Hello readers,
This week, I decided that I wanted to not only record what I've learnt throughout my debating career, but also share it with underclassmen who want to start debating yet are experiencing difficulties. As a result, I declared to create my very own YouTube channel and upload some videos on AP style debating and MUN. I have also shown my first video to my debating society members; most of them told me that they could learn something that wasn't in any other YouTube video and that the video was quite helpful. (Although I got teased for my voice in the video)
So, what is the video about? I did not choose to talk about AP style debate rules or speaker roles, since there is a glut of such information on YouTube. Rather, I wanted my videos to be like a hole in a wall, containing my very own know-how and experience of debating.
Then, I noticed that most of the videos about AP debate tell new debaters what to DO instead of NOT DO. But from my experience, I know that what is more important that what to do is what to not do, since new debaters are unsure about their strategies--whether it would be an effective one, or one that is widely considered as "strategical blunders." Although there is no right or wrong in debating, there are still some strategies that are ineffective in almost all instances. For instance, squirrelling the motion would be a terrible strategy to win a debate. Suppose that the motion is THW ban organ trading, and the Government sets "this house" as somewhere like Jamaica (assuming that the debate is happening in Korea) because they are experts on the organ trading situations in Jamaica. But note that the spirit of the motion, the adjudicators, and the opposition would intuitively assume "This House" to be probably South Korea or liberal democratic nations. If side government defines the motion in such a way, the opposition will have to challenge the definition, and the whole government side would fall if the judge would agree with the opposition's alternative definition. (and in this case, there is a solid chance for the judge to do so.) I tried this strategy in my first tournament, and my team miserably lost although we were all better speakers in general.
So the first video was "what to NOT do in a debate." You can access the video in here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJlA0APxP8o&t=130s
Due to my poor editing skills, the editing is not that good, but I tried to put in as much as necessary information as I could.