The University of Helsinki Debating Society

University of Helsinki Debating Society hasn’t been particularly active in debating competitions this past year. However, we are trying to revive that and the first step has been taken – we went to SSE Riga IV this December. The results have been quite pleasing: one of our teams (Ami Ganguli and Tianyan Liu) made it to the semi-finals. Ami was ranked 7th speaker and the rest of our debaters were ranked in top 20 out of 80+ participants. Note, that this was the first competition ever for Tianyan and he’s started debating only this autumn. We are oh-so-very proud!

Our second team (Anna Bessonova and Julia Toivanen) missed the break by just a couple of speaker points (i.e. 8 teams went through to semi-finals and Anna and Julia were the 9th team). The tab and motions of the tournament can be found here http://www.sserigads.com/tabbie/standing.php. (Our team names were Helsinki Finska and Helsinki Svenska)

You can also find photos from the tournament here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=photos&gid=320493885640 or in the photo gallery of this page.

We hope to continue going to international tournaments and encourage you to join us! Ask any of us if you want to learn more.

Pikkujoulus are one of the many wonderful traditions Finland has. Every student organization, business company or a group of friends have a party like that and our debating society is no exception.

We’ll have ours on Wednesday 16th December from 18:00 onwards in Aurora (New Student House, Mannerheimintie 5B, 3rd floor).

What should you expect from the party? Debate fun and games! We’ll also have some snacks and drinks.
I’ll add more details closer to the day. For now, mark it in your calendars and hold your breath

Winter is here even if it doesn’t exactly feel like it . We all wish for more snow but while Finnish winter might be lacking it at the moment, we still have SAUNA! Hence, after our debate this week we will treat our members with the most Finnish thing there is and go to the sauna. Don’t forget your towels and refreshments (cold beer is highly recommended during and after sauna but cider and soft drinks can do the trick just as well).

We’ll meet on Tuesday 08th December at 18:30 in Cajsa (New Student House, Mannerheimintie 5B, 4th floor).
The motion will be disclosed only before the debate.

Hope you are enjoying the last month before Christmas and all the ‘pikkujoulu’s student life has to offer.
We are meeting as usual next Tuesday 01.12 at 18:30 in Cajsa (New Student House, Mannerheimintie 5B, 4th floor).
The motion will not be disclosed until 15 min before the debate

By the way, mark Wednesday December 16th in your calendar because that’s when we’ll have our society’s ‘pikkujoulu’ or ‘little Christmas’ celebration. It will be a night filled with debating and debauchery – you don’t want to miss it! More details later.

P.S. The motion for the week was: This House Would Allow Same-Sex Couples Adopt Children.

This week is full of various fun events to celebrate 141st birthday of our Student Union (HYY). You can find more details of the events on HYY’s website http://www.hyy.helsinki.fi/english/3/news/608/.

I’m happy to tell you that our debate session is one of those extraordinary events! So please come and join us next Tuesday 24th November at 18:30 in Cajsa (New Student House, Mannerheimintie 5B, 4th floor).

The motion for the debate is ‘This House Believes That Students Should Be Banned From Drinking’.

‘Krapula’ is not a good enough excuse to miss a weekly debate. Hence, I hope to see many of you on Tuesday 17th November at 18:30 in Flora (New Student House, Mannerheimintie 5B, 3rd floor at the end of the corridor).
This week again you will learn the topic only 15 min before the debate.

Don’t forget that next week we are also going to have a kick-ass workshop by Sarah Hudson on Thursday 19th November at 18:00.

Be there!

P.S. We had a debate on a motion ‘This House Opposes Nationalism’. Thanks to our old and new members, it was a very robust and thought-provoking debate that sparked a lot of interesting discussions later in the bar.

Debates are finally on Tuesdays again!

See you all on Tuesday November 10th at 18:30 in Flora (New Student House, Mannerheimintie 5B, 3rd floor at the end of the corridor).

You will learn the week’s motion 15 min before the debate starts. Don’t worry – it will be entertaining and fun

P.S. The debate for the week was ‘This House Believes in Poetic License’.

This November we will have a debating workshop delivered by Sarah Hudson. She began working for the State Department of Education and Training in Australia in 2001, teaching and adjudicating competitive debating and public speaking for teachers and students in scores of schools throughout New South Wales. The last three years have seen her teaching courses in these subjects for Helsinki and Espoo adult education centres in Finland. She feels that the benefits of learning to debate are amazing – and her students tell her so too – learning to debate helps you state your mind more clearly, write better essays, plan better projects and hold better dinner parties. And she doesn’t believe in boring teaching…

Make sure you’ll mark it in your calendar: Thursday November 19th at 18:00 in Cajsa (New Student House, Mannerheimintie 5b, 4th floor).

Entrance: 3 EUR.

Don’t miss it!

This week we are having a debate on Thursday again, which is not going to become a new tradition because Tuesdays are still more debate-friendly for some

We’ll meet at 18:30 in Flora (New Student House, Mannerheimintie 5B, 3rd floor at the end of the corridor).  The motion for the debate is ‘This House Believes That Developing Countries Should Prioritize Economic Development Over Protection Of The Environment’.

Welcome!

Dear debaters and the ones still in doubt,

The upcoming week we are having our debate on THURSDAY 29th October. The reason for the change is that Rector of the University of Helsinki is holding a reception on Tuesday that week for International students that a lot of us will attend.

But don’t despair – we will still debate that week at 18:30 in Cajsa (New Student House, Mannerheimintie 5B, 4th floor). The motion before the house is: ‘This House Would Ban the Consumption of Meat’.

After the debate we will stay in the room and watch a movie. Something fun and Halloweeny but nothing too scary – your suggestions for the film are welcome