Daeil Overseas Studies Program (DOSP)

Mind Petals is a website to connect entrepreneurs all over the world. It provides a lot of good information for all of you budding businessmen and women.

They provide a range of tips and suggestions that I highly encourage all DOSP students to do. It will help you develop as a person and  leader- Which I hope you know that one day you WILL be.

There are two parts to the post here is a brief bullet point form of them, but I encourage you to read the full article about Public Speaking.

• KISS - Keep it simple silly
• Throw away your notes
• Tell a story
• Control the audience
• Move around
• Eye contact is crucial
• Smile
• Finish strong

I think these are all very good tips, if you haven’t implemented these in your public speaking I highly encourage you to do so.

The World Schools Debating Championships is the most prestigious event of its type.

I’m sure if it’s scaled on an international level students will compete with the best of the best all over the world. WSDC’s goals are:

The aims of the World Schools Debating Championships are:
” To achieve excellence in debating
” To encourage debating throughout the world.
” To promote international understanding.
” To promote free speech

It will be hosted in Korea for the 2007. You can find out more details about the WSDC - Korea on their website.

The championship begins on July 2nd and runs till July 11th. If I am correct it is by invitation only and you cannot just sign up for it. You have to win a qualifier from your country to attend.

Unfortunately, I do not think any Daeil students will be attending. It’s also unfortunate that this will be held during the finals for Korean students.

If we want to hold more international events we need to have a world wide school schedule. I’m sure there are many pros and cons to that and not in the scope of this post.

If you’re looking into improving your debating skills check out the Asian Debate Institute (ADI).

ADI is run by Jason Jarvis he is a Professor at the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management and very active in the Korean debate community.

They have lowered the price, but if you are interested in an intense debate training session this is the place for English debate in Korea. 350,000 won for regular registration by July 1st and 450,000 won till August 3rd.

ADI also offers a Teacher / Coach program, if you are interested in teaching debate or becoming a coach I would encourage you to check it out initially if you have no experience.

This year ADI will be hosted at the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management.

If you are interested in joining their Yahoo email list check here.

For those of you who are interested in Debate in Korea. The Korea High School Debate Championship is probably the best place to compete. It is likely, the most competitive high school debate competition in Korea. The best of the best debaters gather here and compete.

I strongly encourage debating among students who want to improve and challenge themselves. I think the best way to promote debate is to use some of Mr. Hatridge’s word’s:

A 2006 College Journal article by Kyung Soon Lee and Angela Carrasquillo surveyed professors in American to find their opinions about Korean college students in the US. The core findings were that, “[t]he participating professors identified the following Korean college students characteristics:

• (a) lack of class participation,
• (b) view professors role as absolute authority
• (c) difficulties in openly expressing critical thinking
• (d) avoidance of eye contact during conversations
• (e) lack of understanding of “ownership of knowledge
• (f) difficulties with the structure of the English language,
• (g) inability to properly answer negative questions, and
• (h) preference of speaking Korean over English.”

Debate is a great way to address all of the above perceptions as it involves public speaking, research, teamwork, logical argumentation, and spontaneity. I believe a good debate balances polished speaking, current events knowledge, logical argumentation, and teamwork.

I encourage you to take the speech and debate class here at Daeil and try your hand at competing with the best in the nation.

You can find more about the Korea High School Debate Championship here.