YWPS Debaters are Champions!

7/6/2021

[6 Jul] Good news from our Debating Teams in the past few days. Read the reports below:

Principal Chan (left) shares her happiness with our Junior Debate Team and Team Coach Miss Fung

Congratulations to Roderick Yuen 4B, Ethan Wu 5E and Randolph Cheng 5E from our Junior Debate Team for winning Champion in the “22nd HKPTU Debating Competition” in the primary junior division 1A (Results announced on 30 June).

The format of this competition has been revised due to the pandemic situation. Instead of having a face-to-face live debate, each team was required to submit a video of the speeches of the three speakers debating for the stance of their choosing based on the motion “That online learning is effective for primary school students.” Our team chose to debate against the motion. The whole preparation of the debate was done entirely online from scratch, starting from introducing the concept of debate to submitting to the video for the competition.

We’ve had countless online meetings and conducted all the researches, discussions, and emendation completely online. My sincerest gratitude to our three boys for their tremendous effort, determination, and dedication in every aspect of preparation for this competition.

Also, a big thanks to the boys’ parents for helping record the videos at home and their unconditional support along the way.

Miss Vera FUNG

Screenshot of the moment when our team was announced as winner

Senior debating team takes out Grand Final match

In a COVID-19-stricken year, our Senior English debaters faced the tough challenge of conducting all lessons and debating matches online. Despite facing many difficulties, our team still managed to win one of the HKSSDC Grand Final debates earlier this week. The topic debated was, “This house believes that the elderly are better taken care of in nursing homes than living with their children.” As the affirmative team, our boys successfully defended the motion against a traditionally strong debating outfit (in Pun U Wah Yan Primary School) and winning the match by the slimmest of margins!

Our debaters in the final were:

1st speaker – Bryan Cheng 6C;
2nd speaker – Nicholas Tang 6C; and
3rd speaker – Aden Su 6E

Incidentally, Aden was named the Best Speaker of the Grand Final! I also wish to give a hearty thanks to Rosco Chan of 6D for his invaluable contribution to this team during the opening three debating rounds.

Mr Thomas CHING

8 Comments

Aden Su

7/6/2021 09:07:45 pm

First, I want to congratulate the junior group for the HKPTU competition for performing so well in the competition. I'm sure you all prepared very well and deserved that win. I hope you can continue to accomplish what you set out to do.

I also have to thank my teammate Rosco Chan for his invaluable contribution during the HKSSDC preliminary matches. We couldn't have made it to the grand finals without you.

I was actually surprised when we won the grand final, although my teammates were really hard-working and we did try hard to win. I really admire the negative speakers. They are a strong team and I'll definitely try to learn and improve from them.

I also made a few mistakes during my script regarding the rebuttals and clashes, and the part I feel most embarrassed about was when I was doing clashes, and I completely forgot to signpost, and the adjudicator just took it as a rebuttal as well. I thought we'd fail just because of that.

It's an honour to fight one last time with Ying Wa's uniform. I will never forget how Ying Wa raised me, nurtured me, and inspired me. The way is never easy. It's always tough. But when you get through the challenges and hardships, the sweet nectar of victory and satisfaction is worth the wait.

At last, of course, thank you Mr Ching for all the incredible effort you put into us. I learned a lot from you and I will cherish this opportunity forever. I can't wait to see our little brothers and their outstanding performances in the future.

Dr H C Lee

7/6/2021 11:24:39 pm

Very well said Aden. I watched the match and it was indeed a very close one. You did well but I think the opposite team's last speaker was very convincing too. If you have a chance to watch it again, you definitely need to learn from your opponents and the judges' critical words. I learnt a lot too. In any case, I'm proud of our teams. Congratulations again to Miss Fung's team and Mr Ching's team. Great job!

Bryan Cheng

7/7/2021 11:15:44 pm

I am really excited that we as a team have won this extraordinary intense competition. It is always a good chance to learn from my helpful teammates. I’d like to thank Mr aching for giving me this chance to learn all kinds of knowledge from signories. It’s a pleasure to meet powerful opponents all along the way so that we know how we should improve ourselves. Being a debater is not a easy job. Just imagine having meetings at late night just to be more productive and confident that we could get the one point that’s able to beat the opponent team. Besides, our loving principal showed great support to us as well. She was actually in another competition with Mr Chan, who also won a history themed competition. Mrs Chan was so excited about both of the wins and she even let the whole general studies team listen to the debate. At last, I had to thank my parents for encouraging me all the time.😊

Bryan

7/7/2021 11:25:55 pm

line two has a typo, it should be Mr Ching. I am so sorry Mr Ching!

Ethan Wu

7/8/2021 08:19:23 am

Congratulations to the Ying Wa Debating Teams!

I would like to thank Miss Fung for giving me the opportunity to be a member of the Junior Debating Team this year. Your countless online meetings and coaching were invaluable to our success.

Special thanks to my teammates Randolph and Roderick on their efforts with planning, research, and creating the team line. To prepare our debate position, we had numerous discussions amongst ourselves which brought forward our winning arguments. Further, we needed to translate all of this into a video recording format and incorporating extensive information with time constraints was not an easy task.

While this journey had been challenging, it has definitely been memorable and I have enjoyed every single minute of it. It has been my honour to have been part of the winning team in the HKPTU Debating Competition.

Congratulations again to the Senior Debating Team and wish you all the best in your future endeavours.

Roderick Yuen

7/8/2021 08:26:33 pm

This is my first time participating in a school debate competition. I am thrilled to be part of the winning team in the HKPTU debate competition.

I would like to thank Miss Fung for recommending me to join the Junior Debating Team. Miss Fung made lots of effort to teach our team how to plan, do research and structure our arguments in the debate, which are essential to me, a beginner to debating. Without Miss Fung’s patience and effort, we would not have achieved such a good result.

I would also like to thank my teammates, Ethan and Randolph. Looking into the motion in depth and sharing our opinions after research during training were intriguing experiences for me. I have learnt from my teammates how to concisely organize my points and present them with power and energy.

Finally, congratulations to the senior debating team. I wish you luck on the new chapter of your life.

I look forward to participating in face-to-face debate in next year. I am sure that it will be an enriching experience!

Nicholas Tang

7/9/2021 06:59:01 pm

I am so glad and honoured to be able to join this awesome team! Being in a debating team is such a wonderful experience — from researching to writing to refining our scripts, from practicing to delivering the speech… this process requires a lot of concentration and communication with my hardworking teammates.
Please let me thank them for spending numerous hours with me just to help me overcome some difficulties I encounter. Without your aid, we would never have achieved this award.
Then, I would like to show my gratitude towards Mr Ching, our team advisor, for being so helpful. You gave us the best advice possible. Your humourous style of teaching attracts us even more into improving our work. If it wasn’t for your guidance, we would not have made such great result.
I just want to say that I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity to participate in this team, where I gained a lot of knowledge. I am looking forward to joining a debating team next year in college too!

Randolph Cheng

7/10/2021 10:34:27 pm

Congratulations to both debating teams!

Debating is not just arguing, but it is an important factor in the art of persuasion, and the ability to change people's ideas with a speech.

This year, I, with my teammates Ethan Wu and Roderick Yuen, participated in the twenty-second HKUPTU Debating Competition. Facing the obnoxious pandemic, we had to shift from debating in a physical setting to online debating. Faced with an abundance of difficulties and obstacles of communication during our debate, our team worked like bees into the pre-match preparations.

This special event served as a reminder to me: debating is not just about one individual; it is about trusting our teammates despite the lack of communication is also important.

My deepest gratitude goes to our debate conductor, Miss Vera Fung, and my teammates, Ethan Wu and Roderick Yuen, who all provided massive amounts of help and support in and out of debates, and most importantly, made this experience special. Thanks!

YWPS Debaters are Champions!

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