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News Tournaments

Junior Indivs 2021 Results

Dear members of the Hong Kong public speaking community,

We would like to thank you for participating in the 2021 Junior Individual Public Speaking Championships 2021. In the last three weeks, judges across Hong Kong have tirelessly assessed recorded speeches and readings. This was followed on the morning of May 1st, 2021 by an exciting live round of impromptu speaking, culminating in the final rounds. Many outstanding performances were delivered, and we were delighted to see the passion speakers put into every speech they gave.

After heated competition at the Finals, the winners of the individual events are:

Persuasive Speaking – Christine Lam (HKIS)

Interpretive Reading – Jaden Yeung (DBS)

Impromptu Speaking – Lauren Lee (CDNIS)

Overall Top Speaker – Mark Lee (DBS)

A hearty congratulations to the winners and the top speakers of the tournament!

Appended to this post are the top speakers in each of the 3 categories. The individual ballots with scores and feedback are currently being compiled, and will be ready to share by next week.

Before we sign off, we also would like to extend a special thank you to every judge who helped make this event special for every participant. As part of the continuing legacy of public speaking in Hong Kong, we look forward to seeing everyone in our future events, especially the Team Trials scheduled for January 2022.

Sincerely,

The Organizing Committee

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Hong Kong Teams Information News

WIDPSC 2021 Team Performance

Dear all,

WIDPSC 2021 has been a unique journey for the Hong Kong team, from the trials in January to the weekly online trainings, to the two Asynchronous Rounds in early April. Finally, the Synchronous and Final Rounds took place on the Zoom platform, between 23rd to 26th April. Thanks must be given to the organizers for putting together such an amazing event that brings together 120 of the best speakers in the world.

This year, 10 members of the Hong Kong WIDPSC team broke into finals, claiming 20 spots across four categories at the expanded finals rounds. Two of the members, Yui Kurosawa and Jason Wong, went onto Grand Finals for Impromptu Speaking and Interpretive Reading. Grace Zheng also won the Supplementary Final and her piece will be displayed on the WIDPSC website.

In the final overall ranking, Hong Kong had our strongest showing in years, with Ellington Chen at 5th, Jason Wong at 10th and Charlie Lam at 20th respectively. The coaches wish to express our immense pride at the team for their strong performances and collaborative spirit. We would also like to send a special vote of thanks to the teachers and alumni who have given up their time during Sundays to help judge, give feedback and nurture this team into what it is today.

The team representing Hong Kong at WIDPSC 2021

Sincerely,

The Coaches of the WIDPSC HK Team

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Information Tournaments

JSDC 2021 Results

Dear all,

Thank you for participating in the 2021 Junior SDCs! Following yesterday’s rounds of debates, the final results of the competition can now be announced.First, the Top 10 Speakers (with 3 people tying for 9th place) are as follows:

1. Christine Lam, HKIS 2

2. Valerie Wong, STC 2

3. Rachel Lang, GSIS 1

4. Peony Sham, STC 1

5. Jaden Yeung, DBS 2

6. Dominic Gu, CIS 2

7. Shriya Srinivasan, RCHK 1

8. Kristie Cheung, SPCC 1

9=. Eric Wu, CIS 2

9=. Meagan Tam, SPCC 1

9=. Janet Lau, DGS 1

10. Lauren Ing, CIS 1

We are aware that the listing on the public speaker tab differs from the above list slightly – this is because in instances where speakers had the same average speaks, we used the standard deviation to decide ranking, preferring a lower deviation on the basis that it indicates greater consistency. In contrast, Tabbycat does not automatically do this. 3 speakers ended up with the same average speaks and standard deviation, resulting in a tie at 9th place. As can be seen from that fact, the speakers tab this year was very competitive, so congratulations to everyone who made it on the Top 10.

The Grand Champions of this year’s Junior SDC was RCHK 1, debating against CIS 2 in a spectacular Grand Final round. We congratulate both them and the runner-up heartily.All tabs and the break have now been released publicly. They can be viewed at https://jsdc2021.herokuapp.com/jsdc2021/.

Thank you once again to everyone, judges and teams alike, who participated in this JSDC. We hope to see everyone again soon – to this generation of young debaters, we can’t wait to see you excel in what will surely be bright and successful careers.

Sincerely,

Ms Joan Cho and Angus Li

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Information Tournaments

JSDC 2021 Prepped Motions

Dear all,

We can now announce the prepped and semi prepped motions for this year’s Junior SDC to the community. As Round 1 is fully prepped, we can also share the draw for that. All other rounds in the motions table below are semi-prepped with the exception of the Quarter Finals: the draw for the latter will be announced immediately after the break on Day 1.

We wish all teams the best of luck in April.

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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
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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