The campus in springtime, as beautiful as a poem or a painting; a brilliant debate, with words that sparkle and shine. From Hong Kong to Beijing, even across the vast distance of a thousand miles, we can still convey friendship and joy through the connection of a screen.
In April 2021, at the invitation of our sister school in Hong Kong — Precious Blood Secondary School (Ecole esprit) — RDFZ organized three Grade 8 students, Li Fumutong, Sun Haiwen, and Zhang Jiayi, to participate in an online English debate competition with Hong Kong students. Before the activity began, teachers and students from both schools communicated in advance via the internet to plan the format of the event, confirming the activity schedule and the form of the debate. On April 16, both sides held their first online meeting. Hosted by the Hong Kong students, participants on both sides made self-introductions, exchanged their understanding of the activity schedule, clarified the respective responsibilities of the host, timekeeper, and debaters from each side, and used a lottery to determine the debate topic: whether learning a musical instrument should be a compulsory school course.
Figure 1: RDFZ teachers and students actively planning during the preparatory meeting
Figure 2: Students testing the network and familiarizing themselves with the procedure
RDFZ students were drawn to argue the opposing side. Although the students had some previous debating experience, they felt considerable pressure when facing the professional debaters of the Hong Kong school debate team. They spent their spare time preparing a large amount of supporting material, engaging in thorough discussion and coordination. At 4:30 p.m. on April 19, the online debate began. In the first round, six debaters from both sides took turns to speak. The second round was the cross-examination segment, in which each debater answered questions from opposing debaters within the allotted time and posed questions to a designated opposing debater. Finally, teachers from both sides offered commentary on the students' outstanding performances, noting that the students on both sides expressed themselves fluently in English, and that all stages — the opening arguments, rebuttals, and conclusions — were excellent. They approached the debate from multiple angles to argue the feasibility of making instrumental music a compulsory school course, demonstrating rigorous logic and well-substantiated arguments.Through this debate, students from both regions displayed outstanding skills in language organization, cooperation, and critical thinking, and also trained their speed of thought, communication techniques, and deepened mutual understanding and friendship. "Making friends through debate" — we look forward to many more meetings in the cloud in the future.
Figure 4: The event in full swing
Figure 5: A Hong Kong student speaking
Figure 6: Group photo of both sides
Reflections from Li Fumutong: Through this debate, my teamwork, quick-response capability, and other skills were all greatly trained. This was also my first time experiencing an online debate, and the preparation time was relatively short. We encountered many unexpected difficulties — for example, it was not very convenient to coordinate schedules and hold concentrated discussions among teammates — but through our efforts, these problems were all successfully resolved. During the preparation period, we held discussions at home via the internet and used our break time at school to prepare. In the process of communicating with the Hong Kong students, we also had a great deal of intellectual exchange and sparks of inspiration, and we saw new angles of thinking about the same problem from a fresh perspective. Finally, I would like to thank all the teachers for their organization, which gave me the opportunity to participate in this activity.
Reflections from Sun Haiwen: It was a great honor to represent my grade in this debate with our Hong Kong sister school. The preparation time for this debate was very short, which was a tremendous challenge to our critical thinking skills and English proficiency. As soon as we received our assigned debate topic, we immediately began discussing it — addressing everything from the broad outline to the specific details, step by step, with repeated rehearsal. In the end, we performed at our best in the competition. This was a very precious and very special experience. I felt the charm of English debate, the joy of teamwork, and I felt fortunate to be able to represent the school in exchanges and to meet new friends.
Reflections from Zhang Jiayi: This debating experience gave me a profound understanding of the saying "gentlemen may disagree while remaining friends." Looking at a problem from a different angle allowed me to see a much richer and more varied landscape. From independently gathering materials to exchanging ideas in teamwork, from drafting the debate script to the final debate itself, I learned to think dialectically about viewpoints, and it was tremendously rewarding. The opposing team debated with clear logic and fluent English expression. I am deeply grateful to the teachers for organizing this debate exchange activity. It is an honor to have joined this team, and I look forward to having the opportunity to engage in more exchanges in the future!
