How do you convince Gustav the Buffoon from Bavaria that you’re the greatest debater in the room? You act the part and tell him you’re the greatest debater in the room. Strategy is the key word you will need to go about that in the correct way. Therefore on Tuesday world champion Michael Shapira gave a workshop on strategy in debating in the rooms of the Debating Society Mainz (Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg, aka Club Gutenberg). Interested debaters from Marburg, Heidelberg, Wiesbaden, Mannheim and (erstwhile) Halle attended to improve their English debating skills or just to have a good chat (over a beer after the workshop, naturally).

Michael Shapira (r) with his Teampartner upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport after Botswana Worlds. (Picture: private)

Most of the participants scraped together the best of their English skills, enabling fun two hours with (mostly) English interaction. Michael, of course, did a wonderful job joking about the great German skills in international debating and explaining in vivid language that even adjudicators like Gustav have to be positive about (and be able to understand) the significance of your speech at the end of the debate.

Consequently, a good (or at least decent, maybe even random) strategy is mandatory for every self-respecting speaker. The groundwork for this begins with the question of what you would be willing to sacrifice. What is the price you are willing to pay in order to support a plausible and consistent argumentation? Or in Michael’s words: “Are you willing to kill the lamb for it to start raining?” Notwithstanding animal rights, most participants were more than ready to kill the lamb and find reasons why that was a really good idea. Or they emphasized that they were not truly killing it but, say, only cutting off a leg. Thankfully, someone later pointed out that killing the lamb would probably not lead to more rain and the lamb was saved.

Besides talking about the content of the actual speeches on proposition and opposition side, Michael stressed the importance of Points of Information and their strategic use during a debate. After learning that the Turkish Move is maybe not an all too fair but a quite useful way to annoy your opponents, the group moved on to discuss the differences between recommended types of PoIs in German and international debating.

Michael took that as cue to remind everyone to travel to more English speaking tournaments, in particular the Red Sea Open in September in Haifa, Israel. This caused an avalanche of questions concerning the where, when, how, not to mention inquiries regarding temperature in September, reg. fee and deadlines. It seems that Israel might welcome a few more German participants this year looking to enjoy the beach and debates that don’t start until noon.

After the workshop all attendants were in agreement that the time spent was well worth its collective weight in gold. Hopefully more German debaters will now take the chance and venture into wild world of international debating.

At the moment Michael Shapira is on a tour to different tournaments throughout Europe in his role as DCA for the upcoming WUDC in Chennai (India) this winter. Originally on his way to Moscow, he made a brief stop persuaded by his friend Marietta Gädeke to host this workshop for Club Gutenberg. Michael is the ESL World Champion of 2011 (WUDC in Botswana), the coach of the Debating Society at Technion Institute of Israel in Haifa and has been the CA of numerous tournaments in the past not to mention his appointment as DCA for Chennai WUDC 2014.

Founded in 2002 the Johannes Gutenberg Debate Club has become well-known club on the German-speaking circuit and also on the international stage.

Allison Jones/fpu