The word ‘debater’ may be uncommon for some people. Swimmer, player, gamer,,,but debater? What job is that?
This reaction can be understood, when debating itself is not a very popular thing among Indonesian people. Unfortunately, people in
In this writing I don’t wanna write about how Indonesian don’t really care about the world’s condition, but about the good and bad side of being a debater (according to my own experiences). Writing ‘debater’ means that I refer to a person who debates, joins competitions, trains and spars regularly, and, perhaps, a person who makes debating a hobby.
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I started debating in 2006. November 2006, precisely (THREE YEARS? And I’m still dumb! :P). There was an invitation coming to my school, and I was forced to join. Well, not really. I passed some kind of audition first.
Thing is, in my two years effective period of debating (2006-2008), I’ve spotted this trend: high school debaters are often those who have a relatively higher standard of English skills compared to another pupils. Teachers don’t really know how the system of debating works. In debating, debaters don’t need only a good English speaking skill, but also logics, the capability to work in a team, consistency, rhetoric skill, etc. The system that most teachers apply—picking up the speech contest winner or a student who achieve 90 in his/her English exam—to be sent to debate competitions gnashes down the chance for another capable students who want to join and have hidden talents, but didn’t get a high score in the last exam xp
As for me, debating has its own *evil* and *angel* side. Let’s start from the *angel* side first...
The *Angel* side
I really gain many benefits from being a debater. Three years ago I was a nice-homie kid, knew nothing about genocide in
When you’re being a debater, you’ll definitely open your eyes wide. The motions that are used in debating require you to think, think, and think. You’ll certainly make yourself updated by news. Not only that, when you have those information stored in your head, you have to process it in order to make good arguments. And in the end this will make you think creatively and increase your knowledge. Knowing about things that are going on in the world, you’ll feel that you really are a part of this big world, making you more responsible about things that you do, and care about another people, even in another part of the world.
Because I was forced to understand the information I got (coz I had to say something about that in the next day’s debate), I pushed my brain to think harder. Because the matters were mostly written in English, I had to decipher the English words that I didn’t understand. Because I had to make a speech that is understandable, I made my arguments structurized. And because I had to synchronize with my team, like it or not I had to appreciate their ideas, even when it clashed with mine. In the end I applied the thesis-antithesis-synthesis theory that was made by a philosopher named Hegel (hayayah? gunyuu? What is this?).
The benefits are not only be felt when I join competitions. In my daily life, I’m now more aware about the world’s condition. I try to lessen the use of plastic bags and I grow nice, small plants outside my house. Beside, I have a drastic increase in many soft-skills. I’m now more confident to speak up my mind, and at the same time I always think about the complications, and whether my justifications about what I say will be enough. In making school tasks, I can make it more structurized. My writings are also affected, I can write better and wittier posts than before, not only about childish and corny love story. I also am able to appreciate different kinds of people today. I don’t judge a gay, for example, too hard now, coz I know why they are being like that, from a debate where I had to be the affirmative for gay marriage. I can also feel the complicated mixture of feelings that inter-faith couple do feel. Not to mention that now I know different types of condoms, hahaha (hey you should know about this when you’re debating about condom vending machine right??).
Debate trains me to be a strong and big-hearted girl. It also makes me organize my time more effectively. Not only that, when I joined competitions I met many people, from all over
Yah, bottomline, being a debater can bring you to a completely new world.
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The *Evil* side
So, this is it (‘a la chef’ mode: on), the bad side. HIHIHIHIHIHI (‘a la chef’ mode: off, kuntilanak mode: on). NAON DEUI.
The first thing that made me regret my decision of being a debater is: I sacrificed my academic life. Hmmm.
Yeah, well, I have to say that I found many cases of sacrificing academic life in debaters that I met. Sometimes I just feel like being a school hater when it comes to choose one of these two ‘important’ things. I really enjoy debating, and when I have free times, rather than trying to understand what my Physics teacher teaches me, I move my feet to any place where I can hear ‘hear-hear’ and ‘shame-shame’. Bad, bad girl. T_T
This can be found in many debaters. As far as I know, university students also do the same. Skipping classes to join debate practice, or getting tired after a day full of debating and deciding not to join tomorrow’s lesson. Debating consumes energy, so debaters often lose their passion to open thick books that they have to read...
Generally speaking, this habit is dangerous. A debater once told me that he/she was going to give up. He/she said (modified by me, but it still has the same core):
Debate consumes my time. I concentrate too much in debating, so I abandon my studies. I always spend days and nights with debaters, I don’t have enough time to listen to my non-debater friend’s problems. I start to disappear from family gatherings coz I always be outside home having debate practices. And I spend much more money than before, going out with debaters to cafes and another hanging-out places too often. I’m getting tired of this.
The paragraph above is real, but I won’t reveal who said that coz I haven’t asked for permission.
What does it show you?
I believe everything has its own good and bad side, and that’s why debate appears. Being a debater gives you many benefits, but it is also an addictive substance. Let me give an analogy: debate=heroine. It’s addictive, the pleasure escalates everytime you do it, you find a new life, friends, love, perhaps. You have a wide range of network, but the truth is you’re trapped in one community. You may start to forget your family at home, losing many sweet moments with your cousins or relatives, coz you’re out practicing. You suddenly disappear from your past “circle of friends” coz you feel that you’re ‘click’ with these debaters—people who love talking about the newest issues are not found everywhere. And as the same as the experience of that person above, you may have more expenses to hang out with many debaters too often.
Of course everything I write in this *evil side* part is based on my own experience (and his/her experience that he/she told me). While the *angel* side is basically the same with any other debaters in common, the *evil side* can be totally different.
Another bad side of being a debater is (according to some people who told this to me): many people see that debaters are doing nonsense. We talked about this and that, but it ended up as a bunch of arguments that never being implemented in our real life. We talk about
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Conclusion
I think debaters (including me) have to have balance in their life. Debate is indeed interesting, but directly or indirectly it can harm other aspects of your life if you're not careful.
Yah well, everything that I wrote above is purely based on my own view. It may not be well elaborated, hehehe. You’re free to have different views, and disagree with what I write. I do appreciate freedom of speech. ^^
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