Category: Hong Kong Teams

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Hong Kong Teams

WSDC 2021 Team Grand Finals Announcement

Over the past three days, Team Hong Kong has been debating tirelessly in the out rounds of World Schools Debating Championship, after breaking at the top of the tab. Facing Team Australia in the Octo Finals for a debate about data monetisation, then Team Pakistan in the Quarter Finals for a debate about international military aid and finally, Team Philippines in the Semi Finals on the topic of carbon credits.

With the announcement of their victory, Hong Kong has advanced to the Grand Finals at WSDC for the first time. Massive respect to all the teams in the competition and the team looks forward to their last match in what has been an amazing run thus far. 🇭🇰

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Hong Kong Teams

WSDC 2021 Team Break Announcement

After four days and eight rounds of vigorous debate with friends all across the world, Team Hong Kong has broken first in the Panda Division of WSDC, with 20 ballots and speaks of 254.50! A massive hand to our team — Chloe Tse, Dhruv Leekha, Jenna Hong, Madeleine Wu, and Yui Kurosawa.

This continues Hong Kong’s streak from last year where they also broke first on the tab. Hearty congratulations to team coaches Harish Natarajan and Thomas Simpson for their tireless grind with the young debaters over the last eight months since the trials, the work has not gone unrewarded and we wish the team the best of luck as they move onto the outrounds starting tomorrow! 🇭🇰❤️

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Hong Kong Teams Tournaments

Singapore Pre Worlds 2021

Dear all,

Two Hong Kong teams participated at the Singapore Pre World Schools Debating Championship over the weekend. The team Chloe Tse, Dhruv Leekha, Jenna Hong, and Madeleine Wu were the top team after the preliminary rounds, and reached the final. Davis Cheng, Markandeya Karthik, Navia Zhang, and Yui Kurosawa finished 17th overall. Chloe was the sixth overall speaker, Madeleine third, and Jenna finished top.

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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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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

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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

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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.