Speaking without fear!

暢所欲言吧

Ask a random selection of adults to list their biggest fears, and while you might get a few answers like “flying”, or “spiders”, or “heights”, for a surprisingly large percentage of the adult population (including, oddly, many teachers) the top of the list – the scariest possible thing for them to contemplate – is speaking in public in front of an audience.

如果隨機選擇一個人并讓他列出自己的恐懼清單，你可能會得到類似于飛翔、蜘蛛、高空等不盡相同的答案，但當眾演講一定在絕大多數人(包括老師們)的清單之中。

It has therefore been great over the last couple of years at EtonHouse to see our MYP and DP students growing more and more accustomed to being on stage and speaking in front of their peers and teachers. Not only have they grown more used to it, but they have been getting better and better at it!

因此在EtonHouse過去的幾年中，我們很高興地看到MYP和DP的學生們不斷磨礪自己，越來越享受在舞臺上、在伙伴和老師面前進行演講。他們不僅克服了對演講的恐懼，并越來越收放自如。

Opportunities for this have come in everyday classes, via student contributions to regular assemblies, and more purposefully through our Public Speaking and House Debating Competitions, designed specifically to thrust students into the spotlight, and to allow them to practice that precious, but difficult and nerve-wracking art of speaking in front of a crowd.

當然每天在課堂上同學們都會有這樣的機會，但通過更有針對性的學生例會時間，我們舉辦公開演講和House間的辯論比賽，將同學們推向聚光燈，在讓他們公眾面前鍛煉這門寶貴但又令人傷透腦筋的藝術。

This is a real life-skill, valuable in so many different ways and contexts, and one that, as mentioned, many people simply do not possess. Any worthwhile education should seek to enhance this skill, to allow chances to hone and perfect the art. This is a school legacy more important than any taught fact.

這是一項廣泛適用于各種場景中的實用技能，正如前文所述，可能很多人都沒有這項技能。每一種有價值的教育都會提倡努力提高演講能力，為學生制造機會并讓其掌握這門藝術。 這是比任何教學事實都重要的教學傳承。

As Albert Einstein is reputed to have once said, education is what remains when you have forgotten everything your teachers told you. EXPERIENCE matters!

正如阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦曾說過的那樣：教育就是當一個人忘記了在學校所學的一切之后剩下的東西。體驗舉足輕重!

House Debating

House辯論

With this squarely in mind, the Debating Competition provides the opportunity to gain exactly this kind of experience. In addition, it develops research and critical thinking skills, hones the power of persuasion, heightens student awareness of global issues and current affairs, and, of course, teaches them a thing or two about how to effectively argue and defend their point. That’s quite a list of positives!

正因如此，辯論賽為同學們提供了獲得這種體驗的機會，并且它還可以發展同學們研究和批判性思維的能力，鍛煉演講力，提高同學們對全球問題、時事的認知。當然，還會教會同學們如何有效地辯論并捍衛自己的觀點。益處不勝枚舉。

The competition saw each of the four Houses – Han, Tang, Song and Ming – debate each other once across three preliminary rounds, with the two Houses notching up the most wins going through to the final.

比賽采用漢、唐、宋、明四個House首先經過三輪預賽，獲勝較多的兩隊進入決賽的規則。

The format was the same for all the rounds: three speakers from each house, speaking alternately, each having two and a half minutes to state their case, with a two minute pause for team conferring in between each set of speakers. Houses were not allowed to use the same team more than once, widening the participation required from each House.

每個回合采用如下方式：每個House的成員輪流發言，他們將有兩分鐘的時間陳述自己的觀點。每組發言者之間有兩分鐘的間隙進行小組討論。每次辯論，House不可使用同一批成員，以House中每個人都要參與進來。

Adjudicated by a rotating set of four staff judges – one from each House – the students were scored both on individual and team performance, on categories such as understanding the motion, quality of oral presentation, use of facts and statistics to support the argument, respect for the opposing team and overall organization of the team argument.

評委由四位老師(每個House中一位)組成，并實現流動制，以對學生個人、團隊表現進行評分，包括理解力、口頭表述能力、使用客觀事實和統計數據支持論點的數量、是否尊重對方團隊和全局的論點等。

Round 1: Trump

The opening debates took place on the same day as the recent US Election, and to mark that occasion, the motion was:

開幕辯論那天正好是美國大選的日子，因此議題是：

“It makes no difference to the world who wins today’s US Presidential election”

今年的美國總統大選結果是否會對世界產生影響

Despite the impact that Donald Trump has had on the global scene, the students found this topic surprisingly hard to debate. Song prevailed over Ming, and Han had a convincing win over Tang in this opening exchange. Being half a world and many time zones ahead of the USA, we didn’t debate totally in step with the voting, and in any case, as we now all know, the final result took many, many days to be officially confirmed.

盡管Donald Trump在全球舞臺上有著顯而易見的巨大影響，但同學們驚訝地發現這個議題實際很膠著。較后宋戰勝了明，漢也旗開得勝。由于同美國的時差，我們的辯論賽并沒有完全和投票同步，而且現在的我們知道，較終的結果需要很多天之后才會得到正式的確認。

Round 2: Money

For the second set of debates, having argued about the merits or otherwise of a supposed billionaire American president, and with our renewed emphasis on Service & Action in mind, the motion was:

我們已經討論了一位億萬富翁美國總統的優缺點，因此在第二輪辯論中，為了再次強調了服務和行動的重要性，我們的議題是:

“The world’s super-rich people should be required to help solve the world’s problems”

富豪是否有義務為世界問題提供援助

This topic proved a little more accessible for the students, who supported their arguments well with statistics and examples of philanthropy. The word ‘required’ in the motion was pivotal. It was sobering to consider that, in the time it took for the two debates, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos had made another $6 million! Results-wise, Song made it two wins from two, defeating Han, while Tang again went winless against Ming in a very close debate, the teams separated by just 4 points.

事實證明，同學們很容易理解這個議題，他們用統計數字和慈善事業的例子很好地佐證了他們的論點。議題之中的“required”是一個關鍵點。令人深思的是，就在兩場辯論的這短短時間里，亞馬遜的Jeff Bezos又賺了600萬美元!較后，宋戰勝了漢獲得兩場全贏的戰績，而唐則在一場精彩的辯論中以4分的微弱差距再次輸給了明。

Round 3: Aliens

In a marked change of focus, we went extraterrestrial for Round 3, the motion exploring the wisdom - or otherwise – of humanity’s ongoing quest to find evidence of alien life beyond Earth:

第三輪我們將焦點轉移到了宇宙，探索人類尋找地球以外的外星生命、智慧的證據或其他方面：

“The human race should not be attempting to search for alien life”

人類應不應該尋找外星生命

This seemed to pique the interest of the students more than the previous two topics, and the result was two very high scoring debates. There was an almost universal assumption by the teams that “alien life” had to mean intelligent, and probably hostile bad guys, when in reality our first proof of life beyond is likely to be microbial and very simple. With Song virtually guaranteed a place in the final, they were playing for a clean sweep of all three rounds, and duly got their third win against Tang, who ended their campaign without a win. The final debate of the day would decide who joined Song in the final, and in the end it was decided by the narrowest of margins, Ming beating Han by a single point for their second win, and a place in the Final. Had it been a draw, or a Han win, they’d have gone through instead. Someone has to lose – just ask Donald!

這輪辯論的高分似乎顯示出同學們對這個議題濃厚的興趣。這些小組幾乎都默認了“外星生命”是聰慧的，可能是敵對的。但實際上，我們個擁有生命的證據可能只是一個非常簡單的微生物。宋在這輪與唐的對決中獲得勝利，以全勝的成績確定了決賽席位，而唐則已全負的戰績結束了征程，因此當天的較后一場將決定誰會和宋一起進入決賽。較終，漢以一分之差輸給了明，明的險勝讓其在決賽中獲得了一席之地。如果是一場平局或者漢獲得了勝利，明就會被淘汰。“總有人會輸的”——如果你問DonaldTrump的話。

The FINAL: Euthanasia

So, on 24th November, after three consecutive weeks of debating, the Song v Ming final arrived. The motion was befitting a Final clash – an ethically weighty and polarizing issue, which forced the students to confront some genuine moral conundrums:

經過連續三周的辯論，11月24日，我們迎來了宋明的決賽。這場議題十分切合一場較終的對決，這是一個在道德上具有重大意義及極端分化的問題，它讓同學們直面一些真正的道德難題：

“Euthanasia should be legalized”

安樂死應該合法化

Both sides were excellently prepared, and saw some impassioned and strident contributions from the individual speakers. The judges awarded the highest score of the whole competition to the winners, Song, who made it a “Grand Slam” by winning every round and the Final, though Ming ran them very close indeed, coming up just 7 points short on the day.

雙方都為此做了充分的準備，我們看到了一些學生慷慨激昂的發言。評委們給予了宋比賽以來的較高分，較后明以7分之差惜敗，宋以全勝的戰績獲得了一個“大滿貫”。

The 24 debaters across the four rounds deserve huge congratulations for their hard work in preparing, as do their peers behind the scenes who helped in the research and formulation of arguments. It was especially heartening to see students from across the full age range, from Year 7 to Year 13, taking part. Valuable lessons will have been learned by all, not least about speaking without fear.

讓我們對四輪辯論中的24位辯手在過程中付出的辛勤努力給予熱烈掌聲，同時感謝為這些精彩的辯論在幕后研究和提供幫助的同學們。令人高興的是，從7年級到13年級的學生們都參與了進來，所有人都在這之中(尤其在無畏懼的演說方面)獲得了寶貴的經驗。