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1. Veronika says:

   January 22, 2010 at 09:37

   I am Isabel, I am Ted. Hi, I am Cara and we are the Unicorns [USA, KPDC Champions 2009 YF].
   Cara: Our first Youth Forum was in Smolyan, Bulgaria, and last year in Jahorina, Bosnia and Herzegovina and we all hope to come as coaches to Zeeland.
   Isabel: In Bulgaria was lost in the semifinals to the Korean team and in Bosnia we were in the final round.
   Preparation
   Cara: After we read articles we sit down and we start to write and usually we try to split the work. We try to split the work (laughter).
   Isabel: Not necessarily…evenly (laughter). We write cases, it’s during the summer, so we are not always together, so we email them back and forth.
   Ted: Let’s say I bring the vital element of…you know I keep our team relaxed, I keep our team confident. We are loose, we are on the ropes. We were never the uptight team that always works too hard. I was…You know in terms of average relaxation, I was the element that made sure that we can all get along and have fun even while we were debating in the earlier competitive parts of the event.
   Isabel: We did try to do some work at one point.
   Cara: After we come up with rough draft of cases, we email them back and forth. It’s good to make sure that your teammates have all read the case before you actually go into the debate rounds. And if one person writes the case you also want to make sure you have input from the other two debaters to ensure that everyone’s ideas are represented.
   Isabel: and that everyone practices reading the case.
   Cara: Also one thing that I find really useful is before you go into the debate round; preparing responses to the arguments you are going to likely hear on the other side. It just, helps you kind of prepare for what, you know, is going to actually come.
   Meeting and working with others
   I’ve had so many great experiences at the Forum. As I was saying before, I wrote one of my college essays about people I have met there. It has been just really interesting to interact with so many people from different backgrounds and theoretical perspectives. Part of the experience of Mixed Teams is learning to overcome your cultural differences and to come to a common understanding about the issues you are debating. I know that especially when we were debating juvenile justice last year Youth Forum , all different nations have different ways they deal with their juveniles and me and my teammates had some disagreements at first about what type of case we should run but then we all came to a conclusion.
   Advice
   Jesse (coach): The advice I give to first time debater is not to get tricked out by any jargon or any words that you don’t know, terms that people are using or rules they are talking about, because mostly all you need is your own reasoning.
   Cara: [In Karl Popper format] there are not so many technicalities, in terms of debate language, I guess.
   Zeeland 2010
   Isabel: Oh, I am actually very excited about going. I have never been to the Netherlands before, so it would be fun to go to a new country and I hear Rotterdam is really cool. Apparently it’s supposed to be very interesting city. And I think it will be interesting that it’s in Western Europe this year. I don’t know if that makes it better or worse but it’s always been in Eastern Europe, so it probably will be slightly different experience.
   I’d really like to coach a team. I mean I enjoy to debate but I almost enjoy judging more. We have done a bit of judging in the US. So I’d like to do that a bit more.
   Cara: It would be really great to coach a team from different country in particular. We will definitely be bringing a team from the US, I think Ted will be coaching them, but I am looking forward to meeting a new team.
   The highlight: Country Expo Night
   Cara: Make sure you are prepared for the country expo night because often at times…oh, when I first saw the emails I was like oh whatever, no one is actually going to bring anything. That’s false. People go crazy. They go completely decked out; they bring a lot of things from their home countries, so make sure you have your national equipment. We brought cowboy hats, so we dressed up as cowboys.
   New friends
   I’ve maintained some very very strong friendships with people from all over the world and with some people you keep in touch with more than with others. That’s just how it works. But in general that’s the best part about it.
   Isabel, Ted and Cara: We can’t wait to see you in Zeeland!
   Youth Forum in Zeeland: We’ll see you in Zeeland!
   Jesse: How do you stop from killing each other?
   We don’t.
   Cara: Oh we do.
   Isabel: more or less…
   Cara: We try to set aside our differences during debate rounds. It’s difficult sometimes, however…
   Ted: We come together.

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