2017-07-31
【Aiden in English】 The debate has begun. The arguments, competitive spirits, and stressful situations of the debate meetings have begun. And the fun has begun. I just want to say that my debate experience was quite lacking in the past. However, that did not relate to my public speaking. Granted, every Chinese-speaking contest was quite a disappointment for me. But I’m quick on my feet and mind during English presentations, thanks to the many classes I’ve taken. Luckily, I really enjoyed certain speaking classes, so my fear of public speaking was not completely off the scale.
Regardless, I am still quite nervous when it comes to public action, whether it’s the performing arts or speaking. In my eyes, I see that musical performances and sports pressures are much greater than speaking. However, the debate is commonly referred to as a competitive sport. The nature itself of the debate is to win an argument, liking the topic or not.
Day one featured the “get to know you” stage. Day Two had much of the same idea, just that we began to explain our overall debate resolution. I was somewhat excited to see our end game goal; but more importantly, it was the impromptu debates.
Impromptu- Done without planning. Essentially, we were given a topic to debate, using a brief session to record evidence, and then a quick rapid-fire of both sides. The activity was called a two-two-two, a quick debate set-up format. Each side has a pro/con side of a simple topic. They are given two minutes to gather evidence, condensing the evidence into two reasons or contentions, and finally having two minutes to explain the side of the argument. I, personally, do enjoy doing these little public speaking activities, but the group was very larger, therefore the wait was overly long. I still had a blast, rushing through site after site. My given topic, although not applying directly to me, was that the driving age limit should be raised to eighteen. I received the “con” side of the argument. Through much searching, I eventually found the CDC government site, which provided lots and lots of valuable, but more importantly, reliable information. I was on a roll through collecting evidence… and then I realized that I researched the wrong side of the argument.
Luckily, I recovered, manipulating a few pieces of evidence and adding personal experience to create an argument. Disaster, yes, but I made the most of what I researched, pulling together a decent speech with minor pauses here and there. From start to finish, I kept an overall composure. Never stuttering, buying time with calculated pauses and repetition, I felt really good about my argument. Yet I still believed there was more to improve, which is why we probably were going to do this tomorrow.
【紅霞譯文】
辯論拉開序幕，辯論場上針鋒相對、競爭氣勢與緊張程度隨之顯露出來，樂趣也由此開始。
我承認過去本人十分缺乏辯論經驗，不過這與演講水平毫無關係。誠然，每次中文演講比賽我表現得不盡人意，但在英語演講中，憑藉以前所學很多課程的基本功訓練，足以讓自己儘快恢復狀態。幸虧我喜歡有些演講課，這樣在公眾場合講話時恐懼心理才不會達到難以控制的地步。
其實無論是登台獻藝還是發表講話，公開場合下我依然焦慮緊張。在我個人看來，音樂表演和體育比賽要比演講壓力更大，而辯論又常被視作競技運動，不管你喜不喜歡爭執的話題，到頭來就是要贏得辯論勝利。
夏令營的第一天處於“相互了解”階段，第二天出發點基本相同，只是大家開始暢敘辯論總體計劃，我太想看到我們的終極目標，但沒有比即興辯論更加重要。 即興──事先沒有準備。本質上我們按命題展開辯論，先簡單陳述事實，然後再從兩個方面迅速發動攻辯，這種套路被稱作2—2—2，一種快捷的辯論形式。辯論對立兩個隊各做正方/反方，開篇陳詞兩分鐘，將證據概況成兩點，攻辯小結兩分鐘。以個人之見，我挺喜歡這種小型演講活動，但分組很大，等待時間相應加長，還要飛速從一個賽場趕往另一個賽場。我拿到的題目“開車年齡限制應提高至十八歲”，與我沒有直接關係。我以“反方”身份攻辯，通過深入調查，終於在美國疾病控制與預防中心官方網站找到了大量切實可靠的信息，順順利利地收集證據……接下來便意識到我站錯了路線。 僥倖的是我及時調整，組織好手頭若幹事例，並將個人經驗整合進來，創造出攻辯論據。災難，有那麼一點，但我充分利用查到的資料，說得有板有眼，只是間或打點磕巴而已。自始至終我一直保持鎮定，從沒口吃，也不靠計時暫停重複提問來贏得時間，自我感覺不錯。我相信還有很多地方需要改進，這正是明天大家可能要重新來過的原因。
Today in History(歷史上的今天): 2015: 76ers Overnight Camp─Memory(七六人隊籃球寄宿營─體會) 2014: YMCA Camp─Renaissance Fair(基督教青年會營─文藝復興節) 2013: 從俄國浪漫到革命(From Russian Romance to Revolution) 
Camp Site (營地) 
Warm-up Activity (熱身活動) 
Social Moment (拉呱) Crosslinks(相關博文):
2017: Capitol Debate Camp Day-1(國會辯論夏令營第一天) 8th Grade(初中三年級) |
