Debating Club - Update

So what have I been doing all the time? Well, one of the things I did, was to go to the debating club (nearly) every Wednesday.
Some of the topics we talked about were:

• Does competition in education contribute to the improvement of the society?
• Should adultery be punished by criminal law?
• Do you agree that a university student who isn't qualified as a teacher tutors a younger student with such high pay rates?
• How do lovers handle Push and Pull games?

It was always very interesting to get to know the Korean point of view and I enjoyed going there a lot. I met some really, really nice people there as well who became my friends. So, now the good news is that we will continue meeting during the semester break :)

Small group discussion in progress

and of course we also went drinking together :)

HYmaster - English Debating Club

I never thought I would go to a Debating Club but here I am in Korea and just became a member of the HYmaster - English Debating Club of Hanyang University.
Two girls from my Qualitative Research Class asked me to go there with them and I thought I should just give it a try. There's nothing to loose, right?
The English Debating Club meets every Wednesday from 18:30 to 20:30.
First the president of the Debating Club introduces the topic of the week and gives a very short outline of the question or topic. Then the students are divived into small groups (we were all in all around 15 people, so we made two groups with 6 and 7 participants each). In those small groups some small group questions are discussed. These questions are mainly about personal experiences and opinions. I really liked this phase of the meeting because I learned a lot about Korean culture and mindset. Afterwards there is a big group debate, where the pro-side and con-side discuss with each other. During this phase the president acts as a moderator.
Today's topic was "Does competition in education contribute to the improvement of the society?".

I have to admit that I actually had a lot of fun during the English Debating Club and everyone spoke English surprisingly well, so it was no problem to have a debate in English with them. It was a nice and welcome change from everyday university life as well. The people there were also really friendly and nice so I was quite happy that I went there today and I will try to go again next week!