It is a tradition in my school that every year tenth graders take part in Jugend debattiert. Our students often reach the national finals or even the international finals. Seeing how others are doing so well in the competition, I also became interested. In the tenth grade, we learned how to debate in German and express ourselves more clearly and confidently.
When the time came to finally take part in the competition, I got really nervous before each debate. Unfortunately, my competition debates were all online, because during the COVID-19 pandemic, such big events would have been too risky to hold. There are good and bad sides to debating online - on one hand, we can hardly talk to other participants outside the competition and the internet connection could disappear at any moment and ruin the entire competition. At the same time, it was great to see my class sincerely supporting me through messages and the livestream chat. The most memorable moment for me was definitely when my classmate sent me cupcakes to my home when I got to the national finals. She was definitely my biggest fan, who always cheered me on, helped me prepare for debates and also calmed me down during tense moments. I achieved second place in the Estonian national final and that meant that I also advanced to the international finals!
The international final was an event that I was really looking forward to, because Jaak Sootak, the winner of the Estonian finals, would fly to Prague to meet the winners of other national finals, spend time together in Prague and, of course, debate. However, when the news came that we could not debate in person again due to the COVID-19 pandemic, my heart was broken. During the finals week, which took place via the Internet, the participants were introduced to beautiful Prague and its culture. Of course, as participants, we were very sad that we could not spend a wonderful finals week together in Prague, but we will definitely remember this experience. We had a lot of interesting workshops about debating and at the end of each day we had the opportunity to spend time in virtual chat rooms with other competitors, teachers and organizers.
All in all, I did not make it to the international half-finals, but I am still very proud of my achievement and grateful that I decided to take part in the competition. Thanks to the competition I got to know many nice people and learn about different cultures. Thanks to Jugend debattiert I discovered controversial topics that I knew little about or had never even heard of before. Unfortunately, I can no longer take part in the competition myself, so I am now helping a classmate, who could not take part last year, prepare for the competition. I definitely want to stay involved in the project in the future too and motivate young people to be more politically involved. Political awareness and involvement are among the most important parts of a democratic society, because an educated society can check whether every statement is true if necessary. By thinking objectively and taking other people into consideration, we can create a more accepting society for all of us.
-Silja Janu, creator of the blog
Comentários