear all,

The HK Regional round of the Oxford Schools, with two rounds of debate between 24 teams, was successfully held last night, February 27th.

After careful deliberation by our incredible judges, we are excited to announce the three teams going through to the final rounds of the Oxford Schools debating tournament. In no particular order, they are:

  • HKIS A – Dhruv Leekha and Chloe Tse
  • DBS A – Chan Daniel Lian and Li Chun Huen
  • STC C – Nicole Wong and Krissy Yip

We extend our warmest congratulations to the teams, and thank everyone who judged and helped organize the HK regional rounds this year for their amazing work.

Sincerely,

The HKDSC

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News Tournaments

Oxford Schools HK Regional Trials 2021

Oxford-Schools-2021-HK-Regional-Rounds-Promotional-LetterDownload

The following is a slightly modified version of a letter sent to debaters across Hong Kong on the 27th of January, 2021. The original document has been attached to this post for reference.

Dear Debating Community of Hong Kong,

We are excited to announce that the HK regional rounds for the prestigious Oxford Schools tournament, hosted by the Oxford Debating Union, will be held on Saturday the 27th of February from 5 to 10pm. As a limited number of teams are sent each year from Hong Kong, these trials will be highly competitive.

Unlike in previous years, this year’s rendition of Oxford Schools will take place online. Fortunately, this means that participants will not be required to self-fund the trip to Oxford that would be necessary otherwise. However, please note the team chosen will still need to pay the tournament fee of £40 per team independently. As this is a schools-based tournament, team members must be from the same secondary school.

This year, the selections process will be held online. The trials will be judged by members of the Hong Kong debating circuit as well as members of the Oxford Union. Verdicts will not be given, although extensive feedback will be provided by adjudicators to participants. The format will be BP with 5-minute speeches, and results will be announced on the 28th of February.

In the event you are chosen to compete at Oxford Schools, you will not be allowed to change partners under any circumstances. Withdrawal will result in the next team on the tab being invited to represent Hong Kong instead. Although no team is guaranteed participation in the trials, we will prioritize so that each school will be able to have at least one team participate.

The timetable can be found below:

We hope to see as many teams as possible on the 27th! Please sign up here: https://forms.gle/C8Hb951FJVMuA1kz5.

Sincerely,

Ms. Joan Cho, Chair of the HKDSC Board of Executive Directors

Categories
News Tournaments

Junior SDC 2021

210410-JSDC-2021-Promotional-LetterDownload

The following is a slightly modified version of a letter sent to secondary schools across Hong Kong on the 27th of January, 2021. The original document has been attached to this post for reference.

Dear Debating Community of Hong Kong,

As part of our role in supporting secondary school debate in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Debate & Speech Community (HKDSC) will now be responsible for organizing the Junior and Senior SDC debate tournaments, which will continue to take place annually and be held exclusively for Hong Kong secondary students.

We are therefore delighted to announce that the inaugural Junior SDC under the HKDSC will take place online on the 10th & 11th of April, and will be convened by Mr. Stan Dyer and Angus Li. As in previous JSDCs, the tournament this year will be exclusively for students in Form 1-3/Year 7-10/Grade 6-9.

The format used will be a variant of WSDC – debates will be 3-on-3 with 6 minute speeches and 3 minute reply speeches. POIs are allowed and encouraged. Teams with more than 6 debaters will not be eligible to break, and debaters will have to speak for at least 3 rounds to be eligible for speaker awards. Physical trophies will be given to the Top 10 Speakers, as well as the Champion and Runner-Up teams in the Grand Final.

The total registration fee for each team will be $200. Payment details will be given after registration ends. HKDSC is a non-profit organization, and so this money will be used to make our operations sustainable and ensure the quality of the events we hold.

Additionally, in order to maintain a high standard of judging, we will require that schools provide 1 adjudicator per team. These can be either teachers or senior students, but at least 1 of the adjudicators provided must be an adult who can monitor the security of their school’s participants.

The deadline for registration through our form (forms.gle/Zc5ybbCRu6t9zyEJ6) is 28 February. The tournament schedule, as well as other details, can be found below:

Draw:Awards
Round 1 random, Rounds 2-4 power-paired. QF-GF will be folded using a knockout draw.Top Ten Speaker Awards; Top 8 teams break to quarter-final.

We are incredibly excited to keep the banner of SDC flying high, and hope to see as many debaters as possible in April. Thank you for your time!

Sincerely,

The HKDSC Tournament Committee

Categories
Hong Kong Teams News

WIDPSC 2021 Team Members

Dear Hong Kong debate and speech community,

We are pleased to announce that the Trials for WIDPSC Hong Kong team has been completed on 23 January 2021. Students from schools across Hong Kong competed in four categories over three weeks, culminating in the live rounds of debate and impromptu speaking held this past Saturday. We would like to take a moment to commend the contestants on their hard work towards their recorded speeches and readings, enthralling judges with passionate decryings of global issues and heartfelt renditions of timeless stories.

After tabulating nearly 400 ballots from our dedicated judges, the Top Speakers of Hong Kong are:

1. Jason Wong – Diocesan Boys’ School – 1113 points
2. Hope Tan – Hong Kong International School – 1091 points
3. Yui Kurosawa – Hong Kong International School – 1067 points
4. Ellington Chen – Hong Kong International School – 1066 points
5. Hiroko Kawase – Hong Kong International School – 1056 points
6. Nicholas Chung – Diocesan Boys’ School – 1051 points
7. Chloe Lam – Renaissance College – 1044 points
8. Grace Zheng – Island School – 1036 points
9. Hilary Lau – Diocesan Girls’ School – 1034 points
10. Charlie Lam – Island School – 1025 points
10. Maki Flauta – Renaissance College – 1025 points

These speakers will be representing Hong Kong at this year’s World Individual Debate and Public Speaking Championships, to be held by South Korea in April 2021. We sincerely thank all the judges for their time and insightful comments they have provided to the students; we look forward to working with the Team to continue the legacy of Hong Kong at Worlds.

Best regards,
Joan Cho and My Thanh Mac
Coaches of WIDPSC Hong Kong Team

Categories
Hong Kong Teams

WIDPSC 2021 Team Trials

Dear members of the Hong Kong public speaking community,

Thank you for joining us at the Junior Individual Public Speaking Championship that was held this past November. After the success of this event, we are now looking forward to our annual trials for the 2021 rendition of Hong Kong WIDPSC team. Before we move to give you more details, we have a few housekeeping announcements.

Since 2013, the Hong Kong WIDPSC team has been privileged to have Mr Steven Lee as the head coach. He has played a most integral part in nurturing a generation of formidable public speakers, competing on the highest level at the World Championships. Under his tutelage, speakers have broken into and won at Grand Finals, speaking eloquently about world issues and dazzling the audience. Starting from this year, Steven has decided that he will no longer be with the team, but his contributions to the development of this team is indelible and we wish to thank him once again for his endlessly selfless dedication to the team in the past years.

The current coaching team, comprised of Ms. Joan Cho, Ms My Thanh Mac and Ms Jessica Wong, will continue to coach the Hong Kong WIDPSC team for the foreseeable future. The team will be under the umbrella of the HKDSC. As such, we are moving our correspondence to this address (widpsc.hk@gmail.com), to facilitate the beginning of a new page. We are compiling a new mailing list of schools who are interested in public speaking, so please feel free to forward this mail to people that you feel may be interested.

On January 23 2021, we seek to write the next chapter in the illustrious history of our WIDPSC team. An open selection trial for the 2021 WIDPSC team will take place via Zoom. 

For all the information about the selection trial, WIDPSC speaking categories and more, please refer to the handy pdf leaflet attached:

widpsc-2021-promo-flyerDownload

The registration link is below, please note the deadline to register is January 3: https://forms.gle/kzNYjJRi7SbyYrjy7 

We look forward to seeing competitors signing up; we are ready to take the best of Hong Kong speaking to the world!

Sincerely,

My Thanh and Joan

Categories
Hong Kong Teams

WSDC 2021 Team Trials

We are delighted to open applications for Hong Kong’s World Schools Debating team. The team will participate at the World Schools championships in Summer 2021. In order to apply you must be between 14-18 this year, and attending a school in Hong Kong. Applications are due on 16 November.

To apply please fill out the following form:

https://forms.gle/vYD7A3fZaCQtuEVk7

Trials will be held via Zoom on 28 November, with the potential for a second day of trials. We intend to select a development squad, with the final team announced in early 2021. If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Harish Natarajan at hknatarajan@gmail.com or info@hkdsc.org.