Initially we thought that our jobs are limited to ushering, time-keeping, logistics and so on. But due to lack of volunteers, we became chairperson cum timekeeper. Even though I had a script to read from, it was still quite intimidating to speak in front of debaters and adjudicators who were very fluent in English.
Back in the days, I have participated in inter-class debates in my school. I have to admit that it was not very professional and we were just having fun. The International Humanitarian Law debates were also conducted in similar style. Initially, I had some trouble adapting to the role of chairman plus timekeeper. But as time goes by, I became familiar with my job and started to listen more attentively to the debates.
The participants were from various JCs in Singapore and were very good speakers. However, among the 6 teams that I have seen, I was most impressed by debaters from Victoria Junior College and Hwa Chong Institution. Not only were they fluent in their speeches, they had very good points and interesting views. They, however, did not really engage each other points and not enough rebuttals.
Anyway, I enjoyed the debates very much. What seems to be a boring task turned out to be a nice experience.
