Source: Christine Song
It’s that time of the year again, and the first KAIAC Speech and Debate Tournament will be held soon.
KAIAC stands for “Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference” and its events take place among KAIAC member schools, including most of the international schools in Korea. KAIAC holds two different kinds of competitions: forensics (speech and debate) and athletics.
International school students from all over Korea interested in speech and debate are busily preparing for the KAIAC competitions scheduled to take place on Oct. 19 and 20. Competitors are definitely trying to get as much practice as they can to ensure exceptional performances at the tournaments, as well as hopefully bringing home an award for their efforts.
Students are no doubt excited for these upcoming tournaments. New teams have been chosen for the year, and that means new school representatives to cheer on and depend on. Although both experienced and new speech and debate competitors are looking forward to this event, everyone cannot help but contribute to the air of nervousness that is present amongst the Speech and Debate teams. 17 year-old Jacob Lee, a newbie Lincoln-Douglas debater of Korea International School, said, “I feel like I’m being thrown headfirst into the fray, like I’m unprepared for everything that’s about to come. I’m really nervous about it, but I’m excited to see how it’ll turn out.”
Meanwhile, the tournament organizers are busy recruiting enough volunteer timers to pitch in and collect all the paperwork necessary for the events. However, things seem to be less hectic than usual for the host school, Korea International School (KIS). Brenda Brayko, the Speech coach at KIS responsible for organizing this tournament, comments that “things are going fine; they are rolling along quite nicely. Both our Speech team and Debate team are nearly full, which is great for this October tournament. However, so far we only have about 75% the number of timers we need.”
Various schools, including Seoul International School, Gyeonggi-Suwon International School, Yongsan International School Seoul and Centennial Christian School, will travel to KIS to try a shot at the trophy. International school students are still getting ready for both of the tournaments, and will hopefully deliver healthy debates and powerful speeches.
