[School Debate Series] English Schools Foundation: Multi-lingual discourse

In today’s world, where careers can span continents, polyglots are valued more highly than ever.

The ESF’s bilingual and trilingual debating programmes aim to improve students’ English, Putonghua and Cantonese skills, and help them reason and argue in these languages. At the Asia-Pacific Chinese-English Festival held in Shanghai in May, the eight-strong ESF team put all they had learned to good effect, ranking first for average individual points, third for the team’s points grand total, and taking a bronze in the Chinese-English bilingual debate category.

Up against a field of schools drawn from Hong Kong, the mainland and Taiwan, Belle Ho of Sha Tin College also won the Best Student Leadership Award. And, in the age 10-12 category, Peony Sham of Sha Tin Junior School won the Bilingual Story Telling Gold Medal, as well as the Silver Medal for Bilingual Speech.

The other members of the successful team were Stephanie Wong from Sha Tin College; Andrew Chan, Michael Dai and Grace Yin, all from South Island School; and Miriam Lo and Amos Zhu of Renaissance College.

Michael Dai from South Island School enjoys his accolades.

Ho said there were times when she and her teammates thought they were definitely going to lose to a stronger team, but were able to edge ahead through trying their best and having perseverance.