International School’s 2nd “HUD CUP” English Debate Competition
The International School held the preliminary rounds and the final of the 2nd “HUD CUP” English debate competition in the Qizhi Building on December 7th and 14th , 2021. Judges and guests included Ms. He Fengzhen, the South-China Region Admission Representative of Huddersfield University; Prof. Yu Huifen, Dean of the International School; Prof. Li Pinghai, Vice Dean of the International School; Mr. Colin Black, Dr. Sal Mirza and staff from the International School.
Before each session, the moderator explained the rules of the debate and then announced the start of the competition. In the preliminary round, the topic focused on “can money can buy happiness or not”. The pro side were required to give evidence to support “money can buy happiness”; and the con side gave the argument to prove “money can’t buy happiness”. The debaters devoted themselves to the competition with fluent English and quick thinking and provided both visual and audio feast for audiences. After a few fierce rounds, team one, team two, team four and team five won in the preliminary stage.
In the Preliminary Round
Prior to the final debate starting, Ms. He Fengzhen delivered an opening address. She expressed her great honor to be the guest of this “HUD CUP” English debate competition and hoped that the Huddersfield University and the International School would further develop closer links through this debate competition. Finally, she encouraged participants to show themselves bravely in the competition and wished the debate teams great success.
In the final stage, debaters centered around the topic: “Can artificial intelligence replace human beings in the future?”. The con side supported “artificial intelligence can replace human beings in the future”. And the pro side stated “artificial intelligence can’t replace human beings in the future”. The main perspective of the pro side was that artificial intelligence can greatly improve efficiency, save labor, eliminate inferior labor, and play a role in promoting social development. The opposite side argued that artificial intelligence can think like people, but can’t exceed human intelligence. In this session, the appealing debate produced an atmosphere of both tension and excitement. Both sides imagined the future with the development of artificial intelligence.
Then, Mr.Colin Black and Dr.Sal as judges made comments on the competition. Mr. Colin thanked the contestants for a wonderful debate atmosphere and thought it a good result of their hard work. Later, he approved of debater’s calmness and their dialectical ability. Finally, he said that the topic of the competition was interesting, and the debaters’ opinions amazed and impressed him. Dr. Sal believed that the arguments were presented with clear logic and that the use of appropriate examples would be more impressive and convincing, which was an important scoring criteria for judges. Then, he advised students to use logic, facts and charisma to support their arguments, so that judges and audiences could have a sense of participation and a deep understanding of the debate topic. Finally, he praised the wonderful performance of the debaters and wished students all the best for the competition.
Judges Making Comments
According to judges’ scoring, team “Mafia” and team For nothing” won the first and second prize in the final. Yu Zhengyang and Huang Dingyi were presented with the “the Best Debaters” award.
Award Ceremony
In closing, Dean Yu praised debaters for their excellent performance, and expressed her delight to witness students’ progress. Afterwards, she mentioned that the International School will continue to create more opportunities for students to improve and showcase their confidence. She encouraged students to actively participate in the activities to grow through them. Finally, she thanked all the guests for their participation and all the staff for their collaboration during the competition, especially the Huddersfield University for their support.
Dean Yu Giving a Concluding Speech
Group Photo
The 2nd “HUD CUP” English Debate Competition of the International School came to a successful conclusion. Look forward to seeing more teams defend their positions in the next debate competition.
