In the Summer 2018 issue of International Debate, Miriam Kohn (LearningLeaders, Rochester '17) and Chris Perkins (Rochester '17) published an article titled "Fair Play: Proposals for Reform to the Break System in British Parliamentary Debate." In said article, they discussed the possibility to replace team breaks on speaks with a point-based break and additional bye-based elimination round. AchteMinute (AM): First off, so lucky to be chatting with you, Miriam & Chris. Can you tell us briefly about your background in debate? Miriam Kohn (M): Thanks for taking the time to chat with us! My high school didn’t have a debate team, so ...

Today's feature presents: The first speaker to be top of the tab at an EUDC in both categories as an ESL participant since 2001, Lucía Arce Cubas! In the interview Lucía told us about her origins, debating career and being ESL in the UK. ...

Olzhas Abdukhamitov and Aigerim Shadeyeva are the conveners of the Astana EUDC, Olzhas volunteered at Novi Sad and Aigerim competed, making it to the ESL Quaters. Raffy Marshall and Monica Forman are the CAs of Astana EUDC. We sat down with them to talk about bringing the EUDC to Central Asia. ...

As announced on our international facebook page we planned doing an interview with the newly elected hosts of the EUDC 2018 in Novi Sad. Everything has happened rather quickly since the former hosts from Edinburgh declared their problems with hosting the EUDC 2018 and we wanted to give the community the opportunity to ask the questions they had in mind. So we ended up having a conference call with Jovan Petronijević, the convener, and Miriana Muntean, the logistics officer and asking them a bunch of question you guys had sent in.  ...

Some people debate to improve their skills, some for the competition and some for an ideal of discourse or knowledge. For the latter, we'd like to present an opportunity to engage in conversations with people from all around the world to exchange and discuss differing views: Bridger. The newly developed app just got publicly available, so we thought it a good time to have in interview with the people behind it. ...

It is not uncommon for major tournaments to host training programmes, as Duncan Crowe, one of the main organizers of the Scottish EUDC training series, puts it. However, the effort invested in the Scottish EUDC training series has been exceptional in length and extent. Instead of being a selected set of workshops delivered directly prior to the competition, this training series has involved the production and distribution of new, live training content directly to societies across Europe. The launch of the Scottish EUDC Training Platform marks the introduction of a new pillar to the international debate education. ...

A few days ago, we interviewed the magnificient Owen Mooney, current EUDC champion. We asked him some questions about his debating development and which advice he would give to novices and debaters who seek to become better. Enjoy some funny stories, expert suggestions and clever comments! ...

Some weeks ago, we interviewed David Alatorre and Montserrat Legorreta, convenors of México WUDC 2018. This week, we can finally present you the results with tons of information - whether it's about the Masters' Competition, the Socials, Livestreams, México Open, Triple breaks, Wi-Fi or the IA allocation system. Enjoy! ...

Apart from regular tournaments with debates around topics that generally move - or should move - society, there are some examples were debaters just combine some of their various interests. This led German debaters to establish their very own ruleset for what they call "history debates", ultimately resulting in history tournaments. Additionally, a history debate sometimes even gets set for one round of a regular tournament. In this article, we will introduce you to this feature - maybe you even want to do your own history debate? ...

With the EUDC 2017 in Tallinn coming closer, people might want to prepare their trip - but what to prepare for? We've asked convenor Selene Gnadenteich about the tournament, including the questions we got from the community. ...

The use of language in university debating hasn't been studied a lot so far. Miriam Kohn from the University of Rochester did some research - in this interview, she tells us about her results and thoughts on the use of "hedging". Conducting the interview for the Achte Minute was Bexley Brown. Edited for length & clarity with entire thesis and speech transcriptions available here. ...

In this week's feature, Helena Hecke investigates the issue of women not being taken serious in adjudication discussions, along with some suggestions to fix it. ...

In this article, I’d like to argue for more knives in BPS debating. Not because I’m the owner of a knife shop – which I’m not – but because there are certain cases where the current rules are unfair towards certain teams and this could be easily corrected. ...

Lots of experienced debaters keep discussing what might be the best way to adjudicate in British Parliamentary Style. Today, Stefan Torges wants to discuss the perfect adjudicator's position. ...

Coming Sunday at the 14th August the European Debating Championship 2016 will take place in Warsaw and, as usual, the Achte Minute will be there to report. But for now the big question is not yet who managed to break but rather what to bring along. As a wonderful German proverb states: "Life ain't no pony yard" - it means that life isn't easy. Most participants have to pack their own bags, since mother or father don't do it for them anymore. So we want to have a chat out of the sewing box with you about things we deem ...

On the 19th-29th Juli the World Schools Debating Championships take place in and around Stuttgart, Germany (an article about the WSDC 2016 can be found here). The Achte Minute was visiting the event and we’ve interviewed some of the participating debaters from all around the world. Because of the large number of interviews the first part of this Mittwochs-Feature was already published yesterday. In this part you can find the interviews with: Naz Gocek, Branksome Hall - Canada Barbara Krumpholz, Europäisches Gymnasium Bertha-von-Suttner - Germany Thomas Murphy, Dubai College - United Arabic Emirates Abhaya Gauchan, Ratobangala School - Nepal   Naz Gocek, Branksome Hall - Canada [caption id="attachment_29517" ...

On the 19th-29th Juli the World Schools Debating Championships take place in and around Stuttgart, Germany (an article about the WSDC 2016 can be found here). The Achte Minute was visiting the event and has interviewed some of the participating debaters from all around the world. Because of the large number of interviews, the first part of this Mittwochs-Feature is already published today. The second part will be published regularly at 10am on Wednesday. In this part you can find the interviews with: Kenza Wilks, Dulwich College - England Alejo Gonzalez Virgili, Belgrano Day School - Argentina Jay Tanatswa Muzhingi, Kutama College - Zimbabwe Kenza ...

In addition to debating at universities, competition has spread at schools all over the globe in recent decades. For example, participating countries annually send a delegation of pupils aged 14 to 19 to the World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC), which are comparable to the World Universities Debating Championships. Laura Alviz of the Debating Society Germany e.V. explains what exactly that means. WSDC takes place in Stuttgart next week. After the German team had to cover long distances in 2014 and 2015 to reach the Southeast Asian cities Bangkok and Singapore, traveling becomes easier this year. WSDC takes place in seven days ...

The WUDC - World Universities Debating Championship - are hosted annually around New Year and decide, who will become the english speaking university debating champions in one of three language categories. [caption id="attachment_28793" align="alignleft" width="400"] An Komfort völlig ausreichend? Jugendherberge in Tübingen // Sufficient comfort? Youth hostel in Tübingen // © Lennart Lokstein[/caption] In the German (in this article meaning: German speaking language region - primarily Germany, Austria and Switzerland) debate szene international tournaments aren't really important. The WUDC 2013 in Berlin and the EUDC 2015 in Vienna may have risen attention and as far as I'm informed the number of VDCH ...

  Worlds are over, but some questions remain. Why was there a delay during the preliminary rounds every day? Did Tabbie2 malfunction at any time? Or were the adjudicator scores lost? Worlds Tab Master Jakob Reiter from DK Wien talked to Achte Minute about tabbing the biggest international tournament, his software Tabbie2, and other technical details. Achte Minute: Dear Jakob, you were one of the Tab Masters at the World University Debating Championships in Thessaloniki. How do you feel after this tournament? Jakob: I am really happy I had the opportunity to be the Tab Master. It is always a great challenge to ...

It is the longest time at a debating tournament: The last closed round is over and you are waiting for the break. The tabbing team always takes longer than promised, and the social can barely pass the time. [caption id="attachment_25851" align="alignright" width="300"] Debatebreaker's logo[/caption]There are the patient debaters who can sit back and relax, and let the break surprise them. If you belong to the many who are not like that, you probably spend the time constantly speculating about your chances. You have a rough idea of your score, but will it be enough for the break?There are some rules of thumb that you ...

South Africa is currently applying to host the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC) in 2017. Should the bid be successful, Dessislava Kirova would form the Chief Adjudication panel, together with Gemma Buckley from Australia and Syed Saddiq from Malaysia. Anne Gaa spoke with her about her plans for the Worlds.Achte Minute: How did you get to be nominated by the South African OrgCom? Is there a special relationship between the German and South African debating communities?Dessislava Kirova: It was quite surprising. At the Paris Open 2013, I met someone who was, at that time, part of the organizing team. That connection ...

Shortly after this year's World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) in Malaysia, Gemma Buckley wrote down her thoughts on the topic of discrimination based on language skills and the existing power structures in the debating community. Her article caused a broad debate on that issue on Facebook. She allowed the Achte Minute to republish it on this blog. You can discuss it here or add a comment to the existing discussion. Judging at this year's WUDC was an eye opening (and occasionally devastating) experience for me, as has been made clear through my recent posts on Facebook. After many took offense to ...

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The cancellation of a public debate in Oxford on the topic "This House believes Britain's abortion culture hurts us all" caused a controversial and emotional debate in the United Kingdom. After Tim Squirrell, current president of the Cambridge Union Society, published an article in the students' newspaper "The Tab," saying, "it’s about time we recognised that and started thinking responsibly and considerately about freedom of speech," he was exposed to hostilities. Tim allowed us to republish his latest article from his blog "Squirrelling the Motion" that reflects on the ongoing discussion. Besides offering an overview on the events of the ...

The preparations for the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC) 2015 in Vienna are in full swing. Stefan Zweiker convenes the event, which will host 800 participants in Austria’s capital. Press representative of Debattierklub Wien (DKWien) Damita Pressl conducted a short interview. Stefan, how is the organisation going at the moment? What details have been confirmed so far? For one thing, we have a key organisation committee, meaning that up to this point, we had around 20 people completing most tasks. That number is now set to grow, and I would guess around another 20 people are going to join us and take ...

The German Peer Klüßendorf, who has been debating for Lund University for the last two years and won the European Championship 2013, went to the second French World Debating Championship in Paris. In this week’s Mittwochs-Feature, he summarises his experiences and writes about different debating formats, French humour, and a Grand Final judging panel that refused to announce the winner before an encore with reversed roles. A suavely suited up young man walks on stage. With his loud voice he fills the historic auditorium easily. He raises a sword. 30 seconds later, he is sitting on the President's chair, still speaking, ...

Having been openly trans for a while, at the beginning of this year I abandoned my old name and started dressing more unambiguously femininely. When I went to debating competitions it was obvious that there were some practical things that needed to do be done to make debating an enjoyable experience for transgender people. In particular, I argued that the debating circuit should implement pronoun introductions at the start of debates. Since then I’ve been really pleased with the UK debating circuit’s openness to pronoun introductions, and numerous competitions have used them successfully. For reference, I use the words trans and ...

Under the impression of experiences at Vienna IV, professor of rhetoric and debating coach Steve Llano advocates for an "ethical adjudication". This article was first published on his blog, Progymnasmata. The Vienna IV seems like a competition that time forgot. It's a competition that reaches back to European debate the way it was long before I got involved in it, to a time when the more weird or inside-joke funny the motion was, the better the tournament. These are examples of motions and procedures that operated debate societies before the current trend of making competitions tied at least somewhat to the ...

Achte Minute features today an article by Tuqa Khalid on Debating in the United Arab Emirates. After Ary Ferreira da Cunha's article about the "(Hi)story of Debate in Portugal", this is the second time that an international debater reports on debating in a different country. First and foremost: What is the UAE, you might ask? Well, you probably have heard of Dubai – it has the world’s largest shopping mall, the world’s tallest tower, and recently won the 2020 Expo bid. It is one of the seven cities of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). [caption id="attachment_21844" align="alignright" width="400"] A debate at ...