Competition in Istanbul. Post-Reflections
Oksana Shymanovych:
18th of May, 11 a.m., the assembly hall is full with the students of Mongolia, Ukraine, Pakistan, Turkey and Yemen. Everyone is expecting for the 1st round, 1st topic, 1st chance to express themselves... so, finally the topic is announced! «This house will punish parents if their children bully others at school”. We are the opposition team. Now, 3 of us in each team have 45 minutes for preparing a 7-minute structured speech with good argumentation and examples without using the Internet or any other help – just we, our knowledge and imagination! AND WE MANAGE!!! All 6 rounds are played excellently! We do write good speeches! We are speaking for 6-7 minutes (though we are taught to be doing it for 3 minutes)! We do rebut and protect our points! We do win!
The motions proposed weren’t so out-of-the-world difficult, though the 3rd and 6th round were the most interestingn and expected ones ( they were home-prepared). So, we played such motions as:
1st Round «This house will punish parents if their children bully others at school»
2nd Round “ This house believe that state should pay for University education”
3rd Round “This house believes that European Union should ban art, including literatüre or film, that insults all religion»
4th Round «This house will ban plastic surgery unless there is necessity for medical treatment“
5th Rond “ This house believe that media show all horrors of war“
6th Round “his house believes that Turkey should use military force against Syria for humanitarian reasons».
«The Jedi Speakers” team (the 3rd year studnds: Oksana Rovna, Oksana Shymanovych, Katherine Kanivets) compeated with 2 Turkish teams, team Mongolia, Yemen and Pakistan, “Сuatro Thinkos” (the 1st-year students: Liubov Leonovets, Elina Valutska, Dariia Shevchuk) – 3 Turkish teams and team Pakistan. Every time we are given a new role: Opposition or Government. Even if you don`t believe in what you`re saying, even if you support the opposite side of the issue – you must be confident and convincing, you must make people follow you and see your point as the right one! After each game we have some 20-minute free time for discussing our actions, improving the mistakes made and sharing our impessions of communicating with the representatives of such different countries and cultures.
Unfortunately, we didn`t reach the semi-final, though two Ukrainian teams «The Jedi Speakers» and “Cuatro Thinkos” presented our motherland with dignity, showing that Ukrainу can be proud of its young generation!
The semi-final teams included 2 Turkish teams – Sultani 15 ( the future final winners), Tigers, Mongolian “ Team Hobby” and “Yemen”. The motion was “This house believe that every country should have the right to possess nuclear weapons”. Tigers played against Sultani 15 ( both from Turkey), Team Hobby played against Yemen. The final battle flamed up at Sultani 15 (Turkey) and Team Hobby (Mongolia). The motion “ This house believes that European Union should forbid the far-rightest political parties to take part in elections”. The rules were the same – 45-minute preparation without any help, 7-minute speeches. Sultani 15 (Turkey) won! Their win was obvious, they were much stronger, more confident and persistant, absolutely convincing and what is very important – clear and informative in their argumentation.
Now, debating is a very essential part of our lives and we want to be involved in this as long as possible, seeing more cities, countries, continents, cultures and people! Due to it we, «The Jedi Speakers” and “Сuatro Thinkos” became BFsF! And now we want more! We want more games, more motions, more impressions and opportunuties. These 5 debating days of our days turned our world view, our aims and thoughts upside down and now we feel as real people of the world with open minds and hearts!
Oksana Rovna:
Organization
Firsly, I would like to thank all the organizators of the Sabanci University International Debate Championship, we really appreciate your efforts and all that you’ve done for us. It was hard to satisfy all the desires and requests of the participants, but you managed.
So, we were impressed by the serious attitude of the organizators concerning our team. Everything was perfect: from our hotel and to our hotel we were taken by the shuttle. It was conveniently for us, as we didn’t know the city and transportation could be a real problem. But everything was managed and sometimes we could even ask for going to the shopping centre if there was spare time after the debates.
As for the hotel, it was also nice. Rooms were spacious, and the stuff was very friendly and kind. They complied all our requests without any problems.
As for the debates, there was a small problem concerning the procedure of the debates. It was hard to decide whether each of the speakers plays 4 minutes or 7. But soon this problem was solved and every of us enjoyed 7 – minutes – speech. Now we even can’t imagine how it is possible to speak 4 minutes.
Every day we had breakfast, dinner and supper without any exceptions. We eat at the restaurants, cafes and the university canteen. Food was delicious and of course we enjoyed turkish national dishes: different soups and garnishes. In the evening of the last day, before the great performance at the university theatre, we had amazing pizza. And we were pleasantly surprised that for one of our friends there was a special pizza: a vegetarian one, as Oksana doesn’t eat meat at all.
So, as I’ve said, everything was great, we had great time together with you, guys, we enjoyed every minute of being in Istanbul. We are glad that we met you and hope to see you the next year! Thank you very much!
Katherine Kanivets:
Excursions and Social Events
Istanbul is the city of contrasts. Here you can see the beautiful girls in colorful dresses, high heels and on the contrary , the Muslim women in elegant hijabs which show the exact coloring of nation. Everything we could see during our unforgettable excursion in Istanbul.
At first we were taken to the history museum. There we found a great panorama of battleground. Everything was so realistic: the 3d images, the gun, the sound of shell explosions. It was really impressive.
Our next destination was the place where we were told about the development of Istanbul for the last 8 years. The facts surprised us. It seemed even impossible to build such a beautiful city for such a little time. We watched a video with statistics, numbers of achievement in the transport system of Istanbul, development of sport, health care service, international relations of the country.
After that we went to the museum of miniatures where we had a possibility to see all the sights of Turkish country so close, to get to know the history of each building.
Further a little bit tired but inspired we were taken to the Basilica Cisterns, situated near the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. It is a place where people used to keep drinking water for the population. It is interesting that some mystery is connected with that place. The basis of one of the columns in the hall is the sculpture of Medusa. Everything would be ok, if the sculpture were reverse. Nobody knows how this Medusa appeared in Cisterns but there is a thought that her position is so for people not to turn into stone looking in her eyes.
In some days we had to attend some cocktail event according to the schedule but out Turkish friends were so mysterious and their decisions were so unexpected that instead of cocktails we played volleyball on the grass with all the participants. That was a really great opportunity to communicate and to get acquainted with everybody closer.
After the active games we visited the university theatre, where director, scriptwriter, actors were the students. It was quite interesting to see, how those people spend their time after studying.
To sum up, it is a great experience of communicating with people from different countries, to get to know about their way of life not from the screen but in reality.
