Category: Uncategorized

Thank you to those who participated in Senior SDC 2024, hosted over the past weekend! Following the weekend’s debates, the final results of the competition can now be announced.

The Grand Champions of this year’s SDC is HKIS 1, debating against DGS 1 in a spectacular Grand Final round. We congratulate both them and the runner-up heartily.

The grand finals motion was: This House Opposes the expectation that romantic partners should be the primary source of support for each other’s mental health.

Next, the Top 10 Speakers (with a tie at 1st, 3rd and 10th place) are as follows:

1=. Jonathan Ho, DBS 1

1=. Or Cheuk Lam Cynthia, SPCC 1

3=. Andrea Chow, RCHK 1

3=. Mollie Mei, HKIS 1

*5. Clara Lau, ICS 1

6. David Hong, HKIS 1

7. Evan Chow, DBS 1

8. Anson Cheng, DGS 1

*9. Tingting Zhang, CIS 1

10=. Hanyi Zhou, CIS 2

10=. Max Lee, DBS 2

10=. Pak Yin Wong, SPC 1

* As an addendum, only speakers with 3 or more speeches have traditionally been considered for speaker awards and this will resume in future competitions. For this instance however, trophies will still remain with awardees that have 2 speeches.

All tabs and the break have now been released publicly. They can be viewed at https://seniorsdc2024.calicotab.com/seniorsdc2024/

Payment receipts will be processed and sent to all teams who requested it as soon as possible. If you have ordered catering/bought catering on the spot and have NOT paid yet, there will be a separate email detailing payment processes in the future.

Thank you once again to everyone, judges and teams alike, who participated in this SDC. We hope to see everyone again soon and we wish everyone the best of luck in your future debate ventures.

We are delighted to open applications for the 2024 Hong Kong’s World Schools Debating team. The team will participate at the World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) held in person.

Hong Kong WSDC

The Hong Kong Debate & Speech Community will select an initial 8-to-10-person team, with the final five that will compete at WSDC decided in 2025, held in Panama from 22 July – 1 August 2025.

In addition, we will select a development squad of around 20 students. Those eligible for the development squad will have at least one additional year of high school after the current school year (graduating in 2026 or later).

Those selected to be part of either time will have approximately five hours of training a week in groups and individuals until July 2025 and would be expected to attend competitions as part of the Hong Kong team.

Selections

In order to apply you must be no younger than 14 on 16th July 2025, and no older than 19. You must be attending a High School in Hong Kong. 

The decision on who is selected to trial, the membership of both the squads and the final team will be made only by the current head coaches of the HK WSDC team and the coaches of the Hong Kong development team. 

No one who is paid to coach any trialist will judge the trials. The coaches of HK WSDC will not consider the comments or recommendations from such sources either.  

Trials

Trials will be held via Zoom on evenings from 26 October to 7 November via Zoom. (From 7pm HKT onwards), with the schedule depending on the trialists’ availability.

Prospective trialists will be required to submit their details and debating experiences by 23.59HKT on 19 Oct. All applicants will be informed whether they are called for a trial by 22 Oct. 

Those called to selections will be determined on the basis of their previous debating and speaking experience.

To apply, please fill out the following form:

https://forms.gle/ezS9JKKYkoroCS7J6

If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Harish Natarajan at hknatarajan@gmail.com or info@hkdsc.org

We are pleased to announce that Trials for the Hong Kong WIDPSC Team will be taking place on November 9, 2024, at The Harbour School. With representation in every finals category and a 1st Runner Up for After Dinner at WIDPSC 2024, we now look forward to writing the new chapter of our public speaking legacy at Kuala Lumpur in 2025!

To ensure sufficient training time for the team, trials have been moved (from January to November) since last year; hopefully, this will also be able to accommodate for diverse examination schedules in Hong Kong schools. 

For all information regarding the Trials, WIDPSC speaking categories, and more, please refer to the PDF leaflet attached. Please pay particular attention to speech times, which have been modified since last year to best facilitate the schedule and effectiveness of the Trials. 

The registration link is below. Please register by October 23 (Wed): https://forms.gle/KyzYqWWqQuCGzcvk7 

In order to facilitate the Trials, a registration fee of $200 will be collected from each competitor. Further details about payment will be forwarded after your registration is confirmed. Please keep an eye out for updates with further information about logistics on the competition day.

As with previous years, the top 10 speakers from the Trials will secure spots in the Hong Kong Team. Two additional reserve speakers will be offered a spot to train with the Hong Kong Team, with a potential chance of competing in WIDPSC 2025, subject to organisers’ discretion and competitor quotas.

As we enter the 2024-2025 academic year, we are elated to announce that the Senior Schools Debating Championships (SDC) is returning on 12-13 October, 2024. Senior SDC has traditionally been the training ground for our representative teams, in preparation for the Team Trials held in late October, and is a great opportunity for debaters to test their mettle in one of the biggest WSDC- style inter-school debate competitions in Hong Kong. Adding to the excitement, Senior SDC will be hosted in person at Wah Yan College, Hong Kong for the first time.

Important information regarding the tournament and registration can be found below:

Team Registration Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSduiz3Iihi8Dk4c1g1kseteZfqFNMnEiRJjtWr5ehNaWfpeHQ/viewform?usp=sharing 

Registration deadline: 20 September, 2024

Date: 12 October 8am-6:30pm (preliminary rounds); 13 October 9am-5pm (break rounds).

Venue: Wah Yan College, Hong Kong

Cost: HKD500 per team.

Eligibility: 3-5 members per team; Forms 4-6 / Years 10-13 / Grades 10-12.

Adjudicators: Each team must provide at least one adjudicator. A second team must be accompanied by a second adjudicator.

Team cap: 30 teams.

Format: WSDC – 8-minute main speech with points of information, 4-minute replies.

Draw: R1 random; R2-4 power-paired; QF-GF folded knockout draw.

Awards: Top Ten Speaker awards (debaters contesting 3 or more prelim debates are eligible); Top 8 teams break to quarter-final. Priority for second teams will go to previously underrepresented schools.

(Tentative) Schedule:

Day 1

08:00 – 08:15:               Registration and roll-call

08:15 – 08:45:               Tournament briefing

08:45 – 10:25:               Round 1 prepared debate + feedback

10:25 – 10:40:               Break

10:40 – 10:55:               Prep time for round 2 semi-prepared debate

10:55 – 12:35:               Round 2 semi-prepared debate + feedback

12:35 – 13:15:               Lunch break

13:15 – 13:30:               Prep time for round 3 semi-prepared debate

13:30 – 15:10:               Round 3 semi-prepared debate + feedback

15:10 – 15:25:               Break

15:25 – 16:10:               Prep time for round 4 impromptu debate

16:10 – 17:40:               Round 4 impromptu debate (silent round)

17:40 – 18:00:               Tabulation of results

18:00 – 18:30:               Break announcement, prizes for top speakers

Day 2

09:15 – 09:30:               Registration and roll-call

09:30 – 11:00:               Quarter-final prepared debate

11:00 – 11:30:               Announcement of QF results and feedback

11:30 – 12:15:               Prep time for Semi-final impromptu debate

12:15 – 13:45:               Semi-final impromptu debate

13:45 – 14:15:               Announcement of SF results and feedback

14:15 – 15:00:               Prep time for grand-final impromptu debate

15:00 – 16:30:               Grand-final impromptu debate

16:30 – 17:00:               Announcement of GF result and prize presentation

Please note that the schedule for the tournament is tentative and subject to change depending on the final team cap. Motions for fully prepared and semi-prepared rounds will be sent 2 to 3 weeks before the tournament dates if your team is given a spot in the tournament.

For more information and any inquiries, please contact us at info@hkdsc.org. We look forward to seeing your teams and judges at SDC 2024! 

Dear HKDSC Community,

As we step into the new academic year, we are excited to bring to you a wide variety of public speaking and debating events for the 2024-25 academic year. Through these events, we hope to reach more passionate and energetic souls and enable them in achieving the full potential of their voices. A brief summary of the planned events for this year are as follows:

Senior SDC – 12th-13th October 2024 (In-person)
WSDC HK Team Trials – 19th-20th October 2024 (Remote)
WIDPSC HK Team Trials – 9th November 2024 (In-person)
Junior SDC – 15th-16th March 2025 (In-person)
Junior Indivs – 3rd or 10th of May 2025 (In-person; final date TBC)
Flashpoint 2025 – May/June 2025 (TBC)

For more details on these events, please access our calendar tab or reach out to us for more information at info@hkdsc.org.
Our best wishes to you and your families this holiday season!

Sincerely,
The HKDSC

HKDSC is delighted to announce the Hong Kong Team for Belgrade WSDC 2024:

Advik Sharma (HKIS)
Edgar Cheng (GSIS)
Laurne Tse (HKIS)
Nicole Wong (Sha Tin)
Rachel Lang (GSIS)
With Jeanine Cheng (CIS) as the official reserve.

We would additionally like to thank Jason Xiao and Harish Natarajan for coaching the team tirelessly, and we wish the team the best of luck for Belgrade WSDC!

On the 4th of May, 73 students participated in the in-person 2024 Junior Individual Public Speaking Championships hosted on the Diocesan Boys’ School campus. Many outstanding performances were delivered, and we were delighted to see the passion speakers put into every speech they gave.

Listed below are the overall top 10 speakers and the respective winners and grand finalists of each category. A hearty congratulations to the winners and the top speakers of the tournament!

Persuasive Speaking:
Champion: Clarisse Poon – SPCC
1st runner-up: Ivy Sham – HISHK
2nd runner-up: Seungmin Kim – HKIS

Interpretive Reading:
Champion: Andrew Man – DBS
1st runner-up: Anissa Sim – DGS
2nd runner-up: Athena Lam – HKIS

Impromptu Speaking:
Champion: Zaynab Kola – HKFYGLSKC
1st runner-up: Marvis Leung – DBS
2nd runner-up: Osanna Chung – DGS

Top 10 Speakers:

Before we sign off, we also would like to extend a special thank you to every judge who helped make this event a special and rewarding learning experience for every participant, tirelessly assessing recorded speeches and readings, and taking the time to write encouraging and constructive feedback. We look forward to seeing more budding public speakers at our future events, furthering their talents or even representing Hong Kong!

Dear all,

HKPDS is a not-for-profit tournament and training workshop held annually to support the development of students in debate. Please see the following promotional message from our partner HKPDS regarding the opening of registration of trainees for the upcoming 20th Anniversary HKPDS Summer Workshop and Tournament.

For more information, please see the Facebook event link here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558666674203

Opening of Registration of Trainees for the 20th Anniversary HKPDS Summer Workshop & Tournament 2024

The Registration of Trainees today for the 20th Anniversary HKPDS Summer Workshop & Tournament 2024 from today till 6pm, 13th May 2024, Hong Kong Time, UTC + Eight.

Kindly note that this is an IN-PERSON, intensive BP debate summer camp with a 5-Day of BP Training Programme and a 3-Day Tournament at the end.

Please read the Event Information below before signing up as a Trainee. As we tend to be over-subscribed every year, please register as soon as you sure you could join us.

Event Information:

1. Dates: 4th to 11th August 2024 (Sunday to Sunday)
   
2. Training Venue: Hong Kong Metropolitan University (website: https://www.hkmu.edu.hk/)
   
3. Eligibility as Trainees:
   a) This event is mainly for secondary/high school students of between 13 to 18 years of age. If you are younger than 13, please tell us at the end of this Form where we ask “Anything else you would like us to know?”. Limited number of slots will be given to deserving university students. Please be honest with us when providing your personal information to us to assess your suitability to attend our event.
   b) As this is a Hong Kong debate event, we endeavour to have at least 40% of the trainees from Hong Kong as part of our mission to develop HK high school debate students, in addition to accepting overseas trainees who will add diversity, multiple perspectives and make the event as inclusive as possible.
   
4. Training and Tournament Processes:
   a) Trainees will be placed in different classes based on their prior debate competitive/workshop experience (Novice, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced-Intermediate and Advanced) in groups of 16.
   b) Each Group will be taught by 2 Trainers or 1 Trainer and an Assistant Trainer. They will deliver lectures on debate theories, debate skills and debate content. They will also conduct debate practice rounds to continually assess, give feedback to the Trainees for the personal improvement of each debater. The training schedule is arduously rigorous, starting from 9am and ending at 7pm from Day 1 to Day 4. Day 5 is Electives Day where trainees could choose short one-hour courses offered by the Trainers.
   c) Demonstration Debates by the Trainers and Assistant Trainers will be staged for the benefit of the Trainees. A Special Guest Lecture will also be delivered by 2 Invited Speakers.
   d) As a tradition, there will be Public Speaking Competition for the Trainees
   e) Day 6 to Day 8 will be the Tournament where trainees will form BP teams and debate in 8 Preliminary Rounds over two days, before the Break Rounds on 11th August 2024 to reveal the Champions of the 20th Anniversary HKPDS Tournament 2024.
   
5. Training & Tournament Schedule:
   
   4th August, Sunday
   08:30 – 09:30 Registration of Participants
   09:30 – 10:00 Opening Ceremony/Speeches by President of HK Metropolitan University and President of the Hong Kong Finance Association/Briefing by Conveners/Introduction of Trainers
   10:00 – 10:30 Introduction to BP Debating/Keynote Speech by Assistant Professor Brian
   Wong, Hong Kong University
   10:30 – 11:45 Demonstration Debate 1
   11:45 – 13:30 Group Training (1)
   13:30 – 14:30 Lunch
   14:30 – 19:00 Group Training (2)
   
   5th August, Monday
   08:30 – 09:00 Announcements
   09:00 – 13:00 Group Training (3) 13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
   14:00 – 19:00 Group Training (4)
   
   6th August, Tuesday
   08:30 – 09:00 Announcements
   09:00 – 12:00 Group Training (5)
   12:00 – 13:30 Demonstration Debate 2/Guest Lecture by Invited Speaker
   13:30 – 14:30 Lunch
   14:30 – 18:00 Group Training (6)
   18:00 – 19:30 Special Lecture by Assistant Professor Brian Wong of Hong Kong University and Dr William Wong, Senior Counsel, Des Voeux Chambers
   
   7th August, Wednesday
   08:30 – 09:00 Announcements
   09:00 – 13:00 Group Training (7)
   13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
   14:00 – 19:00 Group Training (Eight)
   19:00 – 19:45 Confirmation of Teams
   
   8th August, Thursday
   08:30 – 09:00 Announcements
   09:00 – 10:00 Elective 1
   10:00 – 11:00 Elective 2
   11:00 – 12:00 Elective 3
   12:00 – 13:00 Elective 4
   13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
   14:00 – 16:00 Pep Talk and Preparation for Mock Round
   16:00 – 19:00 Mock Round and Extensive Feedback by Trainers
   
   9th August, Friday
   08:30 – 09:00 Roll Call and Tournament Briefing
   09:00 – 11:00 Debate Round 1
   11:00 – 13:00 Debate Round 2
   13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
   14:00 – 16:15 Debate Round 3 + Break
   16:00 – 18:15 Debate Round 4 + Break
   18:15 – 19:15 Public Speaking Preliminary Rounds
   
   10th August, Saturday
   08:30 – 09:00 Roll Call and Tournament Briefing
   09:00 – 11:15 Debate Round 5 + Break
   11:15 – 13:15 Debate Round 6
   13:00 – 14:00 Lunch
   14:00 – 16:15 Debate Round 7 + Break
   16:15 – 18:00 Debate Round 8 (Silent)
   18:00 – 19:00 Public Speaking Semi Finals + Travel Arrangements for Break Night Dinner
   19:00 – 22:00 Break Announcements & Break Night Dinner
   
   11th August, Sunday
   08:30 – 09:00 Roll Call of Open Octo Finalists & Judges
   09:00 – 10:30 Open Octo Finals
   10:30 – 12:00 Open Quarter Finals/Junior Semi Finals
   12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
   13:00 – 15:00 Open Semi Finals/Junior Final
   15:00 – 16:00 Grand Final of Public Speaking
   16:00 – 17:30 HKPDS Cup Open Grand Final
   17:30 – 18:15 Award Presentation & Closing Ceremony
   19:30 – 22:00 Thank You Dinner for Trainers & Organisers
   
6. Two-Tier Registration Fees:
   There is a two-tier Registration Fee for Local Hong Kong students and Overseas Students:
   a) Registration Fee for Local Hong Kong Students: 2450HKD per person (excludes local transportation)
   b) Registration Fee for Overseas Students: 450USD per person (excludes hotel accommodation)
   The Registration Fees collected will go to paying for the air tickets, hotel accommodation, daily meals, local transportation, SIM card, Octopus subway cards of our Trainers and Assistant Trainers. The Registration Fees will also pay daily lunch of all participants, for the two social events, photo wall, banners, event gifts (tote bags/t-shirts), prizes for winners, e-certificates for all students and tokens of appreciation for the Trainers, Assistant Trainers, Organisers and Volunteers. Overseas trainees who choose to stay at the designated Event Hotel will be provided with free daily buses from/to Hong Kong Metropolitan University.
   
7. Non-Profit Event:
   No profit is made for the event. All the Trainers/Assistant Trainers/Organisers are performing their roles as selfless Volunteers who are compensated only for expenses required for them to be in Hong Kong to provide a free expert debate education service as a personal contribution to good debating and a personal sacrifice of time and effort.
   
8. Registration Deadline:
   Please fill in ALL the sections of this Registration Form for Trainees. The deadline for registration is 13th May 2024, 6pm, Hong Kong Time, UTC + Eight.
   
9. If you have a BP partner to form a team to debate at our Tournament from 9th to 11th August 2024, please ask that person to register as a trainee and BOTH of you should indicate that you wish to pair up with each other to debate as a BP team at our Tournament on the last 3 days of our event.
   
10. We will email you to confirm your slot and arrange for your payment of the registration fees on 20th May 2024.
    
11. Please write to Mr Loke Wing Fatt at this email address if you need more information and further clarifications: lokewingfatt@gmail.com
    
12. Registration Form for Trainees:
    To register as a Trainee, please click on the following link:
    
    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfAiC5T6uQrm5fFNoWPXRJ-dNcO9Ac5DiyJ1HwHtvBisUa1NQ/viewform
    
    Thank you.
    
    Loke Wing Fatt
    Executive Director
    20th Anniversary HKPDS Summer Workshop & Tournament 2024

Thank you to all who participated and adjudicated in Junior SDC 2024 on the 16th-17th of March! We hope the tournament was a fulfilling experience for everyone, and are delighted to publicly announce the final results of the tournament!

Firstly, the Top 10 Speakers, with ties at 4th and 7th place, are as follows:

1 Mollie Mei (HKIS)

2 Kai Kai Wu (HKIS)

3 Seungmin Kim (HKIS)

=4 Seung June Yoon (IS)

=4 Arryav Khaderia (HKIS MS)

6 Emi Venn (GSIS 2)

=7 Hayley Yuen (DGS1)

=7 Valmik Dangayach (GSIS 1)

9 Clarisse Poon (SPCC1)

10 Kelly Au (SPCC 2)

In addition, after a heated grand finals debate between HKIS and SPCC, HKIS emerged as Grand Champion, with the best Grand Finals speaker being Mollie Mei from HKIS. Congratulations to all prizewinners and to both the Grand Champion and Runner-Up!

All tabs and the break have been released publicly on our tab page:

https://jsdc2024.calicotab.com/jsdc2024

Finally, we would like to thank everyone who aided in the creation and operation of the tournament, be they debater, adjudicator, motions committee member, or orgcomm member. As cliched as it may be, none of it would have been possible without you. Junior SDC has always been one of the stages for young debating talent in Hong Kong to show themselves and flourish, and this year’s iteration was no different. Whether it be your first or last JSDC, we hope you got something out of it, and will use that to further your debate careers. With that, we hope to see everyone again soon!

For the last few years, we have hosted the Junior Individuals Public Speaking Championships to foster the growth of a new generation of public speakers in Hong Kong. This year we are excited to announce that the first in-person Junior Individual Public Speaking Championships will be happening on 4th May, 2024 (Saturday), and will be held on the Diocesan Boys’ School campus.

As in past years, there are three compulsory categories, namely Persuasive Speaking, Interpretive Reading and Impromptu Speaking. Persuasive Speaking and Interpretive Reading. Please refer to the attached slides for the exact time limits and rules of each category.

Each school can enrol 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 if sending four, five or six students) to judge the live rounds in-person on the day. Please note that for junior competitions, senior students can be registered to judge. More guidelines on the judging criteria and approaches will be sent out after the registration period ends.

In order to facilitate the competition, a registration fee of $150 will be collected from each competitor. Further details about payment will be forwarded after your registration is confirmed.

Please fill in the Google Form by 23rd April (Tuesday) for registration. The registration form can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd7hfskMKAyKu1M7872_YZ6rdsHoqbt1lBigAw5x-nr_ZY5Zw/viewform

The following is the tentative schedule of the competition day on 4th May (Saturday).

08:45 – 09:15 – Registration
09:15 – 09:30 – Welcome & Competitor Q&A
09:30 – 10:00 – Briefing for Judges
10:00 – 11:00 – Persuasive Speaking
11:00 – 12:00 – Interpretive Reading
12:00 – 13:00 – Impromptu Speaking
13:00 – 14:00 – Lunch Break
14:00 – 15:30 – Grand Finals
15:30 – Announcement of results & Prize-giving Ceremony

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.